Malta capital gains tax calculator

There is no separate capital gains schedule. Most gains are added to your chargeable income and taxed at the article 56 rates of 0%, 15%, 25% and 35%, with the top rate starting at €60,000. A transfer of immovable property is different: article 5A charges a final withholding on the transfer value, 8% in the ordinary case, with lower and legacy rates for a resale within five years, a pre-2004 acquisition and inherited property.

On the transfer value. Article 5A(6)(a) defines the transfer value as the higher of the property's market value and the consideration paid, and article 5A(9)(a) says the amount charged is not reduced by any deduction. So an 8% charge on a €500,000 transfer is €40,000 even if the property was bought for €450,000, and no loss on the transfer can be deducted.

Article 5(10)(b) keeps a capital loss away from other income: it reduces later capital gains and nothing else, and it carries forward until later gains absorb it, with no time limit. A loss on a transfer charged by article 5A is not deductible at all (article 5A(9)(b)).

Malta has no separate personal capital-gains schedule: article 5(1)(a) of the Income Tax Act, Cap. 123, charges gains from the transfer of immovable property (i), securities, business, goodwill, business permits, copyright, patents, trademarks and other intellectual property (ii), the beneficial interest in a trust (iii), securities under sub-article (9A) (iv) and interests in a partnership (v) under article 4(1), so the gain is added to chargeable income and taxed at the resident rates of article 56 (held per year in data/tax/mt/income-tax.json). Article 5(2)(a) allows the acquisition cost, the inflation element, ground rent, maintenance, improvements and other expenses directly related to the transfer as deductions for immovable property. Source: https://legislation.mt/getpdf/69d5fc0c6fe5fd3994d170f8.

Scope: the proviso to article 4(1)(g) provides that no tax is payable on capital gains arising outside Malta to a person who is not ordinarily resident in Malta or not domiciled in Malta, and that a person charged at the 15% rate of article 56(11) is taxed only on Maltese income and gains and foreign income received in Malta. Domicile and ordinary residence are therefore a per-taxpayer fact that decides whether foreign-asset gains are in scope; the calculator computes the resident-and-domiciled treatment and excludes foreign-asset gains when the profile says resident but not domiciled and not ordinarily resident. Source: https://legislation.mt/getpdf/69d5fc0c6fe5fd3994d170f8.

Listed securities are exempt under article 5(6): paragraph (b) excludes shares listed, or transferred in consequence of a listing, on a stock exchange recognised by the Commissioner, other than securities in a collective investment scheme; paragraph (c) excludes listed securities in a collective investment scheme held in a prescribed fund as defined in article 41A(b); paragraph (d) extends the exemption to linked long-term insurance whose benefits track those securities. The exemption depends on listing and fund status, not on any holding period. The Department does not require Schedules D, E or F for listed public-company shares, but a taxable transfer must still be declared in the return. Sources: https://legislation.mt/getpdf/69d5fc0c6fe5fd3994d170f8 and https://cfr.gov.mt/en/inlandrevenue/legal-technical/Pages/Submission-of-Schedules-under-the-Capital-Gains-Rules.aspx.

Immovable property in Malta is charged by article 5A, which applies to any transfer made on or after 1 November 2005 (article 5A(3)). The base is the TRANSFER VALUE, defined by article 5A(6)(a) as the higher of the market value of the property and the consideration paid or payable for the transfer, and article 5A(9)(a) provides that the amount charged is not reduced by any deduction whatsoever. The tax is final and separate from income tax and no provisional tax is due on it (article 5A(10)(a)); it is due by the transferor and remitted to the Commissioner within fifteen working days of the transfer, normally by the notary publishing the deed (article 5A(11)). A loss on a transfer to which article 5A applies is not deductible against any income or capital gains (article 5A(9)(b)). Source: https://legislation.mt/getpdf/69d5fc0c6fe5fd3994d170f8.

The article 5A rates: article 5A(5)(a) states 12% of the transfer value, but its second proviso charges 8% of the transfer value for transfers made on or after 1 January 2015 other than grandfathered project or special-designated-area transfers (whose promise-of-sale notice was given before 17 November 2014). The MTCA describes the 2015 reform as replacing the old 12% final withholding on the transfer value and 35% tax on the gain with one 8% final withholding, so the 12% is now transitional. Live exceptions for ordinary transfers: 5% of the transfer value for property not forming part of a project transferred not later than five years after acquisition (article 5A(5)(e)); 10% for property acquired before 1 January 2004 where no promise notice was given before 17 November 2014, and 12% where such a notice was given (article 5A(5)(f)); 7% where the property was acquired causa mortis before 25 November 1992 or is sold by judicial auction (article 5A(5)(c)); 2% for a property acquired for the transferor's sole ordinary residence and transferred within three years where he owns no other residential property (article 5A(5)(g)); 5% for restored urban-conservation-area or scheduled property (article 5A(5)(h)); and 12% of the excess of the transfer value over the acquisition value where the property was acquired causa mortis after 24 November 1992 or by donation more than five years before the transfer (article 5A(5)(b)). Sources: https://legislation.mt/getpdf/69d5fc0c6fe5fd3994d170f8 and https://cfr.gov.mt/en/inlandrevenue/FAQs/Pages/NewPropertyTax/New-Property-Tax-System.aspx.

The own-residence exclusion: article 5(5)(b) removes from article 5 gains on property owned and occupied for a period of at least three years as the transferor's own residence immediately preceding the transfer, provided the property is disposed of within twelve months of vacating the premises; article 5(5)(c) defines own residence as the principal dwelling house owned by the taxpayer or spouse that has been the owner's only or main residence, together with the land transferred in the same deed that is required for its reasonable enjoyment as a garden or grounds and any qualifying garage, with any part used exclusively for commercial purposes apportioned out by area. Article 5A(4)(c) mirrors the exclusion for the final withholding, adding that the property must not form part of a project and must be declared as the main residence by an election to the Commissioner. Act IX of 2025 inserted article 5A(4)(c)(vii): where the property was owned and occupied by the transferor and spouse for at least three years and, after divorce or de jure or de facto separation, one spouse ceases to occupy it, the property is treated as vacated only when the other spouse also ceases to occupy it as his sole ordinary residence. Source: https://legislation.mt/getpdf/69d5fc0c6fe5fd3994d170f8.

The article 5 route and its deductions: article 5A(3)(b) allows a transferor to exclude a transfer from the final withholding by a declaration to the notary where the transfer is made not later than twelve years after acquisition, but for transfers on or after 1 January 2015 that election is confined to grandfathered promise-of-sale cases (notice to the Commissioner before 17 November 2014, transfer to the same person, transfer before 1 January 2016), so the article 5 route now reaches property mainly where article 5A does not apply, including immovable property situated outside Malta. Under article 5(2)(a) the deductions are the acquisition cost, the inflation element, ground rent not otherwise deducted, maintenance, improvements and other expenses directly related to the transfer; the MTCA states the maintenance allowance is 0.4% of the cost for every year of ownership and that other transfer expenses are capped at 5% of the selling price. The inflation element needs the Retail Price Index of the year before acquisition and the year before transfer; no index dataset is held in /data, so this calculator does not compute it and says so. The notary withholds provisional tax of 7% of the transfer value at the deed on an elected article 5 transfer. Sources: https://legislation.mt/getpdf/69d5fc0c6fe5fd3994d170f8 and https://cfr.gov.mt/en/inlandrevenue/FAQs/Pages/NewPropertyTax/Other-Property-Tax-Questions.aspx.

Losses: article 5(10)(a) computes a capital loss in the same manner as a capital gain, and article 5(10)(b) provides that any loss resulting from the transactions falling under article 5 shall not be set off against other income for the year of assessment but shall be carried forward and set off against capital gains in respect of subsequent years of assessment until the full loss is absorbed. There is no time limit on the carry-forward, and it never reaches salary or other ordinary income. Source: https://legislation.mt/getpdf/69d5fc0c6fe5fd3994d170f8.

Crypto: no dedicated individual crypto-assets provision was identified in Cap. 123. Crypto-assets are not among the categories listed in article 5(1)(a), so the prevailing treatment does not charge a passive individual's disposals as capital gains; frequent dealing, mining or other profit-making activity is charged as business income under article 4(1)(a) and added to chargeable income at the article 56 rates. Malta's CARF/DAC8 material is reporting legislation and sets no rate. The calculator therefore does not tax crypto unless the per-sale trading toggle marks the activity as a business. Source: https://legislation.mt/getpdf/69d5fc0c6fe5fd3994d170f8.

Filing and payment: the annual individual return and self-assessment are normally due by 30 June following the basis year (article 10 of the Income Tax Management Act, Cap. 372, and the MTCA's individual tax pages); a property transfer under article 5A is paid through the notary at the transfer with no provisional tax, and any elected or non-final article 5 amount is declared in the income-tax return. Source: https://mtca.gov.mt/personal-tax/individual/taxationforindividuals.

Two further property rules sit outside this calculator's cards: a 15% flat tax applies to the assignment of promise-of-sale rights over immovable property, and a transfer of property that has been vacant for seven years or more, or that is situated in an Urban Conservation Area, is exempt on the first EUR 750,000 of the transfer value for transfers made by 31 December 2026. Neither has an input here. Source: https://taxsummaries.pwc.com/malta/individual/income-determination (PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries, Malta, noted in the 2026 rates review).