Are freelancers in Malta required to register as self-employed for tax purposes?
- 12.06.2026
I’m self-employed in Malta and this is my first year needing to file a tax return on my own business income. I want to make sure I understand the actual deadline for filing, since I don’t want to miss it and end up facing penalties.
Self-employed individuals in Malta are generally required to file their annual income tax return under the Income Tax Act, Chapter 123 of the Laws of Malta, with the standard deadline for self-employed taxpayers typically falling around the end of June following the relevant tax year, though the precise date can be confirmed directly through the Commissioner for Revenue's official guidance for the specific year in question, since exact deadlines are periodically confirmed and can occasionally shift slightly. Beyond just the annual return itself, self-employed individuals in Malta are also generally required to make provisional tax payments during the year, structured around specific instalment dates, which are separate from the final annual return deadline and are based on your estimated tax liability, meaning as a newly self-employed person, it's important to understand both this provisional payment structure and the final annual filing deadline, rather than assuming there's only a single date to track. Given that missing these deadlines can result in interest and penalties, and that correctly calculating your actual tax liability as a newly self-employed person involves properly accounting for allowable business expenses and understanding your specific tax bracket, it would be worth engaging an accountant, at least for your first filing, to ensure you're meeting all the relevant deadlines and calculating your liability correctly.
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