Form a Malta company
Malta yearly filings 2026 and 2027

Malta annual fees and filings: three clocks, one company

Updated 12 November 2026Malta Business Registry, Companies Act and Income Tax Management ActAbout 11 minutes to read
The short answer

A Malta company pays the Business Registry €85 a year when it files its annual return online (authorised capital up to €1,500), within 42 days of each anniversary. Its accounts are filed 10 months and 42 days after the year end, and its tax return is due on the last day of the ninth month after it: 30 September for a December year end.

The company pays 35% first and the shareholder claims most of it back. With us the whole year, refund claim included, is €2,020. Bank fees come on top; our Malta company bank account guide lists what Maltese banks charge foreign-owned companies each year. Every annual return you file can be downloaded by anyone for EUR 2; our Malta company search guide shows what it reveals.

Work out my dates What lateness costs
Filed online €85 annual return fee, capital up to €1,500 Paper costs €100 for the same company. The owner confirmation goes in with it, free.

You picked Malta because it sits inside the EU, on no blacklist, with a tax system that hands most of the company's tax back to you. The price of that is paperwork on three separate clocks: your registration anniversary, your financial year end and the tax year. Each one runs on its own, and the Registry sends penalty notices every month once one of them is missed. Set your two dates below and every deadline for the next two years falls into place.

Key takeaways

  • The annual return costs €85 online for capital up to €1,500 and rises with authorised capital, to €1,200 above €2.5 million.
  • It is due within 42 days of each anniversary of registration, with the yearly owner confirmation at no fee.
  • Accounts are approved within 10 months of the year end and filed 42 days after that. Year 2025 accounts are due on 12 December 2026.
  • Audit is the default. A very small company escapes it only after staying inside two of three limits for two years in a row.
  • The tax return is due on the later of the last day of the ninth month after year end and 31 March of the assessment year.
  • The Registry's ceiling for each late filing is €2,329 plus €46 a day, charged to the officers.
  • A company the Registrar thinks is defunct can be struck off after a three month notice, and its assets pass to the Government of Malta.
Chapter 1

Malta's three filing clocks, worked out from your two dates

Most countries hang everything on one date. Malta uses three. The anniversary of registration sets the annual return, under art. 184 of the Companies Act and the Registry's annual filings rules. The financial year end sets the accounts, under arts. 182 and 183, and the tax return, under rule 2(c)(i) of S.L. 372.16. The calendar sets provisional tax under S.L. 372.18: 20%, 30% and 50% on 30 April, 31 August and 21 December, once the company has a return to base them on.

Financial year ends on the last day of
Will the company make a profit?

    The first financial period here runs from registration to the first year end you pick, at least six months.

    1
    Key takeaway

    Your anniversary drives the return. Your year end drives the accounts and the tax.

    Chapter 2

    The Malta annual return fee follows your authorised capital

    €85

    The Registry's fee structure doesn't charge by turnover or profit. It charges by the authorised share capital written in your memorandum, the ceiling the company may issue up to, not the money actually paid in. That is why a company formed at the minimum stays in the cheapest band for life unless it raises the ceiling. Pick a band to see the yearly fee.

    Many summaries quote €100 as the minimum. That is the paper price. Incorporations have been online only since 1 March 2025, and the electronic column is the one a company run from abroad actually pays. A higher band only makes sense when a bank, a licence or a counterparty asks for more authorised capital. Under the Schedule to S.L. 386.03, capital in a foreign currency is banded on its euro value.

    2
    Key takeaway

    Keep the authorised capital at the minimum and the return stays at €85 a year.

    Chapter 3

    Does a Malta company need an audit? Look at two years, not one

    Audited accounts are the starting point in Malta, under arts. 179 and 181 of the Companies Act. Under art. 185(2) and (3), a very small private company is let off the audit when, on its balance sheet date, it doesn't exceed two of three limits: €46,600 balance sheet total, €93,000 turnover and 2 employees. The catch most people miss is timing. A change in size only counts once it has held for two financial years in a row, so one good year doesn't switch the audit off, and one big year doesn't switch it on.

    Last year, inside two of the three limits?
    This year, inside two of the three limits?
    Audited last year?

    An exempt company still prepares accounts and files them with forms DD1 to DD4. The tax return also carries the accounts, under art. 19(4) of the Income Tax Management Act, so we prepare them either way.

    3
    Key takeaway

    The audit switches on or off only after two years on the same side of the limits.

    Chapter 4

    The tax return, the 35% and the refund that follows

    Malta isn't a no-tax country. The company pays 35% on its profit, settles any balance when it files the return, and only then can it pay a dividend that lets the shareholder claim a refund, usually six-sevenths of the tax on trading profit. That makes the tax return the hinge of the whole year: no return, no refund.

    During the yearProvisional tax30 April, 31 August, 21 December, from the second year on.
    By the return dateReturn and balance of 35%Last day of the ninth month after year end, or 31 March of the assessment year if later.
    After a dividendRefund claimMade by the shareholder, within four years of the tax becoming refundable.
    Paid outWithin 14 daysExtendable by 12 months if the Commissioner needs more due diligence, under art. 48(5) and (8) of the Income Tax Management Act.

    Two things change the maths. A company can elect a flat 15% final tax instead, under LN 188 of 2025, with no refund to anyone, locked in for five years. And unpaid tax builds interest at 0.6% a month or part of a month. The full mechanics, with worked numbers, are on Malta tax, explained.

    How many months late, or part of a month

    The 0.6% a month applies to tax due from 31 August 2022, as given in a published tax summary. Fixed additional tax for a late return comes on top and isn't modelled here.

    4
    Key takeaway

    File the return on time and the refund clock can start. File late and interest runs instead.

    Chapter 5

    Malta late filing penalties: the ceiling, and why it adds up fast

    The Registry's reminders arrive 42 days before the return is due. Miss the date and, as the Registry's notice on penalties explains, penalties start on day 43, with a fresh notice each month until the filing is in. The law sets the ceiling, not a fixed price. Under arts. 183(6), 184(3) and 427 of the Companies Act, with the Eleventh Schedule as substituted by Act I of 2026, each missed return and each missed set of accounts can cost up to €2,329 plus up to €46 for every day it stays missing, charged to the officers in default, with the company liable alongside them.

    What is missing
    Days past the deadline

    These are statutory maximums; the scale the Registry actually applies at each stage isn't published, so read the figure as your worst case. Recovery of a penalty lapses after five years.

    Your own country may ask about the company too. Where you live: pick it

    5
    Key takeaway

    One missed filing can reach €2,329 plus €46 a day. Two missed filings, twice that.

    Chapter 6

    What your Malta filings put on the public file

    The annual return isn't a formality. It lists the directors, the secretary and the shareholders as they stand on the anniversary, and it goes on the company file next to the accounts. Since 1 August 2025 anyone searching that file needs a free login, but the information itself stays open.

    On the open fileMemorandum and articles, each annual return, the filed accounts, directors and shareholders. Downloads cost €1 to €5 a document, under Schedule (u) of S.L. 386.03.
    Not on the open fileThe register of beneficial owners, kept under regs 5 and 7 of S.L. 386.19. Banks and other obliged entities can see it for due diligence, and people with a legitimate interest see a short extract.
    The yearly owner confirmationFiled with the annual return, no fee. If every shareholder is a person holding for themselves, the register of members counts as the owner register under the amendments in LN 226 of 2026, which existing companies must assess by 10 January 2027.

    If privacy from the public is what you're after, a nominee is an option we explain on the Malta company page.

    6
    Key takeaway

    Your annual return is public. Your beneficial owner entry is not.

    Chapter 7

    What a Malta company costs to keep, year by year

    3 yrs

    The Registry's €85 is the smallest part of the bill. What a Malta company really pays for each year is the work the law demands: an office in Malta, a company secretary, accounts, a tax return and the shareholder's refund claim.

    • Year one€3,640
    • Year two€2,020
    • Year three€2,020
    • Three years together€7,680
    Inside our €2,020 a year
    • The €85 annual return fee, paid at cost
    • Registered office and company secretary in Malta
    • The annual return and owner confirmation, filed before day 42
    • Accounts prepared and filed on time
    • The tax return, by the last day of the ninth month
    • The shareholder's refund claim
    • Every date in your dashboard, with reminders
    Not inside it
    • An audit, if the company is above the limits in chapter 3: quoted before you order
    • The company's tax and any VAT it owes
    • Raising the authorised capital into a higher fee band
    • Closing the company, priced before anything is filed

    Year one is the €100 registration fee at cost plus our €3,540. Every year after: the €85 return fee at cost plus our €1,935. Share capital of at least €232.94 is paid up at formation and stays in the company.

    7
    Key takeaway

    €2,020 a year from year two, with the tax return and refund claim inside.

    Chapter 8

    Struck off as defunct, and the five year way back

    Malta doesn't strike companies off for one late filing. Under art. 325(1) to (6) of the Companies Act, it strikes them off when the Registrar has reason to think they've stopped operating, and a company that stops filing looks exactly like that.

    1. Step 1A letter from the RegistrarAsking whether the company is still carrying on business.
    2. One month, no answerPublic noticeSent to the company and published in the Gazette or on the Registry's website and in a daily newspaper.
    3. Three months laterStruck off the registerUnless cause is shown. The company's assets, including any bank balance, pass to the Government of Malta.
    4. Still on the hookDirectors and membersAny liability they had continues as if the company still existed.
    5. Within five years of the noticeRestoration by the CourtA member, creditor or other interested person applies; once the order is registered, the company is treated as never struck off.

    Restoration has no fixed Registry price; the cost is an advocate, the court and every missing filing with its penalty. Closing properly is cheaper. A company with nothing left to do is wound up voluntarily by its members through a liquidator, and dissolutions, like incorporations, have been filed online only since 1 March 2025. The dissolution notice in the newspaper costs €15, under the Registry's fees notice in force from 1 June 2025.

    Where does your company stand?
    8
    Key takeaway

    Let it lapse and the State keeps what's left. Wind it up and you do.

    Chapter 9

    Malta annual fees and filings: questions, answered

    ?
    How much is the annual return fee for a Malta company?
    €85 a year when filed online for a company with authorised share capital up to €1,500, or €100 on paper. The fee rises with authorised capital, to €1,200 online above €2.5 million.
    When is the Malta annual return due?
    Within 42 days after each anniversary of the company's registration. It is made up to the anniversary date, signed by a director or the company secretary, and filed with the yearly beneficial owner confirmation, which has no fee.
    When must a Malta company file its accounts?
    A private company approves its accounts within 10 months of the financial year end and files them within 42 days after that. Accounts for a year ended 31 December 2025 are due by 12 December 2026.
    Does every Malta company need an audit?
    Audit is the default. A very small private company is exempt if it stays within two of three limits: €46,600 balance sheet total, €93,000 turnover and 2 employees. A change in size only counts after two financial years in a row.
    When is the Malta company tax return due?
    On the last day of the ninth month after the financial year end, or 31 March of the year of assessment if that is later. For a 31 December 2026 year end, that is 30 September 2027. Any tax still owed is paid with the return.
    What is the penalty for filing late in Malta?
    For each late annual return or set of accounts, up to €2,329 plus up to €46 for every day the default continues, charged to the officers with the company jointly liable. Penalties start on day 43 and are notified monthly. Unpaid tax adds interest of 0.6% a month.
    Can a struck off Malta company be restored?
    Yes, by the Court, on an application by a member, creditor or other interested person made within five years of the strike off notice. Until then the company's assets belong to the Government of Malta, and directors and members stay liable for what they owed.
    What does Heirson charge each year for a Malta company?
    €2,020 a year from year two: the €85 annual return fee at cost plus our €1,935, with the registered office, company secretary, accounts, tax return and shareholder refund claim inside. Year one is €3,640. An audit, if needed, is quoted first.

    Changelog

    • 12 November 2026: first published.
    • 13 November 2026: official sources linked inside the text.
    Your Malta company

    A Malta company where every clock is somebody's job.

    We file the return on time, prepare the accounts, file the tax return and claim your refund, for €2,020 a year from year two.

    See the Malta company Malta tax, explained