Malta tax deadlines for the self-employed, 2026 and 2027

What are the tax deadlines, in date order?

These are the dates set in law, with MTCA’s online filing date marked as MTCA’s. The table is generated from the same dated rule set the Settlano app computes with, so when a date or a share changes in the rules, it changes here in the same build.

The deadlines each year, in law except MTCA’s online date: 15 February: Article 11 VAT declaration; 30 April: provisional tax 20% and Class 2; 30 April: TA22 and TA24 payments; 30 June: tax return and its tax; 31 July: return online (MTCA’s date); 31 August: provisional tax 30% and Class 2; 21 December: provisional tax 50% and Class 2. For 2026, MTCA’s notice of 3 June moved filing and payment of the return to 31 July. Drawn by the Settlano engine from the 2026 rates, verified 13 Jul 2026.

What are the Malta tax deadlines for 2027?

The dates in law repeat each year, so the 2027 calendar is already known, and it is also a calendar file to import:

• Monday 15 February 2027: the Article 11 annual VAT declaration for 2026; filed online, no late-filing penalty until Monday 22 February.
• Friday 30 April 2027: provisional tax instalment 1 (20%) and Class 2 instalment 1; TA22 and TA24 for 2026 income.
• Wednesday 30 June 2027: the return for 2026 income, and the tax it shows.
• Tuesday 31 August 2027: provisional tax instalment 2 (30%) and Class 2 instalment 2.
• Tuesday 21 December 2027: provisional tax instalment 3 (50%) and Class 2 instalment 3.
• Friday 31 December 2027: the last day for personal pension contributions to count towards the tax credit for 2027.

The provisional tax dates are set in law for every year; Class 2 is collected on the same dates, which is MTCA’s practice. The 2027 instalments are worked out on the return for 2025 income, the one filed in 2026. MTCA sets its online filing date for the return each year, and for 2026 it also moved payment to 31 July. Nothing has been announced for 2027, so plan on 30 June.

When are your VAT returns due?

VAT return dates are deliberately missing from the table above, because they depend on your registration. Under Article 10 you file quarterly. Each return is due by the 15th of the second month after your quarter ends; filed and paid online, it has seven more days, to the 22nd. The catch is that your quarters are allocated when you register and do not have to follow the calendar, so read the dates off your VAT registration certificate rather than assuming January to March is your first quarter.

Under Article 11, the small-undertaking registration up to the €35,000 threshold, there are no quarterly returns at all: one annual declaration, due 15 February, and filed online it carries no late-filing penalty until 22 February. The VAT registration guide covers which registration you should be on, and the threshold guide what happens when you cross the line.

Which deadlines run from your own dates?

Some deadlines are counted from a date in your own business, not from the calendar:

• The day you start: notify Jobsplus. Its form asks for this on the day you begin.
• Your first taxable supply: if you need an Article 10 registration, apply within 30 days of it. Article 11 has no deadline, but it takes effect only from the first day of the month you apply.
• The day your turnover passes €35,000 on Article 11: you stop qualifying for Article 11 on that day. Within 15 days you must apply to cancel your Article 11 registration; it ends, and your Article 10 registration starts, on the first day of the following month.
• Your VAT quarters: they are on your registration certificate, and need not be calendar quarters.

What does paying late cost?

Each kind of late payment has its own charge, at the same monthly rate. ITMA is the Income Tax Management Act.

None of these are dramatic on a small bill for a short delay. All of them are corrosive on a large bill left for months, which is exactly how deadline trouble usually happens: not defiance, just a date nobody was watching.

What changes in your first year?

A first-year trader usually has no provisional tax to pay, because the instalments are worked out on the last return that was due before the year began, and a newcomer has none. Class 2 is charged at the SA weekly minimum rather than 15% of a prior year.

The quiet does not last. The first return, with all of the first year's tax, is due by 30 June of the following year, and the instalments only start to reflect the business once a return covering its profit was due before the year began. For a business started in 2026 that means the 2028 instalments, in the same year that the return for 2027 brings that year's tax in one go. Registering as self-employed walks through what starts when, the provisional tax guide covers the instalments themselves, and the Malta freelancer tax guide shows how much to set aside.

Put them in your calendar

The dates in law above are available as calendar files, one for each year, with every date an all-day event, importable into Apple Calendar, Google Calendar or Outlook. They deliberately exclude VAT return dates, because yours are personal and a wrong date in a calendar is worse than none.

To see what the year’s income tax and Class 2 come to, use the self-employed tax calculator. The Settlano app goes further than a static calendar: it counts down each date, estimates what will be due beside it, and reminds you before, not after.

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