# How to register as self-employed in Malta, step by step

Source: https://settlano.com/register-self-employed-malta (this is the Markdown copy of that page)

*By [Settlano](https://settlano.com/about) · Last updated 9 October 2026*

To register as self-employed in Malta, you tell Jobsplus on the day you start, use your tax number, register for VAT under Article 11 or Article 10, and pay Class 2 social security unless a full-time job already covers you. The registrations take an afternoon. What each one starts costing, and when the first dates land, decides whether your first year feels organised or ambushed. Both halves are here, in order.

**Key fact:** You apply to register for VAT within 30 days of your first sale in Malta, unless you are already registered; in your first year as self-occupied, Class 2 is the weekly minimum of €36.18 ([Cap. 406, art. 10](https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/406/eng) and [Department of Social Security](https://socialsecurity.gov.mt/en/information-and-applications-for-benefits-and-services/social-security-contributions/social-security-contributions/); 2026 rates, verified 13 Jul 2026).

## What do you register, and with whom?

Becoming self-employed in Malta is three registrations and a habit. You declare the work to Jobsplus, you come onto the income tax self-assessment system under your tax number, and you register for VAT, usually under Article 10 or Article 11, with Article 12 added in some cases (see [which one applies to you](https://settlano.com/malta-vat-registration)). The habit is the part nobody registers you for: setting aside tax from the first payment, because from now on nothing is withheld before money reaches you.

| What | Where | When |
|---|---|---|
| Your self-employment | Jobsplus | On the day you start |
| Your tax number | MTCA | Usually your ID card number (Step 2) |
| VAT under Article 11 | MTCA, online | Before you start |
| VAT under Article 10 | MTCA, online | Within 30 days of your first taxable supply |
| Class 2 social security | Paid to MTCA | 30 April, 31 August and 21 December |

Most of it is done online. MTCA's guidance is that its secure online services need an e-ID, Malta's electronic identity, and it offers another way into its VAT online services for anyone who cannot get one.

> One form can cover two steps. The government's one-stop form for the self-employed, “Business Startup – Self-Employed” on servizz.gov.mt, says it registers you with Jobsplus and issues your VAT number in one application, within 48 hours, if you hold a Maltese ID card.

## Step 1: Jobsplus, on the day you start

The law asks anyone who takes up work other than as an employee, “whole-time, part-time or otherwise”, to notify [Jobsplus](https://jobsplus.gov.mt/knowledge-base-employer/i-want-to-register-as-self-employed), Malta's employment agency ([Cap. 594](https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/594/eng), art. 37). You do it with its engagement form for the self-employed, which says to send it on the same day you start. Send it online through the Jobsplus Dashboard, under the Self-Employment tab, or by email.

The form asks whether the work is full-time or part-time, and for your VAT number, which is why the one-stop form above does both at once.

> Keeping your full-time job? The steps are the same, and the part-time box is yours. Registering the side work with Jobsplus as part-time is one of the conditions for the [TA22 flat rate](https://settlano.com/ta22-malta) of 10% on up to €12,000 of side profit. Class 2 is not due on the side work while your job pays Class 1. You still need a VAT registration.

## Step 2: tax number, and self-assessment

Malta's entry in the OECD's guide to tax identification numbers says that a Maltese national's tax number is their ID card number, and that anyone else is given a nine-digit number after filling in a registration form.

Under that number you are on self-assessment with the [Malta Tax and Customs Administration](https://mtca.gov.mt): nobody deducts tax before you are paid, you compute your own position, and you settle it on fixed dates. [What that means in your first year](https://settlano.com/register-self-employed-malta#what-starts-costing-from-day-one) is below the steps.

## Step 3: VAT, Article 11 or Article 10

If what you sell is taxable, you register for VAT whatever you expect to earn: there is no amount below which you can skip it. You apply online, through MTCA's portal (Cap. 406, art. 13(1)), and the registration comes with a real decision.

- **Article 11** is open while your calendar-year turnover in Malta is up to €35,000. You charge no VAT and file one annual declaration, by 15 February, but you cannot reclaim the VAT on what you buy. There is no deadline to apply, but Article 11 applies only from the first day of the month in which MTCA receives your application, or from the day you start if that is later. So apply before you start.
- **Article 10** means you charge 18%, [file a VAT return every quarter](https://settlano.com/malta-vat-return) and reclaim the VAT on your costs. If you are registered under neither, the VAT Act requires you to apply for Article 10 within 30 days of your first taxable supply in Malta.

Article 11 is the default instinct for most freelancers starting small, and usually right. But if your clients are VAT-registered businesses, the 18% you would charge costs them nothing and the VAT you would reclaim is real money, so a deliberate Article 10 registration below the threshold can pay. If you trade services with businesses in other EU countries, Article 12 is added on top of Article 11: the [guide to Articles 10, 11 and 12](https://settlano.com/malta-vat-registration) explains when.

The threshold is measured by supply date across the calendar year. You stop qualifying for Article 11 on the day your turnover passes €35,000. 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. [The threshold guide](https://settlano.com/malta-vat-threshold) covers the mechanics.

## Step 4: Class 2, three times a year

You are [self-occupied](https://settlano.com/glossary#self-occupied) while your business earns more than €910 a year, and a self-occupied person pays Class 2 social security ([Cap. 318](https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/318/eng)). The law has it paid in arrears, for the four months ending April, August and December. In practice MTCA collects it on 30 April, 31 August and 21 December, the same dates as provisional tax.

In your first calendar year it is the SA weekly minimum of €36.18, because there is no prior-year profit to compute 15% from. From year two it becomes 15% of your previous year's net profit, held between the weekly floor and ceiling. The exception: if you stay employed full-time and freelance on the side, your Class 1 contributions already cover you and no Class 2 is due on the side activity. The [Class 2 guide](https://settlano.com/class-2-social-security-malta) covers how it works in your first year and after.

## What do you pay from day one?

**Class 2 social security** starts immediately (Step 4), unless a full-time job's Class 1 already covers you.

**Income tax** builds up from your first invoice, even though it is collected later. Profit is taxed through the progressive bands, and if your side work qualifies, the [TA22 10% flat rate](https://settlano.com/ta22-malta) may beat the bands on up to €12,000 of net part-time profit.

Year one usually has no instalments. It feels like a tax holiday. It is not: your first return settles the whole year at once, and it is due, with its tax, on 30 June of the following year. MTCA accepts it online until 31 July, a date it confirms each year; for 2026 it moved the payment there too. [The calculator](https://settlano.com/self-employed-tax-calculator-malta) shows what to set aside from each payment so that day is boring.

**Provisional tax** comes later than most people expect. The instalments for a year are worked out on the tax in the last return that was due before that year began. Your first return falls due in the year after you start, so the first instalments based on it come in the year after that: start in 2026, and they begin on 30 April 2028. If you had no tax return from before you started, your second year has no instalments either, so its tax also arrives in one go, the following June. The [provisional tax guide](https://settlano.com/provisional-tax-malta) has the instalments and the rules behind them.

## Your first year, date by date

Say you start on 1 March 2026, on Article 11, with no other job and no tax return from before. These are your dates.

| When | What |
|---|---|
| February 2026 | Apply for VAT under Article 11. Received in February, it applies from 1 March, the day you start. |
| 1 March 2026 | Send Jobsplus its engagement form for the self-employed, the same day. |
| 30 April, 31 August and 21 December 2026 | Class 2 for the weeks just gone, at the first-year minimum of €36.18 a week. |
| 15 February 2027 | Your Article 11 declaration for 2026. Filed online by 22 February, it carries no penalty. |
| 30 April, 31 August and 21 December 2027 | Class 2 for 2027, now 15% of your 2026 net profit, between the weekly floor and ceiling. No provisional tax yet: with no earlier return, there is nothing to work it out on. |
| 30 June 2027 | Your first income tax return, for 2026, with all of 2026's tax. MTCA accepts it online until 31 July, a date it confirms each year. |
| 30 April 2028 | Your first provisional tax instalment: 20% of the tax in your first return, then 30% by 31 August and 50% by 21 December. |
| 30 June 2028 | Your return for 2027, with all of 2027's tax, because 2027 had no instalments. |

Every other date in the year, and the rule behind each, is on the [Malta tax deadlines](https://settlano.com/malta-tax-deadlines) page.

## What do people get wrong in the first year?

- **Waiting for the first invoice before telling Jobsplus.** The form goes in on the day you start.
- **Thinking a VAT number is only for people above €35,000.** Below it you still register; the €35,000 decides whether Article 11 is open to you.
- **Applying for Article 11 after the work has started.** It applies only from the first day of the month MTCA receives the application, so your first weeks can fall outside it.
- **Treating year one as tax-free.** No income tax is collected until the following June, and then the whole year's is.
- **Not ticking part-time when keeping a job.** It is one of the conditions for TA22.

## Week one, done properly

Three things repay themselves many times over if they exist from the start: books that record every euro in and out [with the receipts kept](https://settlano.com/allowable-expenses-malta#records), invoices that meet [Malta's invoice requirements](https://settlano.com/malta-invoice-requirements) with an unbroken number sequence, and [the deadline calendar](https://settlano.com/malta-tax-deadlines) somewhere it will actually be seen. Keep the receipts from before you start too: costs in the eighteen months before you start trading count as if incurred on your first day. And [decide early what your accountant will do](https://settlano.com/do-i-need-an-accountant-malta). Those three are, not coincidentally, the shape of what Settlano is built to do.

## Common questions

### Can I be employed and register as self-employed on the side?

Yes, and it is common. Tell Jobsplus all the same, ticking part-time on its form. Your full-time employment's Class 1 contributions cover your social security, so you owe no Class 2 on the side activity, and if the side work is genuinely part-time you may qualify for the TA22 10% flat rate on up to €12,000 of net profit. Either way the side income is taxed, through TA22 or on your return.

### Do I need a VAT number if I only earn a little?

Yes, if what you sell is taxable. There is no amount below which you can skip it: if you are not registered under Article 11, the VAT Act requires you to apply for Article 10 within 30 days of your first taxable supply in Malta. Most people starting small choose Article 11, which charges no VAT and needs one declaration a year.

### Which VAT article should I pick?

Up to €35,000 of expected calendar-year turnover, Article 11 is the light option: you charge no VAT and file one annual declaration, but you cannot reclaim VAT on what you buy. Apply before you start, because it applies only from the first day of the month MTCA receives your application. Article 10 means charging 18% and filing quarterly, but with the VAT on your costs reclaimable, which can be worth choosing deliberately when your clients are VAT-registered businesses. You stop qualifying for Article 11 on the day your turnover passes €35,000. 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.

### How much is Class 2 in the first year?

The SA weekly minimum, €36.18 a week in 2026, because there is no previous year's profit to compute 15% from. From the second year it becomes 15% of your prior-year net profit, held between the weekly floor and ceiling.

### When is my first tax deadline?

Class 2 comes first, on 30 April, 31 August and 21 December. For income tax it is usually the return for your first year, due with its tax the following 30 June (MTCA accepts it online until 31 July, a date it confirms each year; for 2026 it moved the payment there too). Provisional tax comes later: the instalments for a year are worked out on the tax in the last return that was due before that year began, so your first return sets instalments only from the year after it falls due. The full calendar is on [the deadlines page](https://settlano.com/malta-tax-deadlines).

## The figures on this page

- First-year Class 2: the SA weekly minimum, €36.18 in 2026 · [socialsecurity.gov.mt](https://socialsecurity.gov.mt/en/information-and-applications-for-benefits-and-services/social-security-contributions/social-security-contributions/)
- €35,000 Article 11 exemption threshold, calendar-year turnover excluding VAT; once it is passed, 15 days to apply to cancel Article 11, with Article 10 from the first day of the next month · [Cap. 406, art. 11 and Sixth Schedule](https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/406/eng)
- Part-time beside a full-time job? TA22: 10% on up to €12,000 · [MTCA, part-time self-employment](https://mtca.gov.mt/personal-tax/self-employed/part-time-self-employment)

Every figure above is read from the same dated config the Settlano engine computes with: 2026 rates, verified 13 Jul 2026 · The charging acts: [Cap. 123](https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/123/eng) · [Cap. 318](https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/318/eng) · [Cap. 406](https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/406/eng). The rules behind them were put to a commissioned accountant and legal review in August 2026, before launch.

## Changes to this page

Changes to what this page tells you, newest first, with the law behind each: corrected where it had been wrong, clarified where it could mislead, and where the law itself changed. New sections and rewording that keeps the meaning are not listed.

- **9 Oct 2026:** **Corrected.** MTCA can move the payment date with the online date: for 2026 its notice of 3 June moved paper filing, online filing and payment of the return to 31 July. By law the return and its tax are due 30 June. Source: S.L. 372.16, rules 2(c)(ii) and 5(b); MTCA notice of 3 June 2026.
- **9 Oct 2026:** **Corrected.** On Article 11 you stop qualifying on the day your turnover passes €35,000. Within 15 days you must apply to cancel the Article 11 registration; it ends, and Article 10 starts, on the first day of the following month. Turnover of exactly €35,000 still qualifies. Source: Cap. 406, article 11(5)(b) and (7), and the Sixth Schedule, Part One, item 3.
- **9 Oct 2026:** **Corrected.** Provisional tax is worked out on the tax in the last return that was due before the year began: for 2026, the return for year of assessment 2025, which covers 2024 income. With no such return the benchmark is nil, so a business started in 2026 usually has its first instalments in 2028. Source: S.L. 372.18, rules 2, 4 to 6 and 7(1)(c).
- **9 Oct 2026:** **Corrected.** Profit taxed under TA22 does not have to be declared in any return. You may instead put all of it on your return at the normal rates, and the TA22 tax you paid is then credited. Source: Cap. 123, article 90A(1) and (2).
- **9 Oct 2026:** **Clarified.** The Social Security Act sets Class 2 in four-month periods ending in April, August and December; 30 April, 31 August and 21 December are the dates MTCA collects it on. Source: Cap. 318, article 11.
- **8 Oct 2026:** **Corrected.** The income tax return and the tax it shows are both due 30 June by law. 31 July is the date MTCA accepts the return online, which it confirms each year. Source: S.L. 372.16, rules 2(c)(ii) and 5(b).
- **8 Oct 2026:** **Clarified.** VAT registration is usually under Article 10 or Article 11, with Article 12 added in some cases. Source: Cap. 406, arts 10 to 12.

> Estimates, not advice. This page is general information about Maltese tax rules for planning. It is not tax, legal or accounting advice. Figures are for the 2026 tax year (2026 rates, verified 13 Jul 2026) and should be confirmed with your accountant or the Malta Tax and Customs Administration (MTCA).