Malta discussing 10 double taxation treaties

Malta today has 44 double taxation treaties in force, 24 of them with European Union member states and the rest are with OECD countries and emerging economies.

The Parliamentary Secretary at the Finance Ministry, Tonio Fenech said another 10 treaties are in various stages of negotiation, including one with the United States, which, it was hoped, will be concluded in the near future.

Mr Fenech, who was speaking at the opening of a conference on double taxation organised by the Malta Institute of Management, said that as membership negotiations with the EU had intensified, Malta had also increased its efforts to finalise tax treaties with the remaining members as well as prospective member states, in an endeavour to ensure that, on accession, it would have a complete range of treaties aimed at achieving effective double taxation relief in trade relations across the EU.

He said double tax treaties had thus also become a vital tool in Malta's drive to increase the level of cross-border business not just in the export of goods, a market that was already open to Malta before accession, but also in services and capital movement, both of which were seen as the future growth areas both of the Maltese and of the pan-European economies.