Mothers to get tax refund this month

Nearly 2,100 mothers who returned to work after having a child should this month receive a refund for the tax they had paid, amounting to a total of €2.2 million, three months after it fell due.

The refunds were supposed to have been paid by the end of last year but a backlog was caused primarily by the amnesty granted by the Inland Revenue Department on the payment of interest on payments it was owed.

The mothers will receive the refund together with a one per cent interest for each of the three months the payment was overdue.

This means the government will be paying mothers an extra €66,500 between them in accrued interest.

The promise had been made in the 2009 Budget, giving mothers who had a child since 2007 the opportunity to either opt for a one-year tax holiday or get a tax exemption of up to €2,000 over a two-year period.

Malta has one of the lowest rates of women working in the EU, falling short of its Lisbon targets to almost double female employment to 60 per cent.

Addressing a press conference on the second year of the legislature last week, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi mentioned the incentives the government had given to raise the female participation rate.

Apart from the income tax holiday for those mothers having a child after 2007, Dr Gonzi also mentioned the one-year tax holiday for every child under 16 whose mother returned to work after an absence of five years.

He said a total of 3,652 mothers benefitted from the two incentives.

Apart from the tax refunds to the mothers returning to work, the government will this month also pay the last instalment of tax refunds due to 6,711 taxpayers who are owed a total of €11,617,530.