Players whose income is derived from a professional football contract with a registered club will now have the option of being taxed at 7.5 per cent.

This was one of a number of clauses introduced by Finance Minister Edward Scicluna to reduce income tax as had been announced in the budget.

It includes the removal of any discrimination against EU nationals paying tax locally.

In accordance with EU legislation, they will now be treated in the same way as Maltese nationals by benefiting from the reduction of tax from 32 per cent to 29 per cent if they fall in the €60,000 tax bracket.

Parents who maintain children up to the age of 23 years old who are students at either the University, Mcast or ITS will be given a tax allowance. The ceiling on this has been raised to €9,800.

Non-residents will be taxed at the same rates as residents if 90 per cent of their income is derived from Malta.

Opposition spokesman Tonio Fenech asked about minimum wage earners and whether they were going to be exempt from paying income tax, in accordance with the government’s electoral promise.

He asked how the ceiling of €9,800 was decided upon and why the flat rate of 7.5 per cent was only being limited to footballers and not to other types of athletes who earned their living from sports.

Minister Scicluna said abuses had been identified in the payment of income tax by professional footballers and it was decided to target them and give them the option of paying a flat rate of 7.5 per cent.

An agreement had been entered into between the government and the Malta Football Association.

He said that the amount of €9,800 was decided upon to help middle income families to ensure that they would be able to qualify from the higher benchmark.

He confirmed that minimum wage earners would not be taxed, and that there would be a legal notice issued shortly, while those who were still being taxed would be refunded.

Dr Fenech expressed surprise that the legal notice on such an important measure had still not been issued; he pointed out that the government should have given this more priority because it was already April.

Regarding footballers, Dr Fenech felt that all those who earned their living from sports should have benefited from this flat rate, because it was already hard enough to encourage those who were involved in other sports to keep it up.

Footballers seemed to have been accorded a special privilege and the minister should re-consider this clause and include all sports activities.

Prof. Scicluna said the agreement with the football association could be seen as a pilot project. He would consider including other sports at a later stage.