In the wake of the Joe Sammut scandal, the government has introduced another residency programme for non-EU nationals.
This programme can be described as a lighter version of the ‘citizenship by investment programme’, with an indefinite residence permit granted to applicants who place an investment of €250,000 and who show that they own or rent property in Malta. The form of the investment has yet to be determined by Identity Malta.
This programme is definitely aimed at individuals or their families who, whether for financial reasons or otherwise, are not eligible to buy Maltese citizenship or do not have the resources to do so but are able to afford the contribution necessary to qualify for an indefinite residence permit in Malta.
Similarly to the citizenship programme (Individual Investor Programme), applications cannot be submitted directly by non-EU nationals but are to be submitted by accredited individuals who may be lawyers, legal procurators, notaries, accountants or members of the Institute of Taxation, the Institute of Accountants or the Institute of Management.
The permit comes against a fee of €30,000, which is payable once Identity Malta accepts the application in principle. The application is to be accompanied by a non-refundable administrative payment of €5,500, which will eventually be deducted from this fee once the application is approved in principle.
It is not known whether the government will be placing a cap on such permits, as happened with the citizenship by investment scheme
The accredited agent is tasked with carrying out a due diligence exercise on the prospective applicant and dependants over 12 years of age, in order to ensure that there is no a priori evidence that the applicant or their dependants are not fit and proper people. Applicants or their dependants are disqualified from applying for a residence permit if they have been indicted or have faced serious criminal proceedings, such as money laundering, funding of terrorism or war crimes. Neither will they be eligible if they are considered a threat to public policy or public health or security or if they have been charged or found guilty of any crimes against the good order of families or if they have been interrogated or placed under suspicion of any criminal charges in respect of voluntary offences punishable by more than two years’ imprisonment.
An applicant must be in in receipt of sufficient stable resources throughout the validity of the certificate in order to maintain the entire family and must provide an affidavit to confirm an annual income of not less than €100,000 or capital of not less than €500,000. The €250,000 minimum investment and the property owned or leased must also be retained for a minimum of five years. Throughout the period of validity of the certificate, the applicant and dependants must be in possession of a valid travel document and must be covered by health insurance.
Curiously enough, an applicant who resides in Malta legally and continuously for a period of four years or more will be disqualified from continuing to hold the residence permit even though the permit entitles the applicant and his family to reside in Malta indefinitely. This is rather a contradiction in terms and one wonders how this particular clause will be enforced and whether a few days’ absence from Malta will be sufficient for a certificate holder to fall foul of the regulations. My conclusion is that this rule is intended to bar such permit-holders from ever becoming eligible to acquire the status of long-term residents in terms of the EU rules.
EU legislation permits non-EU nationals who reside in an EU State for a continuous period of five years to acquire long-term resident status. However, it is debatable whether government is legally permitted to exclude permit holders from becoming eligible to acquire such a status by means of a legal notice.
Similarly, no mention is made of the fiscal position of such permit holders. Non-EU nationals can also qualify to reside in Malta in terms of the Global Residence Programme, with the stark difference being that global residents are subject to a minimum annual tax payment of €15,000, whereas this recent programme requires a minimum investment of €250,000.
It is, however, to be presumed that permit holders in terms of this new scheme will nonetheless be taxed in Malta on the income they bring into the country.
It is not known whether the government will be placing a cap on such permits, as happened with the citizenship by investment scheme, and it still remains to be seen whether non-EU nationals, particularly Libyan nationals, are able to come up with the funds necessary in qualify as residents.
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Tanya Sciberras Camilleri is a partner at Valletta Legal.