Workers
Cost-of-living-adjustment: €3.49 weekly wage increase.
Workers on minimum wage will not pay tax on this increase.
Companies will be able to claim back from tax up to €400 for training offered to middle-aged and older workers.
Taxpayers
Top income tax rate of those earning between €19,501 and €60,000 will go down from 32 per cent to 29 per cent.
Second-time VAT offenders will not face prison but fine.
Measures are planned to fight tax evasion and avoidance.
Parents
The tax band for parent computation will be broadened to €9,800 from €9,300, giving an average saving of €75 per year per household.
The age of children to which this measure will apply will go up to 23 from 21.
Free childcare will be offered to working parents.
For private childcare, the tax credit will rise from €1,300 to €2,000.
A ‘breakfast club’ will be rolled out gradually in State schools, providing a one-hour service before school opens.
Working women
Income of a married woman over 40 who had been inactive for more than five years, and now tax exempt, will not be included in the joint tax computation with her husband’s.
Youth
A €600 tax deduction will be offered to entrepreneurs for every apprentice they take on, giving youngsters the opportunity to learn by doing.
Some 350 under-25s who are not in education, employment or training will be guaranteed a work placement or course of study under an EU scheme.
A new entrepreneurship training and support scheme will be launched that will include mentoring and monetary grants.
Students
From next year, the student stipend will increase annually in line with the cost-of-living adjustment.
Stipends will also be given to students repeating their scholastic year.
A number of schools will take part in a ‘One Tablet per Child’ pilot project.
An Employability Index will guide students on the potential of finding a job from various lines of study.
New courses in tourism and aircraft maintenance.
New schools to be built, others upgraded.
Stipends for students taking a veterinary course abroad.
Grants for postdoctoral students.
Foreign placements for researchers to pursue studies in international institutions.
Households
From March, electricity bills will go down by 25 per cent and water bills by five per cent.
Every family will be offered an energy audit and advice on saving energy.
Self-employed
The preferential 15 per cent tax rate will become applicable on €12,000 instead of €7,000 for the part-time self-employed.
Clampdown on foreigners coming in from Sicily, to create a level playing field.
Unemployed
Those who have been receiving benefits for more than five years will not lose this assistance if they start a full-time course.
For those who have found a job after registering for more than two years, benefits will be cut gradually: 35 per cent in first year, 55 per cent in second year and 75 per cent in third.
Employers will be offered a tax deduction of €5,800 for the first two years of employment of those aged between 45 and 65 who have been seeking a job for three years.
A €600 tax deduction will be offered to businesses for every work placement they accept, to give the inexperienced a better chance of finding a job.
Unemployed single parents on social assistance will receive a grant of between €200-€1,000 for vocational training, plus free childcare.
Families in crisis
New out-of-hours crisis intervention service linked to Supportline 179.
Measures to tackle waiting lists at Appoġġ so as to prevent situations such as child abuse and domestic violence from getting worse.
Appoġġ community services to be improved to address social problems at an earlier stage.
Investors
Those who hold assets abroad without an exchange control permit or declaring the investment will be able to regularise their position.
Smokers
Price of cigarettes up 30c a packet due to increase in excise duty.
Drinkers
Alcohol to go up in price depending on alcohol content: a bottle of beer to increase by 1c and whiskey by at least 40c.
Drivers
Excise duty on petrol up 1c from January and stable for three months; no increase in price of diesel up to March.
A ban on heavy trucks and horses from arterial roads during rush hours to ease traffic.
CVA: From next month, Valletta access to be free on Saturdays and Sundays and from 2pm during the week.
Those who have paid VAT on car registration to start being refunded over a seven-year period.
Registration tax on motorcycles equal to or greater than 250cc will go down, as well as on small non-EU imported cars.
The licence fees of cars registered after 2009 with CO2 emissions above 100 grams will go up.
Scrappage scheme to pay between €500 and €900 depending on emissions.
Extension of grant of €200 for conversion of cars to autogas.
Part-timers
Preferential 15 per cent tax rate on second employment to be extended to income of €10,000, up from €7,000.
Disabled
Increase in disabled child allowance from €16 to €20 a week.
Increase in number of places at day centres from 400 to 600.
No duty on transfer of property inherited by disabled children.
Appointment of guardians for people with intellectual disability.
Increase in respite services to support families.
Pensioners
Pensioners not paying tax will be exempt from tax on the cost-of-living increase.
The 15 per cent self-employed contribution will be extended to pensioners if their earnings do not exceed the minimum threshold.
The amount of service pension not taken into consideration for social security pension assessment will increase by €200 to €1,466.
Pensioners employing live-in carers will be exempt from paying the social security contribution as employers.
The €300 grant to the elderly will be extended to cover over 75s.
Home help services to the elderly to be extended to cover those on the waiting list.
Two new day care centres to be opened in Balzan and Vittoriosa.
Telecare system to be modernised.
Widows
Those earning more than the minimum wage and whose children are 21 and over will no longer lose the widow’s pension entitlement.
Future pensioners
Fiscal incentives will encourage workers to invest in a voluntary private pension; to be introduced after consultation.
Women who have pension contributions missing will be able to buy-back years and retire on a minimum pension.
Footballers
Income tax rate of 7.5 per cent for part-time footballers.
Entrepreneurs
Finance for between 50 and 100 knowledge-intensive start-ups aided by EU funding.
EU-backed venture capital funding for innovation.
Bank charges may go down if MFSA investigation finds businesses are paying too much.
Businesses
Micro enterprises and the self-employed will receive a 45 per cent tax credit (65 per cent in Gozo) on eligible expenditure under the Microinvest scheme.
A Family Business Act to be enacted to facilitate the transition from one generation to another.
Those that employ two part-time workers will still apply the 15 per cent tax rate, allowing them to grow their business.
Landlords
15 per cent flat tax rate on rental income, down from 35 per cent, but evasion will not be tolerated.
Property buyers
Stamp duty of 3.5 per cent on value of property up to €150,000 to be waived for first-time buyers – for 2014 only.
Bank’s architect will replace government’s architect for valuations needed by the authorities.
New public-private partnership to provide 300 affordable apartments.
A number of shell and semi-finished apartments to be put up for sale by the Government at a subsidised price.
Developers
If they do not have VAT receipts available to substantiate the estimated valuation of works, they will be liable to pay the VAT due.
Price of cement to go up.
Shoppers
Valletta Monti to move to Ordnance Street from Merchants Street.
Patients
Two new wards at Mater Dei Hospital for acute cases by 2015.
Both parents of children treated abroad to receive financial assistance on travel.
Opening hours of health centres to be extended.
New services from hospital: IVF, sexual therapy, gender re-assignment. New services in Gozo: chemotherapy, day care ward, pain clinic, rheumatology and urology.
Free medicines for ADHD and multiple sclerosis; wider choice of medicine for diabetes.
Mental health services in the community to be strengthened.
Travel costs for Gozitan children undergoing cancer treatment at Mater Dei will be reimbursed.
Income assessment of claims from separated persons for non-contributory medical assistance will not include the share of maintenance given to spouse.
A patients’ charter will be introduced next year.
Farmers
Both farmers and consumers to benefit from graded fruit and vegetables as a result of reforms at the Pitkalija.
Fishermen
A scheme to help fishermen who have been adversely affected by the closed swordfish season.
Cinema goers
Support for cinemas to make digital transition and show more European films.
Auctioneers
The tax on auctions will be abolished.
Parliamentarians
Will start being paid according to attendance.
Gozitans
Intelligent street lighting to be installed in a pilot project.
A Gozo Regional Youth Council to be set up to give a voice to Gozitan youngsters.
St Joseph Home for the elderly to be renovated and expanded.