Malta’s VAT authority is to lessen fines on late VAT payers, and improve communications with taxable persons looking to bring their non-compliant affairs up-to-date.
The daily penalty for late returns and payments of €15 will be scrapped. The late penalty interest will be reduced from 9% to 6.5%. There will also be a maximum fine limit to prevent disproportionate fines building up. Any repayments of VAT will not be set off against the outstanding tax rather than initially against prior fines. This will prevent the on-going compounding of future fines and reductions of fines where the tax authorities take excessively long to carry-out their investigations.
The customs and VAT bodies will be merged to simplify communications, as well as to improve audit co-operation between the two bodies.
