The Maltese citizenship by investment program (IIP) will be scrapped and will be replaced with new residence program with new set of rules after september. This was announced by Parliamentary secretary of citizenship affairs, Alex Muscat yesterday.
These measures were taken after criticism from european commission and negative publicity associated with the Individual investor program. The commission raised concerns for risks associated with investor citizenship scheme with tax evasion, money laundering and visa free regime in the Union. By making these significant changes, Malta expects to strengthen good relations with the EU. The new changes has been approved by cabinet and parliamentary approval will be final.
MIIPA will continue accepting applications for citizenship under the Malta Individual Investor Programme Regulations until the 30th of September 2020 deadline.
Here are quick insights into the new residence scheme which will be implemented after september. Regulations will make it impossible to acquire maltese citizenship by investment without living in the country for atleast a year.
- Two investment routes to open for the residency scheme: Pay €750,000 (citizenship after 1 year) or €600,000 (citizenship after 3 years)
- Limited Quotas: 400 citizenships per year and 1500 total limit
- Pay mandatory €10,000 donation to a registered philanthropic organisation.
- Buying a real estate value increases  to €700,000 (from €350,000 currently)
- Minimum Renting increases to €18,000 (from €16,000) per annum.
- Applicant has to pass due diligence checks before filing application.
- Applicants have to pay additional €50,000 for each dependent.
- MIIPA agency will be shutdown and new agency will be introduced to handle the cases.
- Revenues to be distributed to 30% to the government’s consolidated fund and 70% to the National Development and Social Fund.
- Names of new citizens will be published every year in gazette (no changes)
Malta IIP has raised billions in revenues for the Government. Recently in a survey 65% of the Maltese voters supported the IIP scheme, revealed by Alex muscat in his twitter post. So far Malta is expected to denaturalize 4 families who obtained citizenship by breaking the rules, two have already been revoked of citizenships.
“By welcoming just 300 new citizens a year we have earned €1.4 billion in six years. The funds have been a tremendous boost to the Maltese economy and will prove to be even more useful as we recover from the hit the economy has taken from COVID-19.” said Alex Muscat
The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry welcomed the changes proposed to the Individual Investor Programme (IIP) by Government in Parliament yesterday.
The Chamber expressed concerns that raising the rental minimum will not serve to separate the rental market for IIP investors from that of the average wage earner who usually rents at the same value. The Chamber believes that this will only serve to artificially inflate rents for the rest of the rental market and hence prejudice industry competitiveness.
The Malta Chamber is satisfied with the proposals and actions communicated by Government yesterday and remains committed to work hard to improve the quality of local standards and repair the damage to the Country’s reputation internationally by promoting ethics, professionalism and integrity with credibility.
