Amendment to article 5(3) ITMA

MIT Members are informed that further to the changes relative to the beneficial ownership register brought about by the 5^th AML Directive (Directive (EU) 2018/843), transposed into Maltese legislation through Legal Notice 26 of 2020 (Prevention of Money Laundering and Funding of Terrorism (Amendment) Regulations, 2020), article 5(3) of the Income Tax Management Act is being amended (effective from 1 June 2020) such that the relevant certificate would only be considered as compliant where it identifies and discloses all the beneficiaries and ultimate beneficial owners of relevant trust/fiduciary arrangements.

In line with these developments, the Commissioner for Revenue notifies that any company that has registered its shareholders in terms of the Tax Refunds and Registration Procedure Rules (Subsidiary Legislation 372.25) should, where such company has not already complied with such requirement, revise such registration by disclosing online (through the CFR website) all the direct and indirect beneficial owners of the shareholder/s registered for refund under Part C titled ‘Details of the ultimate individual beneficiaries in the indirect shareholder line’. Where there are trustees/fiduciaries involved, the relevant details of the persons on behalf of whom such trustees/fiduciaries are acting should also be disclosed.

Revised refund claim application

A further communication, with a revised refund claim application relative to refunds claimed in terms of article 48(4) and 48(4A) of the Income Tax Management Act (incorporating this requirement) will be circulated shortly. Such revised application will be the only valid application accepted from 1 June 2020 onwards. From such date, claims not submitted in such format, or that do not provide full details (name in full, DOB, official ID including type of document/country of issue) of the beneficial owners of the shareholder/s claiming a tax refund, shall be considered to be invalid. From such date, claims shall also be considered to be invalid when the information regarding beneficial ownership included therein does not tally with the information provided in the online shareholder registration.

Any queries relative to the contents of this CfR notice may be addressed by email to: itu.mfin@gov.mt.