Services · Trusts & private foundations

Malta trust

The Trusts and Trustees Act, licensed trustees, tax and registers. Open pricing, with the final quote fixed in writing before work starts.

Malta is a civil law country, yet the trust here is not borrowed exotica - it is a fully domestic institution. It sits in its own statute, the Trusts and Trustees Act (Chapter 331 of the Laws of Malta), and Malta ratified the Hague Convention on the Law Applicable to Trusts and on their Recognition back in 1994. In parallel the island runs a continental instrument as well: the private foundation under the Second Schedule to the Civil Code. That combination is rare. Inside one EU jurisdiction you can pick a trust or a foundation, and convert one into the other without winding anything up.

What follows is the practical picture: who may act as trustee, how the income is taxed, what ends up in registers, and when a Maltese trust is the wrong answer. The foundation route is covered separately on Malta private foundation.

What a Maltese trust is in law

A trust is neither a legal person nor a contract in the usual sense. The settlor transfers property to a trustee, who becomes its legal owner but holds and manages it separately from his own assets, purely for the beneficiaries or a stated purpose. Trust property does not mix with the trustee's estate and is not available to the trustee's personal creditors. That segregation is the whole point of the structure.

The key parameters of the Maltese regime:

Duration. A Maltese trust may last up to 125 years. Before the 2014 amendments the ceiling was 100 years. The limit does not apply to charitable trusts, unit trusts or retirement schemes set up as trusts.
Type. Most private structures are discretionary: the trustee decides who receives what and when, guided by the settlor's letter of wishes. Fixed-interest arrangements with predetermined shares are also possible.
Documents. The core document is the trust deed, usually accompanied by a letter of wishes. The letter does not bind the trustee legally, but it sets the logic behind his decisions.
Foreign trusts. Because of the Hague Convention, Malta recognises trusts created under other laws. Moving an existing foreign trust onto Maltese law is possible where the deed allows a change of governing law and trustee.
Protector. The settlor may appoint a protector and give him the power to approve certain trustee decisions, including the replacement of the trustee. That is a legitimate way to keep influence without collapsing the structure.

Malta is an EU member state, so a trust dispute is heard by Maltese courts and the judgment travels through the Union under ordinary rules. For clients whose assets and heirs sit in Europe, that usually outweighs the greater flexibility of island regimes.

Who can act as trustee, and why that is the real decision

In Malta you cannot simply appoint a friendly lawyer as trustee and forget about it. Anyone who receives property on trust for remuneration or on a habitual basis needs authorisation from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA). That is why the choice of trustee matters more than the wording of the deed: this is the firm you will work with for decades, and it is the firm that actually decides what happens to the assets.

Who acts as trustee	Basis	Key requirements	Supervision
Professional trustee (company)	art. 43 Trusts and Trustees Act, MFSA authorisation	minimum capital of EUR 15,000, professional indemnity cover, at least three approved directors	MFSA: ongoing reporting and inspections
Trustee of family trusts	art. 43B, MFSA registration	capital of EUR 15,000, may serve the trusts of one family only, no services to outsiders	MFSA: 2024 rulebook, annual supervisory fee from EUR 2,000 rising to 2029
Private trustee (individual)	art. 43A, notarial procedure	no MFSA authorisation, but since 2025 must file beneficial ownership data with the TUBOR register	beneficial ownership register, penalties up to EUR 150,000

For individuals seeking authorisation to act professionally, the MFSA application fee has been raised: EUR 2,000 in 2025, EUR 2,500 in 2026 and EUR 3,000 from 2027. Supervisory fees for family trustees climb every year as well. These are not ruinous numbers, but the direction of travel is clear - the regulator is deliberately making entry to the profession more expensive and more demanding.

The practical conclusion: an individual private trustee looks cheaper, yet it loads reporting, compliance and record keeping onto a person with no infrastructure behind him. For family assets meant to outlive the settlor, a licensed company is the sensible answer.

Tax: a Maltese trust is about predictability, not a zero rate

Malta taxes trust income where at least one trustee is tax resident in Malta. The residence of the settlor and beneficiaries, the location of the assets and the source of the income do not by themselves create Maltese taxing rights - the trustee's residence does. From there, three scenarios follow.

Scenario	When it applies	Malta tax
Transparency	the default: income is attributed to the beneficiaries	no tax at trust level, the income is taxed in the hands of the beneficiaries according to their own status
No Malta tax	all beneficiaries are non-resident in Malta and the income arises outside Malta	no Maltese tax consequences
Trust taxed as a company	an irrevocable election by the trustee under art. 27D of the Income Tax Act, made in time (as a rule within 30 days of the trust being set up or of a Maltese trustee being appointed)	35% on the income, distributions treated as dividends, with the full imputation and refund system available

The third route is chosen where the trust holds company shares and a portfolio: under corporate treatment the trust gains access to the participation exemption and to the ordinary Maltese refunds on distribution, while beneficiaries are paid in a dividend logic. The catch is that the election is irrevocable. Get it wrong at the outset and there is no way back.

Stamp duty deserves a separate note. Settling Maltese immovable property on trust is charged at 5% and marketable securities at 2%. No duty is due where the settlor is the sole beneficiary with an irrevocable right to the trust property. Malta has no inheritance tax as such, but duty still applies to transfers of Maltese immovable property and shares in property-owning companies. The wider Maltese picture is on taxes in Malta, and the cross-country view is in the taxes section.

Succession, reserved portion and creditors

Maltese succession law knows a reserved portion: descendants in the direct line and the surviving spouse are entitled to a protected share. One detail matters here - the reserved portion is not a right in rem over specific assets but a monetary claim against the estate.

For trusts, Maltese law expressly limits the reach of its own mandatory succession rules. Where the settlor was not domiciled in Malta at the time property was settled on trust, Maltese forced heirship rules do not apply to that property, whether it is movable or immovable. Where the settlor is domiciled in Malta, the reserved portion does bite.

Do not over-read this. Malta switches off its own rules, not the rules of the country where the settlor lives and dies. The EU Succession Regulation 650/2012 expressly excludes the creation, administration and dissolution of trusts from its scope, so there is no single European answer on how a trust interacts with forced heirship. A trust earns its keep in succession planning when it is set up well in advance, not a year before the expected dispute.

The same applies to creditors. Settling property on trust when claims already exist, divorce proceedings have started or an audit is under way is open to challenge as a transfer in fraud of creditors. A trust is a planning tool, not a way to move assets out of consequences that have already arrived.

Transparency: TUBOR, CRS and what is actually visible

A Maltese trust is not entered in a public commercial register, so it is less visible than a foundation. Confidentiality in the old sense, however, is gone.

Trusts beneficial ownership register (TUBOR). Maintained by the MFSA. The trustee must obtain and keep current the details of the settlor, the trustee, the beneficiaries, the protector and any person exercising ultimate effective control over the trust.
Extension to private trustees. The 2025 amendments extended TUBOR reporting to private trustees under art. 43A for the first time, with initial filings due by 11 January 2026. A declaration is filed within 14 days of accepting the role, changes within 14 days, plus an annual confirmation. The maximum administrative penalty is EUR 150,000.
Who gets access. Malta has moved to a tiered access model: competent authorities and the financial intelligence unit, obliged entities such as banks, notaries and auditors carrying out customer due diligence, and persons with a legitimate interest, a tier that now presumptively covers journalists and civil society organisations. The updated beneficial ownership framework came into force on 10 July 2026 with a transitional period to bring records into line.
Automatic exchange. For CRS purposes a trust is either a financial institution or a passive non-financial entity, and either way data on the settlor, trustee, protector and beneficiaries flows to their countries of tax residence. The expanded CRS and the crypto-asset reporting framework apply from 1 January 2026, with the first exchanges of that data in 2027; in the EU this runs through the DAC8 directive.

The conclusion is straightforward. A Maltese trust organises ownership and succession. It does not make anything invisible. If the brief is to hide, Malta is the wrong jurisdiction by design.

Malta versus an offshore trust: what the EU costs you

Clients almost always have an island alternative on the table. Compared honestly, it looks like this.

Parameter	Malta trust	Classic offshore trust
Legal environment	EU member state, judgments recognised across the Union	separate jurisdiction, recognition of judgments is harder
Trustee	MFSA licence or registration, capital and insurance requirements	licensing exists, but requirements vary widely
How banks see it	a European structure, fewer questions on source of wealth	enhanced due diligence and refusals are more common
Tax at trust level	from nil to 35% depending on beneficiary residence and the elected regime	usually nil, which is exactly what attracts attention
Running cost	higher, a licensed trustee is not cheap	lower, though the gap narrows as requirements tighten
Reporting	TUBOR, CRS, EU compliance requirements	CRS and local registers, scope depends on the jurisdiction

Malta is chosen not to save money but because European banks, registrars and courts accept the structure without drama. If you do not need that, a Cyprus trust or one of the island options in our offshore trust jurisdictions overview is cheaper and simpler. If you want a continental instrument with strong founder control, look at a Liechtenstein foundation or at the Maltese foundation.

Who a Maltese trust does not suit, and what can go wrong

We talk clients out of a Maltese trust more often than we sell one. The main situations where it does not work:

You want to keep de facto control. The trustee must exercise his own judgment. If the settlor effectively runs the assets and the trustee merely signs, the arrangement risks being treated as a sham and the tax authority of your country of residence will look straight through it. If that is the brief, a foundation with reserved powers is the honest conversation to have.
Your country of tax residence does not recognise trusts. Russia treats a trust as a foreign structure without legal personality, triggering notification duties and controlled foreign company rules for the settlor and controlling persons. France runs a dedicated trust reporting regime with a specific levy, and Italy has its own rules for distributions from opaque trusts. How your own country sees the trust has to be established before it exists, not after.
A modest asset base. A licensed trustee costs money every year whether or not anything happens. With a portfolio of a couple of hundred thousand euro the arithmetic rarely works, and the job is usually done by a will and clean ownership documentation.
An operating business held directly. No trustee will run a trading company. You need a holding company between the trust and the business, which means another layer of cost and reporting.
Urgency. Setting up a trust is limited not by paperwork but by trustee due diligence: source of funds, source of wealth, reputation. That takes weeks, sometimes longer where the assets are complex.

What else can go wrong. Bank account opening for Maltese structures is still slower than average - after Malta's spell on the FATF grey list from June 2021 to June 2022, some banks keep an elevated level of scrutiny. The art. 27D corporate election is irrevocable. Changing trustee is possible but means negotiation, file transfer and fresh compliance. And if Maltese real estate is settled on trust, the 5% duty arises immediately, not at some point in the future.

How we work, timing and fees

Our sequence is always the same. First a short consultation: we go through the objective, the assets, the residence of everyone involved, and check that a Maltese trust genuinely fits. If it does not, we say so and propose an alternative. Then we select a licensed trustee suited to your asset type, draft and negotiate the trust deed and letter of wishes, run the trustee's compliance process and document the transfer of assets. After establishment we support the life of the structure: amendments, trustee liaison, beneficiary questions, coordination with banks and with tax advisers in the relevant countries.

On timing: drafting is the quick part. Trustee due diligence and the bank account take the time. Plan for several weeks to signature and additional time before the assets are fully in place.

Service	Price
Trust establishment and maintenance	on request

Prices are indicative and cover our work on a typical case. We confirm the exact quote in writing after a short call - you know the final number before we start. Government fees and bank tariffs are billed separately unless explicitly included.

FAQ

What is a Malta trust and who is it for?

It is a structure under the Trusts and Trustees Act: the settlor transfers property to a licensed trustee, who holds it separately from his own assets and manages it for the beneficiaries. It suits succession planning and orderly ownership where an EU jurisdiction with real supervision matters. If the settlor wants to keep hands-on control, a foundation is usually the better fit.

Who can act as trustee of a Malta trust?

Anyone receiving property on trust for remuneration or on a habitual basis needs MFSA authorisation. A professional corporate trustee needs minimum capital of EUR 15,000, professional indemnity cover and at least three approved directors. There is a lighter registration route for trustees serving a single family, and an individual private trustee acts through a notarial procedure, but since 2025 must report beneficial ownership data.

How is a Malta trust taxed?

Malta looks at the trustee's residence: if at least one trustee is Malta tax resident, the trust income falls within Maltese taxing rights. By default the trust is transparent and the income is attributed to the beneficiaries. If all beneficiaries are non-resident and the income arises outside Malta, there is no Maltese tax. The trustee may also make an irrevocable election for company treatment at 35% with the refund system on distributions.

Malta trust or Malta foundation - which one?

A trust reads more naturally in common law countries; a foundation reads more naturally in civil law ones. The foundation gives the founder broader formal powers, but it is a registered legal person with annual filings. The foundation is covered on <a href="/en/services/trusts-foundations/malta-private-foundation">Malta private foundation</a>.

Is a Malta trust reported under CRS and in beneficial ownership registers?

The trust is not entered in a public commercial register, but details of the settlor, trustee, protector and beneficiaries go to the TUBOR register held by the MFSA, accessible to authorities, obliged entities and persons with a legitimate interest. Under CRS the trust reports either as a financial institution or as a passive entity, and the data reaches the countries where the parties are tax resident.

Can an existing foreign trust be moved to Maltese law?

Yes, where the trust deed permits a change of governing law and the appointment of a Maltese trustee. In practice the decision follows a review of the existing deed and the incoming trustee's acceptance, so the starting point is the document, not the choice of firm.

How much does a Malta trust cost, and what is included?

The cost depends on the assets, the number of beneficiaries and the complexity of the structure, which is why the price list says on request. Our work covers checking that the structure fits, selecting a licensed trustee, drafting the trust deed and letter of wishes, and supporting compliance and the transfer of assets. The exact figure is confirmed in writing before we start.