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Know what your registration does
Article 10 is the ordinary VAT registration discussed here: VAT applies to taxable supplies taking place in Malta, while recovery of purchase VAT depends on the applicable credit rules. Article 11 is the domestic small-enterprise scheme for eligible Malta-established businesses; its exemption is without input-tax credit. Eligibility and turnover calculation are governed by the Sixth Schedule.
Article 12 deals with specified cross-border transactions. It can be required alongside Article 11: the Act expressly says an Article 11 business receiving services for which it must pay VAT must also register under Article 12. The domestic sales exemption is therefore not an exemption from every foreign purchase.
Check who must account for VAT on the foreign service
For the general business-services case in Article 20(2)(b), a taxable service received in Malta from a supplier not established there and not Article 10-registered can make the Maltese recipient liable for the tax. Establish the actual service, place of supply and supplier status; the provision also addresses a Maltese fixed establishment that does not intervene in the supply.
If you are a Malta-established taxable person outside Article 10 registration and receive a service for which Article 20(2) makes you liable, Article 12(3) requires registration by the date you receive it. For an Article 11 support business buying covered foreign cloud access, that purchase duty is separate from how its American sale is treated. Article 12 itself does not provide input-tax recovery.
For the sale, establish who receives your service
The VAT Act’s Third Schedule item 2(a) generally follows the business customer or the fixed establishment receiving the service, subject to exceptions. MTCA’s American-buyer example accepts sufficient appropriate evidence that the customer purchases for its business even though it has no EU VAT number.
So the missing EU number does not automatically make your buyer a consumer. Establish its business purpose, the receiving establishment and the kind of service. An American address alone does not answer those questions. In the cloud example, those facts decide the sale analysis; your own status and purchase liability decide the separate registration question.
The other-EU service branch has its own trigger
Article 12(3a) separately concerns a Malta-established taxable person outside Article 10 supplying services in another EU Member State for which the recipient alone pays VAT under Article 196. Registration is due by the date of that supply. An American customer is not that other Member State.
Scope
- This explains the specified registration and service-liability rules, not a complete eligibility, turnover, credit, rate, invoice or VAT-return decision. The MTCA service notes remain nonbinding, are not Article 75 instructions and have inconsistent printed dates; the current Act controls. Actual U.S. taxes remain separate.
Next step
Identify your actual registration and the foreign service’s place of supply and supplier status before receiving it; complete any required Article 12 registration by that date.
Terms used here
- Place of supply
- The location used to decide which VAT service rule applies.
- Reverse charge
- An arrangement under which the recipient, rather than the supplier, is liable for the relevant VAT, when the legal conditions apply.
Sources & review notes
Legislation Malta
Passage, dates and research notes
primary · Articles 10,11,12(3)/(3a),20(2)(b),22; Fifth Schedule Part Two item 16 and Sixth Schedule Part One; Third Schedule Part Two item 2(a)
by not later than the date on which he receives a service.
Fresh canonical PDF read for the named registration/liability provisions. Article 11(10) expressly requires additional Article 12 registration for covered received services. Article 20(2)(b) supplier non-establishment/non-Article-10 conditions and non-intervening fixed-establishment proviso retained. No full VAT or transaction eligibility ruling; Act includes listed 2026 amendments.
Malta Tax and Customs Administration
Passage, dates and research notes
official-guidance · General rule; U.S.-buyer scenario3; separate Article 12 question; scope exclusions and legal disclaimer
These Explanatory Notes are not legally binding.
Actual nine-page PDF read. Cover says publication 23/12/2025 and last updated 06/02/2025, while PDF metadata says created February 6, 2026. That internal date inconsistency is preserved, not silently corrected. Notes expressly are not Article 75 instructions or formal binding opinions and contain scenario-label typos; core scope was reconciled to the canonical current Act.
Detailed rule records (1)
Apply the Third Schedule business-service rule only after establishing customer capacity, receiving establishment and service exceptions. For a Malta-established taxable person not registered under Article 10, Article 12(3) separately requires registration by receipt of a service for which Article 20(2) makes it liable; Article 12(3a) concerns specified services supplied into another EU Member State. A U.S. sale does not settle those separate tracks.
Malta Value Added Tax Act, Chapter 406: canonical current PDF Supplying services to customers outside Malta: MTCA explanatory notesKeep this reading in your learning library.
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