Look inside
The plan for Malta, from the inside
These are all 32 steps of the Malta journey, exactly as they appear in your personal plan — with the lead time and the costs next to them. Not a brochure: this is the file that feeds the platform. Pick another country below if you're heading elsewhere.
For which country?
Every country has its own steps, its own order and its own clocks. Switch as often as you like.
- Steps
- 32
- Phases
- 5
- Official sources
- 39
- Only for your situation
- 8
Phase 1
5 steps
Orientation
Malta is 316 square kilometres of English-speaking EU, three hours' flight from Schiphol — and the most densely populated country in Europe. The two lessons of this phase: the tax dream is smaller for Dutch people than the brochures promise, and the winter is colder than you think — indoors.
- 1.1
Understand the system: register within three months
- Lead time
- reading step
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 1.2
Choose your Malta: the bustle, the south or Gozo
- Lead time
- an evening of research, and the conversation about it
- Costs
- none
- 1.3
Get a picture of what it's going to cost
- Lead time
- 1-2 hours with the calculator
- Costs
- none
- 1.4
Take the decision together
- Lead time
- no fixed time; take your time for it
- Costs
- none
- 1.6
Choose your target date
- Lead time
- five minutes, below
- Costs
- none
Phase 2
11 steps
Closing the Netherlands
The familiar list, with the tax lesson that carries this corridor. Malta only taxes foreign income to the extent you transfer it to Malta — but the 1977 treaty also ties the Dutch exemption to that same transfer. "Zero per cent by not remitting" therefore doesn't exist: then the Netherlands simply keeps taxing. And the AOW and the ABP pension stay Dutch anyway.
- 2.1
Arrange your healthcare: the basic insurance stops on moving day
- Lead time
- start 2-3 months before departure; the CAK application takes ± 4 weeks
- Costs
- no application costs; the treaty contribution replaces your premium
2 official sources
- 2.2
Pension and the remittance rule: the sum the brochures skip
- Lead time
- the sum is an evening; the exemption statement takes weeks
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 2.3
The tax wrap-up: M return and the protective assessment
- Lead time
- the M return follows in the year after departure
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 2.4
Stop allowances and child benefit
- Lead time
- an hour
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 2.5
Deregister with the municipality
- Lead time
- five working days before departure, not earlier
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 2.6
DigiD, bank and your vote — plus one letter you arrange right now
- Lead time
- an afternoon
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 2.7
Documents: multilingual extracts
- Lead time
- extracts within a week
- Costs
- extracts ± € 15 each
1 official source
- 2.8
Partner comes along without a job of their own
- Lead time
- an evening together, then a few things to arrange
- Costs
- none — the consequences are in the article
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 2.9
Living partly in the Netherlands: the eight-month rule
- Lead time
- one decision, before you commit to anything else
- Costs
- none
4 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 2.10
The house in the Netherlands: sell, rent out or keep
- Lead time
- one conversation with the mortgage lender and one with a tax adviser
- Costs
- advisory hours; when renting out possibly an interest surcharge from the bank
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 2.11
Children staying in the Netherlands: DUO, healthcare and the house
- Lead time
- an evening, and after that one report a year
- Costs
- none
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
Phase 3
3 steps
Move
You reach Malta in three hours' flight — but the household contents, the car and the pet go over land and sea, via Sicily or Salerno. The car has a sum of its own: the relocation exemption asks twice twenty-four months, and Malta drives on the left. And the dog has the tightest clock of the whole move: a tapeworm treatment in a window of 24 to 120 hours before arrival.
- 3.1
Plan the journey: flying for you, sailing for the rest
- Lead time
- quotes 4-6 weeks ahead
- Costs
- see the cost indication
1 official source
- 3.2
The car: the ToR sum, and the honest conversation about driving on the left
- Lead time
- the sum is an evening; the decision belongs before the move
- Costs
- see the cost indication
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
- 3.3
The pet: the tapeworm clock and the notification duty
- Lead time
- the vet wants two weeks' notice; the treatment sits at 24-120 hours
- Costs
- see the cost indication
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
Phase 4
6 steps
Registration on Malta
The chain, in the only order in which it works: a home with a registered contract, then the complete file to Identità, then the biometrics and the card, and only then the eID, the bank and healthcare. The rule that speeds everything up is the same one that slows everything down: Identità only processes complete files.
- 4.1
Find your home — and check the registration, because otherwise the contract is void
- Lead time
- searching 2-6 weeks; the registration is the landlord's duty
- Costs
- see the cost indication
1 official source
- 4.2
The file to Identità: complete or not
- Lead time
- response within 48 working hours with a complete file
- Costs
- free
2 official sources
- 4.3
The biometrics and the card
- Lead time
- the appointment follows the file; the card comes after that
- Costs
- first issue free; replacement € 22
1 official source
- 4.4
The eID and the tax number
- Lead time
- an hour, as soon as you have the card
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 4.5
The bank account: count on weeks, not days
- Lead time
- 2 weeks to 2 months at the big banks
- Costs
- watch the monthly charges
1 official source
- 4.6
Healthcare: the S1 to the Entitlement Unit
- Lead time
- submitting is an email; the certificate follows by post
- Costs
- none
1 official source
Phase 5
7 steps
Arrival
The papers are in; now it becomes a life. The car still has its thirty days, the tax return gets its remittance records, and daily life its Maltese peculiarities: free public transport on a personal card, a school you choose deliberately, and a winter you win with a dehumidifier.
- 5.1
The car: the ToR file and the registration
- Lead time
- file within 30 days; the registration a few weeks after that
- Costs
- see the cost indication
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
- 5.2
Work: Jobsplus, the wage level and the sectors that do pay
- Lead time
- ongoing
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 5.3
Tax in practice: the return and the remittance records
- Lead time
- the return follows annually; the records are ongoing
- Costs
- n/a
1 official source
- 5.4
Family: choose the school deliberately
- Lead time
- enrol before the summer
- Costs
- state schools free; international from ± € 4,500 a year
Only if this applies to you
- 5.5
The house through the winter: damp, electricity and the ARMS tariff
- Lead time
- arrange it in your first month
- Costs
- see the cost indication
- 5.6
Transport: free buses, driving on the left
- Lead time
- the Tallinja card is an application
- Costs
- public transport free with the personal card
2 official sources
- 5.7
The small print: the rhythm of the island
- Lead time
- spread over the first year
- Costs
- none
8 of these steps aren't always there. They appear only when your answers call them up — a pet, a car, children staying behind. That's the difference between a plan and a checklist in which you have to work out yourself what applies.
Look inside
This is what one step of your plan looks like
Not a brochure but the real thing: this is one of the steps of the Malta journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan — with the deadlines, the counters and the sources.
Step 2.2 of your plan
Pension and the remittance rule: the sum the brochures skip
- Lead time
- the sum is an evening; the exemption statement takes weeks
- Costs
- none
Malta taxes whoever lives there but isn't domiciled only on income that is transferred to Malta — the remittance basis. That sounds like zero per cent for whoever leaves their pension in the Netherlands, and that's exactly where the trap is: article 2 paragraph 5 of the treaty ties the Dutch exemption to that same transfer. If you don't remit your pension, the Netherlands grants no exemption and simply keeps taxing. If you do remit, Malta taxes — at the ordinary brackets, or under a special regime.
Two incomes don't take part anyway: your AOW (the Dutch state pension) the Netherlands may keep taxing under article 19 paragraph 3, and a government pension (ABP) stays Dutch via article 20. Work out before departure which part of your income can go to the Maltese regime, and what transferring costs or yields you on balance — this is the sum par excellence for a tax adviser who knows both countries.
This is step 2.2 of 32. The other 31 are ready for you — each with the same sources, the same counters and a planning that watches your dates.
And what you don't see here
This page shows the content. What a page can't show is the work the platform does for you afterwards:
- The clocks that start running the moment you begin, and a nudge at the moment something is asked of you — not earlier.
- Your documents in one place, with their expiry dates watched, so nothing lapses while you wait for something else.
- The ticking off, together with your partner on the same journey.
- The steps that drop out or appear based on your answers, so your plan holds only what really applies to you.
Ready to start on Malta?
All 32 steps, set to your situation and with the deadlines watched. € 199 once, no subscription.
The departure guide
Five mails, and you see your whole journey
Not ready to start yet? Then we'll send you the departure guide for Malta: five mails in a week and a half, with the order, the pitfalls and the real costs. After that one question about where your plans stand, and beyond that only a short update when something in Malta really changes — at most one a month, no newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
Ready to begin?
Thirty-six journeys are fully ready — Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Canada, Panama, United States, Suriname, China, Dubai, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Turkey, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand: your step-by-step plan, your documents and your costs in one place, with the timing watched. Pay once, and it's yours.