No experience with airbnb but yeah, if you plan to be going to the casino alot then stj/sliema or maybe swieqi is all very walkable.

Yes. +swieqi and gzira. Airbnb is legit

Hello,

If i were to get a residence permit, am I immediately obliged to pay taxes here in Malta? Will some institution control this and make me?

go for st j, sliema or swieqi imo will all be within 20min (easily)

General knowledge is that once you get an E-residence permit, it's easier to open a bank account. Then any income that comes into your account (or the country in general) can be taxable. My personal accountant says:

In Malta you are taxed on income arising in Malta and income remitted to Malta. Our tax year is January to December. Every year you are obliged to file an Income Tax Return by 30th June. Tax rates vary

It seems like it would be indisputably recommendable for every foreign expat to hire his/her own local CPA or accountant (in both your home country and destination country) to give you licensed guidance on this topic so you can cover your bases at home and abroad. An individual's tax burden is just that - an individual situation that is impacted by many factors. Unrelated 3rd parties and people in forums can't technically help with this besides offering general, publicly available info. The only conceivable way to get a reliable opinion is to pay a licensed professional to consult you on your personal situation imho. I personally know poker players who brushed this topic off or assumed they were fine because of what they read other people were doing, then were hit with huge fines later on. Seems like an unnecessary and expensive risk to take on your own when it's so affordable to hire someone specialized to help you.

I dont know of any player who ever had to pay any fines or taxes in malta and IF one is stupid enuff to open a maltese account he deserves so. Im preaching for years to not open one of those and remit money to malta unless u actually plan on paying taxes...

@KristinWilson Thanks for the advise
@TimStone I do not plan on opening a Maltese bank account. I will just keep on using my current bank account in my home country. I have different reasons for obtaining a residence permit.

Hi guys. Planning to move to Malta for about a year in August with my mate.
Does anyone know if it's easy to rent an apartment this time of the year in Malta? Will problaly move to St Julian or nearby...

Is here somebody who knows already now they or their friends have a free aparement to rent to me in August for so long? (1-2 bdr)

How much real estate agents usually charge and how big is the prepayment the renter has to pay before moving in?

Thanks in advance and BR

Tim you are right; what you have been saying in this thread for years makes a lot of sense depending on which country you are from. However, some players are actually trying to pay taxes on purpose to get out of paying them in a country where they will be multiple times higher than they would be in Malta. They need proof of voluntarily paying taxes somewhere else to accomplish this. Most players are in a different situation, so this would not be applicable to them and in that case, there's really no useful reason to open a local bank account.

Also for Americans - we have to pay taxes in America forever, regardless of where we live in the world, so again wouldn't be very applicable to try to get residency and pay taxes in Malta for the most part. But for players of some specific countries, it does actually have merit for them to pay some low taxes than try to pay none and years later get fined more than the amount of the taxes they were trying to avoid in the first place.

Cheers!

USA is a fair point.

But what guys would come to malta and want to pay 35% compared to 40-50% in their homecountry?

I am not a Maltese accountant and this is not my field so I can't comment, but based on consultations with various tax professionals and having worked with poker players for nearly 4 years, I've observed that each individual's tax burden is different and everyone has a unique situation. Some are able to significantly reduce their costs and that works for them. It's all relative. Again I think it's ultimately really important for people only to get their personal advice from a licensed professional no matter what, without exception, so they can make an informed decision regarding their personal situations.

Hi mate,

It's not very hard to get an apartment any time of the year, but that said August is probably not the best time. There is a big difference in rent/month for short lets though (which is usually defined as less than one year, sometimes 6 months). I might be able to hook you up with 2 rooms (won't be a private apartment for the 2 of you though), send me a PM with your Skype when you are allowed to PM (or post it here).

Real estate fees are usually half of one month's rent and safety deposit is usually one month's rent.

Cheers

Hi! Thanks for your answer. I added you to Skype (mine: katakas112)

Hey guys. I'm looking for a place to stay for 3 months starting in about 3 weeks, preferably in the St. Julians/Silema area. Let me know if you have a room available by either a PM or skype: sean.cosgrove .

Hi Tim. I tend to agree with Kristin, each situation is unique.

Couple examples of people that might consider moving to Malta for tax reasons that come to mind:

- People who might live in countries where online gambling is illegal or badly regulated?

- As far as I know, you can lower the tax rate down to 5% if you set up the structure with the 2 companies (according to any accountant that I've asked in Malta it's 100% legal and doable). This solution has been discussed in this thread multiple times. Granted, it costs like 8-10k per year flat, plus whatever tax will derive from your incomes. However, if someone makes enough money and wants to avoid possible future troubles, I guess it could be an attractive solution, no?

The last time I read T&C's (when I worked for FTP, admittedly years ago), it was against T&C to play on behalf of a company, so I'm not sure how you could declare poker income as being derived by your company...but then I'm not a tax lawyer...

when I consulted a lawyer, he told me I could also take a 'in between' solution : since the law only considers funds taxable that you transfer to Malta, you could cash out to neteller/MB , and then just withdraw a certain amount like 2k every month to a maltese bank account. this money you declare as your income and pay a low tax on it (first 8k or so is free every year, then low progressive rates). If necessary declare yourself 'independent project manager' or 'web consultant' or sth similar in the tax declaration. This is probably not 100% legal but probably not getting you into trouble because after all you do pay taxes and nobody investigates about possible other incomes.

Sorry I was not aware of this. I'm not a poker player, I bet on sports so I cannot elaborate in depth on this. You can bet on behalf of a company in some bookmakers + most brokerages.

However, when I went to an office for a consultation, I asked on behalf of a friend of mine who plays poker. My question was what happens if my friend cannot open an account at the website under the company's name? I don't remember the exact words, they said it wouldn't be a problem and they would write some kind of contract that the specific account is connected to the company or something like that.

Cannot confirm if it's 100% legit or if that bypasses all your problems but that's all I know...

Ofc they will make it happen, they gonna make a ****ton of money by creating and running ur fake tax evading company out of thin air. Wat do u expect? Them to say "no, u play poker, thats not possible, we r sorry, we have enuff money" 😂😂😂

Hi Tim.

I was also sceptic about this, how can a company place bets and not provide some kind of service etc?

In order to be sure that everything is legit I asked if we can add it to the contracts of the company for my own peace of mind. So I had the office contact the MFSA (Malta Financial Services Authority) and ask about this. Their response was:

"We have contacted the MFSA regarding the objects clause of the company and they have confirmed that a specific objects clause, such as ”the company shall carry out online sports betting in its own name and on its own behalf“, should be acceptable, provided we state in the M&A that such activity does not require any license."

Just to be clear, I haven't gone through with this yet but I'll probably do it in the following months.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding this post, but I don't think it makes a difference at all. On poker and gaming sites, individuals each have their userID/screenname. It's not up to the sites to track how players are reporting taxes in any country or even to know if any players own businesses or companies (whether recreational players or pros). The only thing that matters is that the account is in your name and when you withdraw, the e-wallet or bank account matches your name as well.

If you are a self-employed full time poker pro, you can even make a company that's Your Name, LLC if you want.

I don't even think a corporation can set up an online gaming account. Because of all the KYC, I don't see how that would be plausible even in the initial account set up required fields.

In sum, the country and method in which an individual pays taxes worldwide shouldn't have any bearing on the existence of his/her personal online gaming accounts.

Is anybody here using a private chef who caters food to your home?

I would like to hire someone who can deliver food to my house once or twice a week.

See this post on FB in Malta Poker group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Malt...2655413006272/

http://www.scanmalta.com/scanshop/co...ws-8-1-pc.html

I dont really know much about computers soo is this computer good enough to run pokertracker and 21 table? I only really need a desktop for poker.

Seems fine to me but im more a laptop guy