Salary and tax in Malta

Where the money goes

Of €27,384 gross, income tax (Taxxa fuq id-dħul) takes €3,446 and employee contributions (Kontribuzzjonijiet tas-sigurtà soċjali tal-Klassi 1) take €2,738. That leaves €21,200 a year, or €1,767 a month on average.

The employer pays another €2,820 in charges on top, 10.3% of the salary. The whole job costs €30,204 a year.

How the income tax works

The income tax (Taxxa fuq id-dħul) rises through 3 bands, from 15% to 35%. The top rate applies from €60,000 of taxable income. That threshold is 2.2 times the reference salary of €27,384.

The first €12,000 of taxable income is tax-free.

The bands apply to taxable income: what is left after allowances and deductible contributions. That is why the rates bite later than the gross salary suggests.

Employee contributions are capped: above a salary of about €29,100 a year, the capped part stops rising.

Married couples can be assessed jointly, which usually lowers the tax when one partner earns much more. The figures here are for a single person.

How the rates rise with the salary

Income tax starts at a gross salary of about €12,100 a year.

At €27,384, 22.6% of pay goes to income tax and employee contributions. Of the next 100 earned, 65 reach the employee, a marginal rate of 35.1%.

At twice that salary, €54,768, the average rate is 24.1% and the marginal rate 25%.

At about €29,100, employee contributions reach a ceiling, and their share of each raise falls from 10% to 0%.

Average and marginal rates, with worked examples:
Pay rise: How much more take-home pay? (Malta)

Among 50 countries

At the same €27,384 a year, converted into each local currency, an employee in Malta takes home 77.4%, rank 33 of 50.

The same salary leaves the most in Taiwan (94.4%) and the least in Romania (58.5%).

Every country is calculated for the same single employee without children, with the salary converted at the exchange rates of 02 October 2026. A salary that is typical in one country is high in another, so progressive systems look heavier where wages are lower. The ranking says nothing about purchasing power or about what the contributions pay for, such as pensions and health cover. Where the newer rules are not final, a country is calculated with its latest enacted year: Belgium (2025), Norway (2025) and Romania (2025).

Recent rule changes

The model for Malta includes these recent changes.

• New eligible-family schedules for one or at least two children; ordinary single/married/parent bands remain unchanged from 2025.

Beyond the payslip

The statutory rules in Malta on notice, unemployment, sick pay, parental leave and unpaid wages.

• Notice and dismissal

  Employment and Industrial Relations Act / Tribunal Industrijali

  4 months

  Unfair-dismissal claim

  Lodge an Industrial Tribunal complaint within four months of termination.

• Unemployment benefit

  Benefiċċju tal-Qgħad / Jobsplus

  60% / 55% / 50%

  2026 replacement stages

  Salary-based rates apply for the first ten, next ten and final six weeks, subject to statutory floors and caps.

• Sick pay

  Leave għall-Mard / Sickness Benefit

  2 working weeks

  Fallback annual sick leave

  Applies where no sectoral Wage Regulation Order covers the activity, calculated in hours. After employer entitlement is exhausted, only eligible state sickness benefit continues.

• Parental leave

  Leave tal-Maternità / Leave tal-Ġenituri / Leave tal-Paternità

  18 weeks

  Maternity leave

  The employer pays the first fourteen weeks; the final four may qualify for a separate social-security benefit.

• Unpaid wages

  DIER / Guarantee Fund Administration Board

  2 months

  Guarantee Fund deadline

  Submit the required claim and certified evidence within two months of the onset of employer insolvency.

Method and sources

Official sources

• Att dwar it-Taxxa fuq l-Income · Kap.123, artikolu 56
• Malta Tax and Customs Administration · Tax rates 2026
• Malta Tax and Customs Administration · Class 1 contributions 2026
• Euro reference exchange rates, 02 October 2026 (ECB)