Ensuring compliance: What the MTCA 2025 Annual Report means for taxpayers

On 24 June 2026, the Malta Tax and Customs Administration (MTCA) published its annual report, highlighting its main achievements and reforms. Operating under the Strategic Plan 2023-2025, launched in April 2023, the MTCA pursued a dual mandate: overhauling internal operations while simultaneously strengthening revenue collection and taxpayer compliance. During 2025, the MTCA focused on technological investments, enhancing taxpayer compliance through targeted outreach services, modernising its taxpayer register, and opening a dedicated large taxpayer office.

The main highlights are summarised below.  

Compliance efforts

While the report noted progress in taxpayer compliance, the MTCA reported 2025 compliance levels which remain significantly below internationally recognised standards. Accordingly, the MTCA continues to prioritise improving taxpayer compliance through a range of initiatives.

Digitisation

Central to these initiatives is a concerted focus on digitisation, which underpinned the majority of the MTCA’s projects during the year. A newly launched website enhanced information accessibility and streamlined the filing of tax returns and corresponding payments. In parallel, several initiatives were undertaken to lay the foundations for ongoing digital reporting systems, in anticipation of the expected implementation of e-invoicing and other regulatory requirements in the VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) Package.

Through these efforts, the MTCA is positioning itself to align with and potentially build upon the digital reporting framework being advanced at EU level. This work sees the MTCA equipping itself with the technological environment needed to identify and address non-compliance using digital tools.  

Large Taxpayer Office

In further efforts to support taxpayer compliance, the MTCA followed up on the International Monetary Fund’s recommendations by opening a Large Taxpayer Office (LTO) dedicated to improving taxpayer engagement, enhancing service delivery, and promoting compliance. Through active engagement and support, the LTO aims to ensure timely submission by working with large taxpayers, including a specific focus on those who had previously defaulted. Additionally, by consolidating multiple contact points into a single dedicated office, the MTCA has removed a key structural barrier, making it easier for taxpayers to meet their obligations.

Judicial activity

Reinforcing its commitment to tackling non-compliance, the MTCA heightened its overall judicial and legal activities during the year, taking on a larger caseload than in financial year 2024. Court activity was primarily focused on criminal cases relating to VAT, the final settlement system, and customs before the Court of Magistrates.  

Legislative and international affairs

Legislative work

The 2025 Report highlighted the MTCA’s continued efforts in advancing its legal and technical agenda. The MTCA continued to modernise legislation, strengthen cross-border cooperation, enhance consistency in tax administration, and advance Malta’s international fiscal standing. To this end, the MTCA issued a range of guidance notes, manuals, and clarifications throughout the year, providing taxpayers and practitioners with the clarity needed to understand and meet their obligations.

International engagement

On the international front, the MTCA made several advances in cross-border tax cooperation. Engagement with foreign tax authorities continued actively throughout the year, culminating in the successful conclusion of Malta’s first Advance Pricing Agreement. Progress was also recorded in the Mutual Agreement Procedure caseload, with a case successfully concluded during 2025.

In parallel, Malta’s adherence to dispute resolution standards under the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action 14 continued to undergo peer review, with favourable feedback anticipated in 2026.  

How we can help

As the MTCA gears up for an increasingly digitised tax compliance environment, organisations must evolve beyond reactive tax compliance to build resilient, proactive finance functions capable of supporting real-time reporting.

Deloitte can assist in:

• Strengthening tax governance and compliance: by ensuring tax settings align with evolving regulatory requirements while minimising exposure.
• Modernising your finance function: by optimising financial systems, processes, and controls to support digital-first operations and real-time reporting.
• Accelerating digital transformation: by implementing e-invoicing, digital reporting, and advanced analytics capabilities that position you ahead of regulatory timelines.
• Building operational resilience: by integrating tax, finance, and risk management to create a cohesive, future-ready organisation.  

If you’d like to book a time to talk about how your tax and finance functions are performing in the face of near constant change, please get in touch.