Public Country by Country Reporting in force in Malta

Public CbCR in Malta: MBR Guidance clarifies filing and publication requirements for large multinational groups.

The Malta Business Registry (MBR) has issued guidance confirming the operational implementation of Malta’s Public Country-by-Country Reporting (Public CbCR) framework, transposing Directive (EU) 2021/2101 into Maltese law. The guidance provides clarification on the entities in scope, publication obligations and the practical filing process.

1. Effective date. The Public CbCR obligations apply in Malta for financial years commencing on or after 22 June 2024.
2. Scope. The regime applies to multinational enterprise (MNE) groups with consolidated revenue exceeding €750 million in each of the last two consecutive financial years, where the ultimate parent undertaking is established in the EU, or certain non-EU headed groups operate in the EU through qualifying subsidiaries or branches.
3. Separate regime from OECD CbCR. Public CbCR is distinct from Country-by-Country Reporting obligations under BEPS Action 13 and the relevant Maltese tax legislation. Compliance with non-Public CbCR does not satisfy the Public CbCR requirement.
4. Reporting content. In-scope entities must electronically publish aggregate (at times, jurisdictional) information, including revenue, profit or loss before tax, income tax accrued and paid, number of employees, and accumulated earnings.
5. Publication timeline. The report must be published within 12 months of the balance sheet date of the relevant financial year and remain publicly accessible for at least five years.
6. No optionality for Malta UPU. If the ultimate parent undertaking of a qualifying group is governed by the laws of Malta, then it would be responsible to draw up, publish and make accessible the report.
7. Annual notification. Directors of qualifying Maltese branches / subsidiaries of non-EU/EEA parented groups are required to submit an annual notification to the MBR under article 213B, not later than the deadline for submitting the report, where the designated EU reporting entity under article 213B(7) is not Maltese. The notification should identify the nature of the entity within the group, the in-scope non-EU/EEA parented group, and the specific non-Maltese EU entity that has been designated to publish the report.
8. MBR filing mechanism. A Public CbCR Report must be filed electronically with the Malta Business Registry via email at cbcr.mbr@mbr.mt and submitted in XHTML format with Inline XBRL (iXBRL) tagging using the prescribed machine-readable format.

Practical implications for groups with a Maltese presence

Groups with Maltese subsidiaries or branches should now determine:

• Whether the group meets the €750 million threshold for Public CbCR purposes;
• Which group entity is responsible for preparing and publishing the report;
• Whether Maltese subsidiaries may become responsible for publication where the ultimate parent is established outside the EU and does not publish an equivalent report;
• Annual notification requirements with the Malta Business Registry.
• The consistency between Public CbCR disclosures, CbCR filings, statutory financial statements and transfer pricing documentation; and
• The internal governance and sign-off process for information that will become publicly available.
  

For calendar-year groups whose first in-scope financial year begins on 1 January 2025, the first Public CbCR publication deadline will fall by 31 December 2026.

Given the public nature of the disclosures and the potential for scrutiny by tax authorities, investors, NGOs and the media, affected groups should begin preparing data collection, governance and disclosure processes well in advance.

The MBR Guidance document may be found here: Guidance document