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If you are moving from an EU country to Malta you should not have any problems at all to move your personal belongings. Unlike cars personal belongings won't be taxed. Of course it makes sense to take an authorised mover to bring your belongings into Malta. However, it is important to consider the price of shipments. If your furniture has a value below € 10 000.00 it hardly makes sense to get it moved to Malta because the shipment from the UK or Germany to Malta may cost about € 6500.00 and takes up to six weeks. If your furniture does not have value sell it in your homecountry and buy new furniture over here in Malta. One thing people should be aware of do never bring plenty cash into this country.It often happens that the customs are waiting at the habour to check out if foreigners have excessive amounts of cash in their posession. I think the allowed amount of cash is €3000.00, but I am not sure. Just ask the customs to be on the safe side.

If you intend renting it’s not worth bringing furniture as the majority of rentals are furnished and
a lot are furnished much better then they used to be, we sold ours on eBay, the only large item we brought with us was a television the rest was personal things.

We are dual nationals - Australia and UK. So we had EU nationality status, but we were arriving from Australia - so our shipping container was coming from outside the EU.  We had arrived in Malta some four months before our container arrived, giving us plenty of time to get our documents in order. When the container arrived, I had on hand all the shipping manifests, packing lists and insurance documents, just in case. But we were using an international forwarding agent, contracted to clear our goods and deliver them right to our door.  In principle, it should have gone smoothly.

As we were taking up residence in Malta, our goods were customs tax exempt. So I turned up with a permanent residence certificate (Immigration), Tax Resident Certificate (Malta IRS), Electoral Resident Card (Electoral Office), Konvenue (contract on a new house), 6-month lease contract (on our apartment), Maltese bank accounts & Maltese driving licence. I figured that should confirm we are residents. NOPE.  None of that counted for a brass nickel.

The Customs Authority required us to pay tax on the value of the contents of the container before they would release it from the docks - and if we left it on the docks to contest their ruling, they would charge us several hundred euros per day "demurrage". We had to pay over 14,000 euros on the spot. (That was more than a year's pay for the customs employees).

They issued us with a claim form to get the tax reimbursed - but they would not accept the claim form until we could prove we had resided in Malta for over 12 months after the date of the arrival of the container. When we finally did lodge that form a year later, it took six months to process it. We had been living in Malta almost 2 years by the time our reimbursement arrived.

So ... the moral to the story is this ... you may be told that your goods are tax exempt if you are transferring your residence to Malta ... but don't assume that means you won't have to pay those charges. You probably will ... and then you'll have to fight to get them reimbursed.

What about a "part container" (LCL shipment) ie only shipping household goods, no furniture? My understanding is that household goods (as in pots, pans, plates, clothing etc) can be shipped without any taxes. While I'm an EU citizen, my shipment will be arriving from the US (my last current place of residence). Any advice would be appreciated!

Hi Auspom! We too are moving this April to Malta from Australia. We also have a shipping container booked to come after we arrive.  I am shocked about this amount of money you had to pay. The only difference for us is that we are Maltese citizens with Maltese passports but we have never lived in Malta for any length of time. To your knowledge could we expect to encounter the same problem? It would make it unaffordable and not worth it for us.......thanks!

I suggest you read the above, then look at your insurance documents to see what you insured them for. Be prepared to pay about 18% of that value up front (then claim it back next year).

To further support that advice, I offer you this vignette:

Two months after our container arrived, we were charged 100 euros as import duty on each of our two 16-year old pet cats. They insisted on us establishing a value on them, even though they were Animal Rescue cats, had been neutered (and so had no breeding value) and were clearly not 'new'.  We suggested lower figures but they refused them, basically saying a 100 euro charge was the minimum they would consider. We had to wait in total 18 months to have that duty reimbursed - and one of the cats died only 3 days after arriving here.

They also delayed the claim for our container until 12 months after the LAST import - so our cats caused a further 2 months delay in the Maltese government repaying our 14,000 euros.

The Customs officials are officious, relentless and merciless.

It has nothing to do with your citizenship - (of course your ability to establish residence will be easier for you) - the question is about where your goods are arriving from.

If they arriving from within the EU, then they are treated as an internal transfer. If they are coming from outside the EU, then they are imports - and thus subject to import duties.

As Maltese citizens you should find the process of reimburesement straightforward - but I do believe you'll have to pay the tax up front, wait a year and then apply for the reimburseement, as I described.
In the end, you won't lose that amount - but your cashflow will take a dent for a year and a half.

Altogether one can say if you want to avoid customs duties and taxation do not import any goods from outside the EU. In most cases it is simply too costly. Just sell your belongings in the country outside the EU jurisdiction and buy new goods over here in Malta. It is cheaper and you have new stuff. Furthermore the local shopowners are happy about their new patronage. In case you need new Ikea furniture you can obtain it from Catania. Malta shoppers is happy to assist you.

Anyway you can’t rent unfurnished places in Malta in general. So unless you have a house it’s useless.

Also no decent self storage companies like in other countries. Mainly bringing stuff here is just a drag.

Thanks for that info Auspom it has prompted me to ask a lot more questions about our shipping contractor. We are using Crown and they have sold us a "door to door" service. We have assumed that this meant the amount they quoted us includes all relevant costs. Is this similar to what you were told only to find out you actually had to pay a huge amount of tax? I am so shocked by your story and I really need answers.

I used Wridgeways. So yes .. you have the right idea.

Now ... about selling in Aus and buying new over here.  Please don't take what you're reading at face value.  Certainly there are some advantages.

If you bring electrical goods you'll have to change a whole load of plugs from Australian to UK plugs (used in Malta). Your warranties will be voided (forget what it says on the label - usually Malta is too small to be able to honour international waranties). Your appliances were made for the Australian market (for other readers: this applies to American markets and Asian markets too) - so they may not be CE certified for use in Europe. You can still use what you bring, but repairs, spare parts, servicing - forget it. When they start to go wrong you'll be throwing them out and buying their EU equivalents.

That especially applies to cars. (We have a Mitsubishi Colt which we brought from Aus - but we had to get a whole new engine imported from Holland and we were off the road for four months, because they wouldn't attempt to fix a valve problem on a non-CE certified engine). It took 3 months to fix a cracked external mirror.  So selling before you leave, travelling light and buying here is a good idea - in principle.

In practice, many things can be ridiculously expensive in Malta. The local retailers seem to be buying from mainland Europe in small quantities (consistent with low population and low local demand), so they don't get the volume discounts at the wholesale level. Then they have to pay freight, then they add on large margins, resulting in highly inflated retail prices. (So yes ... the local traders will welcome your custom - because they take the view that all ex-pats are wealthy and can afford to pay).   

The good news is that you can buy from anywhere in Europe over the internet [Amazon UK and Amazon Deutschland are brilliant] - at about half the Maltese retail prices, and there are well-established freight shippers (e.g. ShipLowCost) who'll bring your goods to your door for a modest price. Even Malta Post has established branch offices in UK and Europe to help facilitate this. So you don't HAVE to be ripped off by local Maltese prices, you do have to allow a couple of weeks rather than a few days, but with patience, you can make it work quite well. I have bought refrigerators, washing machines, gas cookers, sinks, tapware, furniture, lamps, rugs and paid a little over half local prices, with a much, much broader range to choose from.

[Just checked now: Belling dual fuel stove. UK price: (879 pounds) = 1,025 euros.  Maltese price: 1,799 euros (discounted from 1,999 RRP).  That's  a 75% price hike in Malta].

So, in my humble opinion, sell before you travel, rent furnished to start with and then buy from Europe and import - that is probably the most cost-efficient solution for families relocating from outside the EU and taking up long term residence in Malta.

If you shop around you can get electrical items at a reasonable price and if you buy more then one item you can normally get a discount, we have always found this on Gozo,also if the items do go wrong
it’s easier to get repaired then buying off the internet.   Lidls have good offers.

PS  Read the small print in your shipping contract.
It can't  ... and doesn't ... include import duties and government taxes - because everyone's contents are different. (Imagine, say, if you had decided to bring your wine cellar with you!)   Certainly all your freight, carriage, loading & unloading, ground transport - and even the cost of completing the customs clearance paperwork will be included in their price. So it's as 'door-to-door' as they can make it.  But import duties are unique to each client and so they are always your own responsibility over and above the contract.

Thank you for all that information. It is so helpful and given us a lot to think about. If we insured the goods we are importing for less than they are technically worth, is that amount the one that is used to calculate the tax? Just trying to think of ways to get around paying such a huge upfront cost!

It's really not worth that risk, in my opinion.
If you get any breakages or water damage and need to make a claim, you could be in trouble if you have under-valued your shipment.
Your insurance agents will have a breakdown of costs and they'll know what your contents should be worth - they do this for a living remember.
I can only share with you my experiences - just what you do to cope with the realities, is up to you, of course. If I had to do this again, I would definitely be travelling a lot lighter.

Thank you Auspom, you're right. At least now it won't be a surprise! Just going off topic; may I ask where you decided to settle in Malta and what you think of it?

We live in Birgu (Vittoriosa). The Three Cities area is lovely. Properties and the area are gentrifying at an exceptional rate. The culture is classic European small town. It's quaint and quite lovely, but becoming increasingly unaffordable for locals to buy in. Of course the locals that sell to move elsewhere are cashing in nicely. and those that do up their properties are seeing excellent value growth.  A delightful part of Malta.

This topic is about clearing goods through customs not why you moved to Malta.

Moved that discussion off the thread. Cheers.

We had the same experience as Auspom for both a container and a car.  Your local shipping agent will discuss the value and tax deposit owed and you have to pay it before the shipment is released - any delay incurs expensive daily dock charges.

Its a toss up whether you should ship your stuff or buy it here.  If you usually buy your stuff from Ikea etc, then just buy it when you get here.  If you have better quality than that then you may want to bring it since high quality furniture is not really available.

You will hear to not bring TVs etc, but transformers are readily available and an easy solution.

Your car is probably too big for Malta, but you will need a better car for Europes motorways if you plan to travel there.  You will also most likely not be able to get comprehensive insurance for a car with a non EU VIN, even if it was built in the EU and is available here already.

People will tell you to buy locally so you can get local service but to be honest the local service doesnt really materialize when you need it so thats not a real advantage in the end.

Another thing to look at is the shipping insurance - this is amazingly expensive - thousands of euro - and basically worthless should you ever need to claim.  There will be a high deductable for each insured item and your used item probably wont clear the threshold.  If you have really expensive items then dont ship it with a standard container.  Lots of stuff will get broken during shipping.

Like Timcob I had a few breakages and together they fell close to the insurance excess, so claiming was a waste of time. However, in general, my contents arrived in good shape - top end freight forwarding companies tend to pack them really well.  However, one of the damages was to the leg of an antique chair. Finding someone in Malta with the skills, and time and willingness to do that repair took months. Even now I only know one old man who could do it (there must be others, but you find them only through networking).

My car was an Australian Mitsubishi. It took months to get the insurance because Mitsubishi Malta had to liaise with Mitsubishi Japan to get the documentation to prove that my specific VIN was also CE certified, as the car's documentation showed only Australian certification. Once we had that proof, everything went smoothly after that. I wouldn't bring a car if I did this again.  There are good cars here and prices are fair.

Hello Auspom, since you cleared your container through customs in Malta, what kind of documentation did you have to show to prove that you had indeed lived outside of Malta previous 12 months?

I had lots of paperwork such as tax returns etc, but what they asked for was a letter from my employer stating that I had worked and lived abroad for more than 12 months.  This was provided to the mover and accompanied the paperwork for the container.

It was not straightforward for me, as I was self-employed, so I couldn't just get a letter from my employer. So for me the documents fell into three groups:
Group 1 related to proof of my residence overseas for more than two years;
Group 2 related to my ownership of a motor vehicle (that I was bringing to Malta) for more than two years; and
Group 3 related to proof of my intention to transfer my residence to Malta.
I'll focus just on Group 1 - but if you need info on the other two, just ask:
1. A statement from a company that provides search data to real estate agents (R P Data) showed that I was the recorded owner of a specific property in Sydney for the ten years prior to the date of the search (my home).
2. 25 months of visa card statements showing day-to-day transactions outside of Malta and the statement address was also outside of Malta (same address as my home). [That basically showed that I was living at the address].
3. Government records showing that my own company was registered at the same address as my residence as recorded by R P Data (above) continuously for four years.
4. Government records confirming that I was employed by my own company during the same period. [together, these last two basically showed that I was working from that address].
5. A letter from a reputable firm of accountants showing that they had prepared and submitted my tax returns, as a resident of Sydney for the preceding ten years - but also as a director of my company for the last four years. [This confirms that I was a tax resdient of Australia in the eyes of the Australian government during that period].

There's no suggestion here that the Maltese government asked for all that - they were quite non-specific. But I didn't want to give them any room to suggest that my evidence was insuffucuent, and push me back to the end of the queue. So some would say this was overkill.  To my mind, it was simply a documented chain of evidence that would stand up in a court of law - giving them no choice but to accept it. 

Did it work? Well yes, the above evidence was accepted as proof of my prior residence overseas for the prescribed period.  The Group 2 documents (car) also worked.  As for Group 3, it seems that no documentary evidence is sufficient. You just have to be here and wait.

How was it taking the TV?
Import duty?
Thanks

The TV was just another item of household contents - it wasn't singled out. Import duty was based on the insured value of the whole container.

However ... the TV (a very large LG flat screen) developed a problem about 2 years after arriving. Basically Malta's climate had caused some drying out of the solder joints in the mother-board. I don't think it would have made any difference where the TV came from, the problem would still have occurred - but fixing it was a another nightmare - identical to the car.

I had to track down a suitable mother board in Australia as the EU models were different and incompatible - and the Maltese repairers wouldn't look outside of Europe.  Then the Australian distributor wouldn't ship it outside of his jurisdiction. So I had it sent to my daughter in Melbourne, who repackaged it for the long haul and shipped it to me in Malta. Then I had to find a technician in Malta who would fit it, knowing that he couln't make any profit on the spare parts. It would have been simpler to dump the TV and start again with a European model.

And the same issue crops up all the time - Australian bed sheets don't fit European or English mattresses - and local sheets don't fit Australian beds ... and on it goes.   I would travel light next time.

PS - I had to pay import duty on the cost of the replacement motherboard as well as on the cost of the freight from Melbourne - making it twice as expensive as buying and using a local one.