Hi folks!
Quick question, can't believe I'm the only person in history to have this, but trying to find an answer is almost impossible!
My wife and I are in serious thoughts about moving to Malta. We're going to do it the sensible way, we'll do a long term rent for six month before giving a final decision as to if the island is to be our home for a few years.
I'm British, she's Turkish (although she has full British citizenship), so the formalities of EU shouldn't be a problem.
We both LOVE living in London, it's just a massive play ground, but my wife longs for the sunshine and to be honest, I'm starting to crave a more healthy lifestyle. We've been to Malta a few times, absolutely love the place, I was brave (stupid?) enough to hire a car too and have driven around the place covering a lot of the island.
The question I have though is this:
Has anyone here moved to Malta, extended their 90day stay onto a residency while working for a British company; i.e., getting paid in pounds, tax and NI paid by their British employer, but it ok to live in Malta?
The company I work for is fantastic, my work quite a specialised area, and I doubt I'd have the same satisfaction and variance for a company in Malta like I do here in London.
In theory I can't see a problem, I am after all bringing money into Malta, to spend, thus helping the Maltese economy.
I did read somewhere about a sufficiency agreement where if I can prove to be bring in more than €1200 (I think), I can tick a few boxes, and I could prove that easily with wage slips.
Has anyone done this? IS it quite straight forward to do, or are there a few legal challenges like tax, etc?
Moving to Malta, but working for UK company
Hey there,
A piece of advise I just got when I had an interview for a 3-month summer job (EFL teaching) yesterday: Before you decide to stay in Malta for good, if possible (financially, insurance-wise, ...), don't even bother to apply for residency - come here as a tourist, and if need may be (i.e. you are staying for longer than 3 months and are afraid anyone might check how long you've been here), take a weekend trip to Sicily and back so you have a ferry ticket to "prove" you've been here for less than 3 months...
From what you've described, you have health insurance and everything, you have no financial worries (as you're being paid regularly), in fact for your 6-months stay it would be the same as if you were on holiday for, say, a week and worked from your hotel room...
One thing you might have to have is an address in Britain (i.e. your Maltese address can't be your only place of residence if you want to be a "tourist").
Please note: This is the advise I got yesterday from a potential employer in Malta - I'm not an expert in the field, though!
As for your other comments: If you love living in London, are you sure Malta is the right place for you? There are other discussions about this on the forum...
Re driving in Malta: My personal opinion is, once you get used to it it's quite ok. But while I generally enjoy driving (anywhere), I know many people who hate driving (in Malta and elsewhere, too). And some roads in Malta are really in bad condition!!!
Bernie
Hey cheers Bernie, much appreciated.
We have an address here, in fact we're fortunate to be home owners in London, so that's not a problem to provide this information.
As for the love living in London and sure Malta is the right place; to be honest I get what you're saying. But London is GREAT for certain things and terrible for others.
Like I said, my wife is Turkish and she's been here 9 years and starting to miss the Mediterranean lifestyle, and although we do have a place in Istanbul, I'm really not happy about moving there what with the political stuff going on.
But London has been good to us, it's a very unforgiving city, but is starting to get very busy and we want a change of life style for a few years.
Malta: Well we've been to a few places, and it's a good 'base' for us to visit both our parents here in the UK and in Turkey, the language isn't an issue, the temperature awesome for my wife, there seems plenty to see and do as well as looks a perfect place to relax and we've both got a good vibe from the place. Y'know when you go somewhere exotic and you think "Oh wouldn't it be nice to live here" and then the realities kick in and it all looks like an unrealistic wish, with Malta it was more like "Oh this already feels like home" and the realities are quite realistic.
JMH71: You'll eventually be tax resident here, so while there are treaties and stuff it can get complex.
Also if your employer would consider you a contractor it can work out very much in your advantage to work from Malta in that way, its complex, worth talking to a tax advisor
Hey JMH71 what have you done I am in the same boat as you. Ex Londoner, lived in Italy 5 years love the people, food etc. but not enough to keep my mind going only option to drink at bar, I prefer adult education volunteering etc.
we both have our own businesses in UK so in the same boat have you made your mind up can we discuss between us
Hi!!
We've made out mind up, we're aiming for November this year with a 6 month stay and then we'll come back to decide our future.
I think we'll concentrate on the Bugibba area, although we'd love Valletta/Sliema/Ta-Xbiex area, it's proving quite difficult finding something 'nice' and at a reasonable price. Granted the rent in Malta is at least 50% cheaper than here in London (thank God we own a home here, but that was a struggle), we want a comfortable lifestyle in Malta and I have to have a reasonable environment to work from.
I've found a co-worker office(s) in Sliema called Oasis which looks fantastic, so if I do need to get into an office environment (rare), it's a 45min journey by bus (20 by car) to Sliema and I could work from there for the day.
Plus, we were in Valletta at Christmas/New Year and met a couple who moved to Bugibba a few years ago from Lancashire. They couldn't praise the place enough and the more I look at it, I think it ticks 99% of the boxes.
So yeah, still on track. My work have agreed in principle, I've got a stack of work to do between now and September, my wife has a project to finish off which ends in October and then hopefully it's all systems go.
How's the planning with you?
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