Malta's Finance Minister Clyde Caruana presents the 2027 budget to Parliament on Monday 26 October 2026. Prime Minister Robert Abela set the date in September, as MaltaToday reported. Until the speech is delivered, nobody outside government knows the measures. What is known is the material the government has already put on the record: a Pre-Budget Document of more than 150 pages, several statements from the Prime Minister at consultation meetings, and an official tally of how much of the 2026 budget was carried out.
That material says a lot about the room for manoeuvre, and about which existing measures already run into 2027. Here is what had been published by 21 October, and the points worth watching on the day for anyone who lives in Malta, is retiring there, or owns a Maltese company.
What the government has published so far
The Pre-Budget Document
The Ministry for Finance released the Pre-Budget Consultation Document 2027 on 30 September. Its seven chapters cover economic resilience, fiscal strength, energy prices, the green transition, families and demographics, education, and health. In his foreword, Caruana writes that the document "sets out the evidence that will inform the decisions ahead" and invites social partners, businesses and civil society to engage with it.
The foreword sets the frame in two sentences. On energy: "Energy price stability remains a central priority for 2027, and it will be delivered while keeping the deficit below 3.0 per cent of GDP." On demographics: "Malta's fertility rate is the lowest in the EU27, while an ageing population will continue to place pressure on pensions, healthcare and long-term care in the years ahead."
The launch statement
At the launch, according to the ministry's press release, Caruana said that energy and food subsidies had fallen from €242.5 million in 2023 to €188.1 million in 2025, but were expected to rise to €391.7 million in 2026 because of geopolitical tensions, and were estimated at around €400 million again in 2027, plus €75 million of investment in energy infrastructure. He gave growth of 3.7% for 2026, an employment rate of 84.0% in the second quarter of 2026, unemployment of 3.5% in July 2026 and inflation of 2.1% in July 2026. The deficit was projected at 2.8% of GDP in 2026, with debt at 46.4% of GDP in 2025.
The Prime Minister's consultation meetings
The Office of the Prime Minister held a series of pre-budget consultation meetings. At the meeting with the Chamber of SMEs on 16 September, Abela said the government would keep supporting strategic sectors such as energy to keep prices stable for families and businesses, and would present a budget that gives "clear direction, courage and confidence" (our translation of the Maltese release, PR261492). The same release records that the SME representatives welcomed a decision announced at the government's "100 days" open cabinet: the tax on transfers of businesses between family members will fall from 5% to 1.5%.
At the meeting with Forum Unions Maltin on 12 October, Abela said the coming budget would not hold back from investing in the social sector, pensions and young people, and repeated the commitment to keep fuel and energy price subsidies (PR261694).
The 2026 scorecard
On 19 October, the Head of the Public Service presented to the minister the report on the implementation of Budget 2026: 86% of the work on the 2026 measures done, expected to reach about 90% by year end (PR261747). The release lists the tax cut for parents (about €160 million), the €10 a week pension increase for more than 100,000 pensioners, the higher children's allowance for about 10,800 low-income families, and the Carer at Home scheme raised to €9,000 a year. It also says the ministry was working on the final touches of Budget 2027.
Two days later, on 21 October, the NSO's second fiscal notification of 2026 put the 2025 deficit at €505.7 million, or 2.1% of GDP, and debt at €11,410.1 million, or 46.3% of GDP. Those are the hard numbers the minister starts from.
For families and working expats: the 2027 tax bands already exist
The most concrete piece of 2027 tax policy is already public. Table 5.2 of the Pre-Budget Document sets out a three-year income tax reform for households taxed under the "married" computation with children and the "parent" computation, phased in from 2026 to 2028. The 2027 brackets in the table are:
- Married, one child: 0% up to €20,000; 15% to €30,000; 25% to €60,000; 35% above.
- Married, two or more children: 0% up to €30,000; 15% to €41,000; 25% to €60,000; 35% above.
- Parent, one child: 0% up to €16,000; 15% to €24,500; 25% to €60,000; 35% above.
- Parent, two or more children: 0% up to €24,000; 15% to €33,500; 25% to €60,000; 35% above.
The document is explicit that taxpayers under the "single" computation are unaffected by the reform. It estimates that, once fully phased in, a two-adult household can save up to €10,000 a year, with an average saving per parent of about €3,500 a year.
What to watch on 26 October: whether the 2027 step goes ahead as tabled, whether anything is added for single taxpayers, and how the rates and the €60,000 threshold for the 35% band are treated. These bands matter for anyone taxed in Malta on employment income, including expatriates under the standard system. People on the special tax regimes need to check whether any change reaches their regime or only the ordinary tax tables.
For retirees: pensions, the exemption and the cost of living
Pensions were named directly by the Prime Minister on 12 October. The Pre-Budget Document describes the 2026 package for pensioners: a weekly increase of €5.34 in contributory and non-contributory pensions on top of the statutory €4.66 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), a €75 increase in the elderly grant for people aged 75 and over, and a full income tax exemption on pension income up to €37,104, compared with 80% of pension income exempt up to €13,309 under the 2025 framework.
Retirees moving from abroad should read that passage carefully. The Pre-Budget Document reports the measure in one sentence and does not restate the conditions. Whether a given pension falls inside the exemption depends on the legal rules that implement it, not on the summary. Anyone planning around the new Retired Pensioner Status from 2027 should check, after the speech, whether the budget touches either the exemption or that status.
The cost of living is the other retiree question. Annual HICP inflation rose to 2.4% in September 2026, up from 2.0% in August, according to the NSO release of 16 October; our August inflation note explains where prices bite. The COLA is the automatic, inflation-linked part of each year's pension and wage increase. Its 2027 amount is one of the first figures to look for in the speech.
For everyone: energy prices
The single largest commitment on the record is energy. The government has said, repeatedly and in writing, that fuel, electricity and gas prices will stay stable. Chapter 3 of the Pre-Budget Document puts the subsidies at 1.4% of GDP in 2026, down from 1.8% in 2022, and says that for a representative household consuming 4,500 kWh a year, the electricity bill is around half the EU average.
What to watch: whether the budget confirms fixed tariffs for 2027 as promised, and how the roughly €400 million cost is financed while keeping the deficit below 3%. For expats comparing Malta with other EU states, stable utility bills are part of the real cost of living, and the budget is where the 2027 line is drawn.
For company owners: what is on the record, and what is not
The clearest business measure already announced is the cut in the tax on family business transfers from 5% to 1.5%, welcomed by the Chamber of SMEs on 16 September. It sits next to the existing 1.5% duty rate on family transfers of company shares and business property, explained in our piece on family business transfers. The budget speech and the legislation that follows should show exactly which transfers the 1.5% rate covers and from when.
Beyond that, the published documents do not announce any change to corporate tax. The Pre-Budget Document makes no proposal on the 35% headline rate, the refund system or the option to pay tax at 15%, all of which are set out in our corporate tax guide. The SME meeting release of 16 September does record the Prime Minister referring to incentive schemes for digitalisation, automation, artificial intelligence and research.
What to watch on the day for owners:
- any change to the refund system or to the 15% option;
- the detail and start date of the family transfer rate;
- energy support for business users, which the government has said will continue;
- grants and tax credits for digitalisation, AI and research;
- any measure on wages or the cost of labour, given an employment rate the government puts above the EU average.
For residence programme holders and applicants
None of the documents published by 21 October announces a change to Malta's residence or special tax programmes. That is not a guarantee that the speech will be silent on them. Budget tax measures only become precise once the implementing legal notices and the budget measures implementation bill are published. For Budget 2026, that act was passed in March 2026, months after the speech.
The practical rule is simple: do not act on headlines from 26 October alone. Wait for the text of the speech, the financial estimates and, for anything that changes the law, the legal notice or bill itself.
How to follow the day
- The speech. The minister delivers it in Parliament on 26 October. The Ministry for Finance website is where the Pre-Budget Document was published and is the first place to look for the speech documents.
- The figures. The financial estimates show the revenue and spending lines behind each measure.
- The law. Tax measures take effect through legal notices and the annual budget measures implementation act. The 2026 version, the Budget Measures Implementation Act, 2026, was enacted as Act III of 2026 on 10 March 2026, which gives an idea of the time between speech and statute.
As of 21 October 2026, the measures already published for 2027 are the scheduled family tax bands, the promise of stable energy prices, a stated focus on pensions and the social sector, and the family business transfer rate of 1.5%. Everything else will become clear on Monday.
Work with Sebastian
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