Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1547431
WHEN does a move to Malta actually begin? For a foreign- er bringing a car to the island, the answer can be worth thou- sands of euros in registration tax. In a judgment delivered on 5 October 2026, the Ad- ministrative Review Tribunal, presided by Magistrate Clau- dio Zammit, gave a practical answer to that question. It al- so considered what permanent residence means for a seafarer. The applicant, Cesare Manin- no, an Italian national who works at sea, returned to Ita- ly in 2022 and lived in Catania until 13 January 2025. On that day he came to Malta with his family and his Peugeot 3008— a car he had owned since 2022. He applied for residence on the basis of economic self-suf- ficiency, and on 14 May 2025 he was issued with an interim residence permit. The follow- ing day he filed Form VEH007, applying for exemption from registration tax on the car. On 6 August 2025 the Trans- fer of Residence Exemption Board within the Ministry for Finance refused the applica- tion on two grounds. First, it held that he was not trans- ferring his residence to Mal- ta permanently, relying on an Italian "certificato di residenza storico" showing that he was still registered as resident in Italy on 19 May 2025. It also relied on an email in which he told the board that he spent most of the year, more than 183 days, outside Malta, be- tween the ship and Italy. Sec- ond, his residence document was issued on 14 May 2025, but he had been in Malta since 13 January. The board therefore held that he could not show 24 continuous months abroad immediately before ceasing to have his normal residence out- side Malta. The exemption is found in Article 19(3)(f) of the Motor Vehicles Registration and Li- censing Act (Chapter 368). It covers a privately owned car or motorcycle brought per- manently into Malta when its owner transfers his normal res- idence here. Regulation 4(2) of the Exemption from Motor Ve- hicles Registration Tax Rules (Subsidiary Legislation 368.01) repeats the requirement of a transfer of normal residence. Regulation 4(3)(c) requires the applicant to have lived outside Malta "for a continuous period of at least 24 months immedi- ately before the date on which he ceases to have his normal residence outside Malta". Reg- ulation 2 defines a transfer of residence as the actual transfer of ordinary residence to Malta. For non-Maltese applicants, it fixes the date of transfer as the date the residence document is issued. The permanent secretary ar- gued that the criteria in reg- ulation 4(3) of the subsidiary legislation are cumulative and mandatory. He pointed to reg- ulation 4(4), which bars the exemption where these crite- ria are not met and leaves the board no discretion. The min- istry also relied on the tribu- nal's judgment in Franz Joseph Kremp vs Ministry for Finance and Employment (6 October 2022), confirmed on appeal in June 2023. That judgment held that the exemption is meant for a person transferring resi- dence to Malta permanently. The tribunal disagreed on both counts. On permanence, it held that the applicant's par- ticular circumstances had to be assessed, and that as a seafar- er he would inevitably spend much of the year at sea. His wife and children live in Mal- ta, the children attend school here, and the family lives in a rented property in Malta. The tribunal said this showed a personal and stable link with Malta which established that his permanent residence is here, wherever his work takes him. It followed that the car, which his wife uses while he is away, had also been brought to Malta permanently. On the 24-month rule, the tribunal accepted that under regulation 2 the date of trans- fer was 14 May 2025, when the residence document was is- sued. But it held that the board had misread regulation 4(3)(c). The rule requires 24 continu- ous months abroad before the applicant stopped having his normal residence in the for- eign country. Maninno had left Italy on 13 January 2025, when he arrived with his car, so the period had to be counted back from that date and not from 14 May. The tribunal observed that the board's reading would make the exemption practical- ly impossible for foreigners to obtain. Even an applicant who applies for a residence permit online from abroad must at- tend Identity Malta in person for biometrics before the per- mit is issued. Unless he went straight to the agency on land- ing, he could never qualify. That, the tribunal held, could not have been the legislator's intention. The immediacy re- quired by the law refers to the period immediately before the applicant came to Malta intending to transfer his resi- dence. In support, the tribunal cited three recent judgments, which adopted the same interpreta- tion and were not appealed. Therefore, the tribunal upheld the appeal and annulled the board's decision. It sent the application back to the board to be reconsidered in light of its findings, with costs against the ministry. The judgment confirms that the 24-month test looks back from the date the applicant actually arrived, not from the date a residence card happens to be issued. It also confirms that permanent residence is a matter of substance. It is meas- ured by where a person's fami- ly and home are, not by count- ing days spent on the island. 12 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 1 NOVEMBER 2026 LAW When does a move to Malta begin? Tribunal rules on car tax exemption MALCOLM MIFSUD Mifsud & Mifsud Advocates