Guide to Starting a Business in Malta

Formal registration of companies has many immediate benefits for the companies and for business owners and employees. Legal entities can outlive their founders. Resources are pooled as several shareholders join forces to start a company. Formally registered companies have access to services and institutions from courts to banks as well as to new markets. And their employees can benefit from protections provided by the law. An additional benefit comes with limited liability companies. These limit the financial liability of company owners to their investments, so personal assets of the owners are not put at risk. Where governments make registration easy, more entrepreneurs start businesses in the formal sector, creating more good jobs and generating more revenue for the government.

Below is a detailed summary of the bureaucratic and legal hurdles faced by entrepreneurs wishing to incorporate and register a new firm in Malta. It examines the procedures, time and cost involved in launching a commercial or industrial firm with up to 50 employees and start-up capital of 10 times the economy's per-capita gross national income.
This information was collected from World Bank: Doing Business 

No.	Procedure	Time to Complete	Associated Costs
1	Check availabilty of company name	1 day	EUR 8
2	Draft memorandum and articles of association with a lawyer	1 day	Between EUR 500 and EUR 1000.
3	Open a bank account and deposit paid-in minimum capital	1 day	EUR 20
4	Registration with the Registry of Companies	2-3 days	EUR 490
5	Obtain trade license	10 days	EUR 58.23
6	Obtain Tax Identification Number	7 days	no charge
7	Open a permanent bank account	1 day	no charge
8	Register for VAT	7 days	no charge
9	Obtain a PE number (employer identification number) and register employees	3 days	no charge
10	Register the employees with Employing Training Center (ETC)	1 day	no charge
* 11	Register for Data Protection	1 day	EUR 23.29

* Takes place simultaneously with another procedure.