Moving to Malta - the Importation Fee

As if you haven't already spent a fortune on moving from the US to Malta, you suddenly learn you have to fork out an additional 1200 Euros, which comes to about $1700, depending on the rate of exchange. This is formally called The Deposit for Importation of Personal Effects. Here's why you have to pay it-and how to get it back.

The Customs Charge
This fee is generally targeted at Non-EU people moving their belongings to Malta. The reason given for the 1200 Euro fee is that that the customs department wants to ensure that you're not coming here to Malta with the intent to sell your belongings. While this makes absolutely no sense to me, you still have to pay the fee or you won't get your shipment from the dock.

The Procedure
Your moving company from wherever you're relocating from should make you aware of this fee before you even do a thing. When you arrive in Malta, you'll be in touch with the local moving company who will sit down with you and tell you what you need to do to get your shipment with your belongings from the dock. Among other things, you'll have to take your passport and first go to the Inland Treasury Department (tax department) located in Floriana, Malta. This is easily accessible by bus.

The department will give you-after many questions and frustrations-a tax number. This will be your own tax number to keep in Malta for the purposes of paying taxes-and for getting your refund back.

If you have enough trouble doing it yourself-which I did-the moving company will go and apply for the tax number for you. The company representative will take your passport and the fee of 1200 Euros (best in a check from a local Maltese bank). With luck, the representative will return with your passport, a tax number for you and a formal letter attesting to the fact that the Treasury is holding 1200 Euros for you.

How to Get Your Money Back
The Treasury says that you can apply for a refund after living in Malta for a year and providing proof of that fact. The proof, as you might imagine, is hard to come by.

The best proof is showing that you have worked here in Malta-your work permit, payment slips, things like that. As crazy as it seems, the Treasury staff won't accept a year-long lease because they say you may have rented an apartment without living here. Why someone would do that is beyond me, but that's one of their rules. And if you show them that you bought a place here in Malta? Forget it. They say that you might have purchased a house or flat as an investment. Presenting them with utility bills and bank statements don't count because you could have also received these without living in Malta.

So what do you do if you've legitimately lived in Malta for a year but haven't worked? It's really quite simple, as a Turkish friend of mine found out after going crazy trying to establish that she did live in Malta for a year. You go to a lawyer-recommended to you by the Treasury--pay ten Euros and take an oath that you have lived here for a year. You don't have to show this lawyer anything-except a ten-Euro bill. And voila-you have your proof.

And, oh yes, you must present your formal receipt from the Treasury department, showing that you paid the 1200 Euros.

I was lucky enough-a rare occurrence-to have enough of my pay slips to show I was here for a year.

A staff person told me it seemed acceptable, but it would take six weeks to get a response on whether or not I would get my refund. (And you don't really think that anyone gives you interest on your money, do you? Good-because you don't get any.)

Amazingly, six weeks later I received a letter, stating that my refund had been approved. And a few weeks later, I actually got a check.

I have to hand it to the Maltese government. They drive you nuts, but they're polite about it. On the cover letter that accompanied the check, it said this: "The Account General has the pleasure to enclose cheque no. _____.

That's the sweetest refund I ever got.

Ilene Springer lives in Malta and is author of An-American-in-Malta.com.