The Registration Of Trusts In Malta

1. Background

Trusts were introduced into the Maltese legal system by the "Trust Act, 1988", which legislation though substantially based on the Jersey Trust law, coded the basic recognised common law principles relating to the trusts.

This legislation has been recently amended by "The Recognition of Trusts Act" to enable individuals or companies including international financial institutions to set up unit trusts under foreign legal rules with which they are familiar, while managing the trusts from Malta with the consequent tax advantages.

The said change has been brought about by a two pronged approach:

i) The Income Tax Act was amended to introduce a special regime for collective investment organisations, whether set up as unit trusts or as variable capital companies in Malta, and