Maltese VAT invoice — Chapter 406 article 50 mandatory fields
Every field that art. 50 of the VAT Act requires on a Maltese VAT invoice, the simplified-invoice carve-out for sales under €100, and the timing and retention rules.
The legal blueprint of a Maltese VAT invoice lives in Chapter 406 of the Laws of Malta (the VAT Act), specifically in art. 50 and the implementing legal notices. Article 50 sets out the 14 mandatory fields that every full VAT invoice must contain, the timing (15 days from the end of the month in which the supply took place), the language requirements (English, Maltese or a language agreed with the buyer if the buyer is VAT-registered) and the 6-year retention period. There is a simplified-invoice carve-out for transactions under €100 (gross) that allows fewer fields, but only for retail and B2C contexts — B2B sales above the threshold always require a full invoice.
- Sequential number, issue date, supplier's name + address + VAT number.
- Customer's name + address + VAT number (if applicable), description of goods/services, quantity, unit price.
- Tax-exclusive amount per line, VAT rate, VAT amount per line, total VAT, total payable.
- Date of supply (if different from issue date), any reverse-charge or exemption reference, currency if not EUR.
How it works
You issue the invoice within 15 days of the end of the month in which the supply took place — i.e. an invoice for a January supply must be issued by 15 February. Late issuance attracts an administrative penalty under art. 73 of the VAT Act.
You include all 14 mandatory fields. Skipping a field (or having an inconsistency — e.g. customer VAT number quoted but supplier VAT number missing) invalidates the document as a VAT invoice. CFR auditors check field-completeness during routine audits, and a missing field can lead to denial of input VAT recovery for the customer.
You use the supplier's sequential numbering: each invoice number must be unique within the supplier's annual series, no gaps, no duplicates. Restarting the sequence at year-start is permitted but the format must be consistent (e.g. INV-2026-0001 onwards). Credit notes use a separate but parallel sequential range.
You retain the original invoice (or a digitally certified copy that preserves the originality, integrity and readability of the data) for 6 years from the end of the year of the supply. Electronic retention is permitted under art. 50(11) provided the system meets the integrity and authenticity requirements — Peppol BIS 3.0 with the AS4 signature and the Peppol Authority's PKI satisfies this.
For sales under €100 (gross including VAT) to a non-VAT-registered customer (typically B2C retail), the simplified invoice format applies: sequential number, date, supplier name + VAT number, total amount including VAT, VAT rate. The customer details (name, address) and the per-line breakdown can be omitted. The threshold is updated periodically by Legal Notice; the current €100 figure has been stable since 2019.
Legal references
- VAT Act, Chapter 406 of the Laws of Malta, art. 50 — invoicing requirements.
- VAT Act, art. 50A — simplified invoices.
- Legal Notice 426 of 2007 — implementing regulations for VAT invoicing.
Frequently asked questions
Can I issue invoices only in English?
Yes for any business-to-business transaction — English is universally accepted by CFR and by Maltese business partners. For B2C transactions, English or Maltese is the most common practice; CFR does not require a specific language for the consumer-facing invoice. For cross-border B2B, you can use the buyer's language by mutual agreement, but English on a Maltese invoice is always safe and reduces friction during a cross-border audit.
What's the deadline for issuing a Maltese VAT invoice?
15 days from the end of the month in which the supply took place, per art. 50(2) of the VAT Act. A January supply needs an invoice by 15 February; a December supply needs an invoice by 15 January of the next year. Continuous supplies (e.g. monthly subscriptions, long-term services) are treated as separate monthly supplies, each needing its own invoice within the 15-day window.
Are scanned PDF invoices valid for retention?
Yes — a scanned PDF of an originally paper invoice is valid for retention, provided the scan preserves the integrity and readability of the original (no information lost or altered) and the supplier issued the original on paper. For invoices originally issued electronically (XML, structured Peppol, PDF generated by ERP), you retain the original electronic form — converting a Peppol XML to PDF for storage is not sufficient on its own because the structured data is lost.
What's the penalty for issuing an invoice with a missing field?
An administrative penalty up to €350 per invoice under art. 73(2) of the VAT Act, plus the risk that the customer cannot claim input VAT recovery. In a CFR audit, the customer is usually denied the input VAT claim first (the customer is easier to assess than the supplier), and the supplier is then assessed an administrative penalty separately. Repeat infractions or evidence of deliberate non-compliance attract higher penalties — up to €5,000 per occurrence in egregious cases.
Can I issue one invoice per quarter for a recurring customer?
Only if the supply is genuinely continuous and the customer agrees to quarterly billing in writing. The 'tax point' (when the supply is deemed to take place for VAT purposes) is then the date of the quarterly invoice — but the 15-day rule still applies to that quarterly date. CFR has been accepting quarterly aggregated invoices in B2B contexts for service contracts where the underlying supply is genuinely ongoing (e.g. SaaS, advisory retainers, building leases) — sporadic bundling of unrelated transactions into a single quarterly invoice does not satisfy art. 50.