Category: Articles

We’ve put together together a guide with Malta’s Black Friday offers

November has become a month for celebration thanks to Black Friday, for businesses and consumers alike.

Black Friday was this year launched with the support of Hon Silvio Schembri, Minister for the Economy and Industry. The Ministry and the Chamber of SMEs came together to highlight the opportunities at local level, where the offers available from all the different sectors, the service, the shopping experience and the convenience of proximity makes shopping local very attractive.

This was the first step of the Chamber of SMEs’ Black Friday campaign to boost shopping local. Once again a guide was put together in order to give consumers the chance to plan ahead and make the most out of this special period of sales.

The guide is accessible here.

The campaign continues with a number of TV appearances and media coverage in relation to the campaign.

This conference was organised by funds from the EEA Grants and Norway Grants

The Malta Chamber of SMEs organised a conference entitled “The new world of Work and Employment – Fostering improved working relations for micro and Small businesses”.

The conference had close to 100 registrants for this conference and commenced by a brief introduction from the Malta Chamber of SMEs CEO Ms Abigail Agius Mamo.

this was followed by a presentation from Fenech and Fenech Advocates, the oldest law firm in Malta. The presentation was conducted by Dr. Paul Gonzi partner at Fenech & Fenech Advocates specialising in Employment Law, Data Protection and TMT Law, Dr. Rebecca Diacono Senior Associate working within the Tax & Immigration Law Department of Fenech & Fenech Advocates, Dr. Mattea Pullicino, Associate at Fenech & Fenech Advocates working with the firm’s International Practice department & Dr. Thomas Bugeja, Senior Associate within the International Practice department at Fenech & Fenech Advocates.

After a short coffee break, the conference resumed by a panel discussion with the main speakers being Mr. Felix Borg, Head of Division at JobsPlus, Mr. Anton Sevasta, CEO at Identity Malta, Mr. Marcel Cassar, CEO APS Bank PLC, Dr. Paul Gonzi – Partner at Fenech and Fenech and Moderated by Mr. Lawrence Zammit – MISCO Consulting.

A conference funded by the EEA Grants and Norway Grants

The Malta Chamber of SMEs organised a conference entitled “The new world of Work and Employment – Fostering improved working relations for micro and Small businesses” aimed at giving participant a legal overview of how employers should position themselves in the light of how the place of work has changed since the start of Covid.

The conference which had an attendance of close to 100 participants, tackled issues related to employee shortages and sourcing of TCNs.

This conference was organised by funds from the EEA Grants and Norway Grants.

The Customs Department announced that as of Monday, 8 th November 2021, T2L documentation processing will no longer be provided by the Customer Services Unit in Valletta.

Instead, the service will be available from the Manifest Monitoring Office stationed at Luqa Airfreight Section, at the Old Luqa Airport Terminal.

The Customs Department said that this is another trade facilitation measure and is part of the Department’s ongoing efforts to relocate most of its services from less problematic parking locations.

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Most businesses find the initial phase of scouting for the right tendering opportunities as complex and very time consuming.  TenderFinder.MT solves this issue, as on a daily basis hundreds of tenders, RFPs, RFQs and EOIs, from more than 25 countries are fetched, organised and categorised in one easy-to-use platform.  The tendering process is intricate and cumbersome in itself, so the initial phase has been tailored to suit busy business people schedules.

TenderFinder.MT boasts a top notch user experience with a user friendly interface and a smart notifications centre that automatically alerts you with relevant opportunities.  Users can navigate through tenders organised in categories and subcategories, that fit their line of business.  It is the ideal tool to build a solid pipeline and to internationalise, since in addition to tenders coming from the local market (private, public and NGOs) TenderFinder.MT loads tenders from around Europe, with the vision to go fully global.

The benefits of subscribing to TenderFinder.MT include:

• Accessing multiple Tender sources from 1 user friendly dashboard

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As part of our efforts to promote business matchmaking for Israeli companies, The Federation of the Israeli Chambers of Commerce (FICC) announced several business offers from companies and its members.

All companies within the list of business offers are looking for new business partners, distributors, representation or suppliers.

Companies interested to get more information related to these business offers and full list of business offers, please contact Fabian Demicoli by email on

List of busniess offers below:

The Malta Chamber of SMEs has noted a number of positive initiatives that will aim at pushing both businesses and workers forward. Addressing Malta’s human resources crises the Budget will result in rewards for those choosing to work more through in-work benefits and tax incentives.

At the same time the Budget acknowledges the support businesses require following the pandemic in making investments. The incentives welcome include allowing the transferability of capital allowances, tax benefits on reinvested profits, financing schemes and various other schemes that encourage sustainability and moving towards clean energy amongst others.

The SME Chamber is particularly pleased to see a number of its own proposal being included in this years Budget, namely:

The Budget further explains that work to get Malta out of the Greylisting status is well underway and is expected to yield the desired results. It however falls short in addressing how this Greylisting is affecting the backbone of our economy, Maltese SMEs. During Budget discussions the Malta Chamber of SMEs has emphasised on the importance to assess the additional costs and burdens that are being lumped on SMEs by the various financial and regulatory institutions without a risk-based or proportionality driven approach. Businesses are being punished on a daily basis and it is not acceptable that the greylisting strategy comes at the pure expense of Maltese SMEs.

 

View a full summary of the Budget highlights for businesses

COLA – €1.75 per week

TAX ARREARS CRACKDOWN – from June 2022 with pledge to end regular amnesties on penalties and interest on unpaid tax increased to 7.2%

PROPERTY – No capital gains tax or stamp duty on the purchase of properties that are more than 20 years old and have been vacant for seven years or more

– First-time buyers of such properties will also receive a grant of €15,000

– That grant doubles to €30,000 for properties bought in Gozo

– VAT up to €54,000 on the first €300,000 spent on renovation works

 

RENT SUBSIDIES – Extended to cover a wider spread of business sectors

TRANSPORT

– Free public transport for all from October 1 2022

-Maximum grants on electric vehicles increased from €8,000 to €11,000 and €1,000 scrappage scheme

-5 year exemption on license fees for electric vehicles has been extended

-Electric vehicles will remain exempt from registration tax

-1,200 charging points for electric vehicles to be installed in next three years

-A grant of up to €900 for minibuses, coaches and trucks that install photovoltaic panels

-VAT refunds for bicycles and electric bikes continue

FAMILY

-Free childcare services will be extended to evenings and weekends for people working shifts

-Threshold for in-work benefits paid to parents who have children under the age of 23 raised for couples who both work to €50,000, up from the previous €35,000

-For couples where only one of the parents is employed, the threshold is raised from €26,000 to €35,000, while the threshold for single parents is raised from €23,000 to €35,000 per annum

PART-TIME TAX RATE – reduced from 15% to 10%

EXEMPTION ON PENSION INCOME – The maximum amount of exempt pension income will be increased to €14,318.

MORE MONEY IN PEOPLE’S POCKETS

-COLA increase to pensioners, people on social benefits and students

-Tax refunds increased to. between €60 and €140

-Increase in pensions

FAMILY BUSINESSES – Extending 1.5% stamp duty

START-UP VISA– to attract start-ups to Malta

EMPLOYMENT – Incentive to attract workers to Jobs with unattractive hours – € 150 for those whose wage does not exceed €20,000 a year

SUSTAINABILITY 

-Schemes for businesses to subsidise the cost of changing existing petrol or diesel engines to electric

-Scheme to encourages businesses to install PV panels on their vehicles.

BUSINESS INVESTMENT 

-Able to take benefits from Capital Allowances on Investments carried out in enterprises hit by the pandemic and use them in favour of tax on income on companies that remained sustainable

-Malta Enterprise will start a scheme where a % of the profits that is retained within a business and is invested in the same or another business would receive a tax benefit as long as the investment is completed within 2 years from 2022

-Seed Fund to support researchers and entrepreneurs in developing innovative and sustainable ideas

-MDB’s SME Tailored Facility extended to include green and ecological projects up to a max of €5M

-Sale incentive for enterprises that would have invested in green project to have surplus of Carbon Credits

Ignores however the negative effects of the Greylisting on SMEs

The Malta Chamber of SMEs has noted a number of positive initiatives that will aim at pushing both businesses and workers forward. Addressing Malta’s human resources crises the Budget will result in rewards for those choosing to work more through in-work benefits and tax incentives.

At the same time the Budget acknowledges the support businesses require following the pandemic in making investments. The incentives welcome include allowing the transferability of capital allowances, tax benefits on reinvested profits, financing schemes and various other schemes that encourage sustainability and moving towards clean energy amongst others.

Incentives in favour of green transport, electrification of vehicles and sustainability of buildings show also a clear commitment aimed at making Malta a cleaner and more attractive country for locals and tourists alike. Most of these incentives come out of discussions directly held with the Malta Chamber of SMEs in support of the many sectors interested in moving towards carbon neutrality.

The SME Chamber is particularly pleased to see its own proposal being included in the Budget, aimed at alleviating the heavy burden of the international transport costs by subsidising the rents on storage facilities. The Malta Chamber of SMEs believes that it is not easy to find a solution for this complicated issue however Malta’s particular circumstances must be taken into consideration and businesses supported accordingly. Other support structures will be necessary to further alleviate this problem, but this is surely a very important first step.

The Budget further explains that work to get Malta out of the Greylisting status is well underway and is expected to yield the desired results. It however falls short in addressing how this Greylisting is affecting the backbone of our economy, Maltese SMEs. During Budget discussions the Malta Chamber of SMEs has emphasised on the importance to assess the additional costs and burdens that are being lumped on SMEs by the various financial and regulatory institutions without a risk-based or proportionality driven approach. Businesses are being punished on a daily basis and it is not acceptable that the greylisting strategy comes at the pure expense of Maltese SMEs.

SME Chamber proposed tax reductions and numerous other incentives to bolster investments

As part of its Budget preparations and discussions, the Malta Chamber of SMEs has worked on a number of proposals and held numerous discussions with the various ministries. Amongst others, the SME Chamber proposed tax reductions and numerous other incentives to bolster investments. Proposals were put forward also to strengthen the digitalisation of businesses as well as assist them in their path towards sustainability and carbon neutrality.

A topic which however topped our agenda was the increasing effect of the greylisting on businesses.

Over the last years we have seen Malta’s reputation taking one blow after another, and, in tandem, doing business, across the board, became increasingly difficult. With EU and international supervisory authorities following Malta’s every step, the government fast-tracked institutional reforms. This was however deemed to be insufficient, with the result of Malta becoming greylisted, and the business environment continued to worsen.

We are living through a time when institutions are expected to show they are active and make a sound. Is this however working in the way it should be working? The Chamber of SMEs believes it is not.

Whilst the Malta Chamber of SMEs is all for compliance and everyone paying the dues they should be paying, it is certainly not in favour of suffocating businesses, treating them all like they are criminals and taking every opportunity to elicit fines and fees through the process.

The Authorities, Institutions and Banks are expected to do better. They were they are treating businesses, especially small businesses is paramount to abuse. It seems that these entities have stepped up their reform but basic etiquette of how to deal with users and clients is nowhere to be seen. Instead of focussing on the real problems they are carpet bombing all businesses to show they are making noise.

No proportionality is being adopted, no risk-based approach. Compliance has become the biggest nightmare for businesses. It is effecting the mental health of business owners and challenging the spirit of entrepreneurship. Coupled with that, compliance is being used as an excuse and an opportunity to increase fees and charges and to fine businesses.

Businesses are being faced with hostility, unjust enrichment, abuse of dominance and a service that continues to worsen.

The SME Chamber will continue highlighting these issues and putting pressure to change these negative attitudes.