Investment Aid (Amendment) Regulations, 2012

L.N. 169 of 2012

MALTA ENTERPRISE ACT

(CAP. 463)

Investment Aid (Amendment) Regulations, 2012

IN exercise of the powers conferred upon him by article 5 of the

Malta Enterprise Act, the Minister of Finance, the Economy and

Investment, in consultation with the Malta Enterprise Corporation,

has made the following regulations:-

(1) The title of these regulations is the Investment Aid

(Amendment) Regulations, 2012, and these regulations shall be read

and construed as one with the Investment Aid Regulations,

hereinafter referred to as "the principal regulations".

(2) These regulations shall be deemed to have come into force

on the 1st January, 2012.

Regulation 3 of the principal regulations shall be

substituted by the following new regulation

A qualifying activity in terms of these

regulations shall be an economic activity

consisting of a trade or business the profits or gains

from which are chargeable to tax pursuant to article

4(1)(a) of the Income Tax Act, carried on or

intended to be carried out by an undertaking in

Malta which consists solely of any one or more of

the following activities

(a) (i) the production, manufacture,

improvement,

assembly,

preservation,

processing of goods, materials, commodities,

equipment, plant, machinery;

(ii) the rendering of industrial

services analogous to the activities

referred to in subparagraph (i);

(iii) the repair, overhaul or

maintenance of pleasure crafts, yachts

not having more than thirty berths,

aircraft,

engines

or

equipment

incorporated or used in such vessels or

aircraft;

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(b) Information and Communications

Technology (I.C.T.) developmental and

related activities as may be prescribed in the

Guidelines,

but

excluding

telecommunications service providers and

operators of online casinos and similar

activities;

(c)

call centres activities as may be

prescribed in the Guidelines;

(d) research,

development,

and

innovation of products and processes as may

be prescribed in the Guidelines;

(e) eco-innovations, waste treatment

and environmental solutions as may be

prescribed in the Guidelines;

(f)

biotechnology

as

may

be

prescribed in the Guidelines;

(g) formulation,

development,

manufacturing

and

preparation

and

packaging of pharmaceuticals as may be

prescribed in the Guidelines;

(h) the development and production

of audiovisual products and, or the operation

and provision of facilities directly required

for the development and production

audiovisual products as may be prescribed in

the Guidelines;

(i)

the provision of private tertiary

education as further defined in the Guidelines

where the investment and number of jobs

created exceeds the minimum parameters as

may be prescribed in the Guidelines;

(j)

the provision of private health-

care services as further defined in the

Guidelines where the investment and number

of jobs created exceeds the minimum

parameters as may be prescribed in the

Guidelines;

(k) the provision of logistics services

that include part transformation that adds

value by an undertaking employing not less

than two hundred and fifty full-time

employees or their equivalent as may be

prescribed in the Guidelines;

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(l)

activities set out in article 11 of

the Malta Freeports Act;

(m) the provision of shared regional

or global management and services as may be

further defined in the Guidelines. Provided

that such undertaking

(i) is established in Malta after

1st January 2012;

(ii) exceeds the minimum value

of investment and jobs created as may

be prescribed in the Guidelines;

(n) the provision of knowledge

intensive business services as may be further

defined in the Guidelines. Provided that the

undertaking

(i) is established in Malta after

1st January 2012;

(ii) exceeds the minimum value

of investment and jobs created as may

be prescribed in the Guidelines;

(o) the operation or management of a

hotel or group of hotels as may be be

prescribed in the Guidelines

Provided that notwithstanding the provisions

of any other regulation, investment aid

(a)

shall only be granted with regards

to investment projects approved by the

Corporation after 1st January 2012;

(b) shall not exceed 15% of the

qualifying expenditure incurred on an

approved investment project

Provided also that an undertaking shall not

qualify for any of the benefits provided by these

regulations if

(a)

the undertaking sells by retail

and, for this purpose, an undertaking shall be

deemed not to sell by retail if its sales of

goods or services are made

(i) to a person who carries on a

trade and the goods or services so sold

to such person are either resold by such

person or are used by such person for

the purpose of his trade; or

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(ii) to a person, other than an

individual, who uses those goods or

services for the purpose of an

undertaking carried on by such person;

or

(iii) to a person through e-

commerce activities resulting in online

transactions effected by means of a

secure payment system; or

(iv) such undertaking is a small

sized undertaking that sells solely goods

manufactured by the same undertaking;

(b) the undertaking’s trade or

business includes any one of the following

activities

(i) dividing, sorting, packaging,

mixing without changing the character

of the good, drying, labelling, or other

similar processes or any combination of

such processes to goods which are

acquired in bulk merely to prepare those

goods for sale or distribution, excluding

goods in respect of which the said

undertaking carries on any other activity

referred to in paragraph (a) of this

regulation;

(ii) the assembly of any goods

where the Corporation determines that

1. the final assembled good

is clearly recognisable from the

individual components or parts

from which it is assembled

without regard being had to any

exterior casing of the good; and

2. the components and parts

from which the good is

assembled are such that the good

is nearly complete and the

assembly

work

and

the

supervision of such assembly

work

only

require

the

employment

of

almost

exclusively unskilled workers,

such that the assembly operation

is of a spurious nature when

considered in the light of

manufacturing activities;

(iii) without prejudice to any

exception as may be provided in the

Guidelines,

the

installation,

commissioning or assembly of goods on

site, where the said goods have not been

manu-factured by the undertaking which

is

installing,

commissioning

or

assembling the goods on site

Provided that the provisions of this

paragraph shall not be applicable to an

undertaking which carries on only any one or

more of the activities set out in paragraphs

(b) to (j) of this regulation;

(ë) the trade or business includes the

preparation or production of "food in the

course of catering" which is directly supplied

to the final consumer.".

3. Regulations 5 and 6 of the principal regulations shall be

Deletes

regulations 5

deleted.

and 6 of the

principal

regulations.

€0.45