The eco-contribution tripled on 1 July 2026.
It is now €1.50 a night for every guest aged 18 or over, capped at €22.50 per person per visit. It was €0.50 a night capped at €5 for about a decade, and that old figure is still in guides, in listing descriptions, and in the pricing most hosts set once.
An operator still collecting €5 on a fortnight is now €17.50 short for every adult who stayed. The shortfall is the licence holder's, not the guest's.
Per night, per adult
€1.50
Capped per visit
€22.50
In force from
1 July 2026
What one stay owes
How many nights was the unit booked for?
Nights it was available to them, whether or not they turned up.
How many guests were 18 or over?
Everyone counts as an adult unless you hold documentary evidence that they are not.
Due for this stay
€21.00
€10.50 per adult, at €1.50 a night.
This is one property. The cap of €22.50 is per person per visit, and a visit can span more than one licensed premises in Malta, so a guest who has already paid part of it elsewhere owes you less. To cap them you need their receipt from the other provider.
The liability never leaves the licence holder.
The MTA states it twice in the same document, which is usually a sign of what people get wrong. Responsibility and liability for the eco-contribution cannot be shifted or delegated, and remain at all times imposed on the licence holder.
What a manager may do
The condition everyone misses
And it can come back
So an owner whose manager has been quietly handling this without the MTA being told is carrying the whole exposure alone, and probably does not know. If you manage units under mandate, the notification is the first thing to check.
The mechanics.
All of this is from the MTA's guidelines on the eco-contribution, issued under the Eco-Contribution Act (Cap. 473).
- Per night made available
- It is due for every night the unit is available to that guest, whether or not they actually use it. A guest who checks in late still owes the night they booked.
- What counts as one visit
- An uninterrupted stay in one or more licensed premises in Malta. A gap of up to 15 days in premises that need no licence still counts as the same visit, and nothing is charged for the gap days. That is what makes the cap reachable across two properties.
- Everyone is an adult until proved otherwise
- Every guest counts as 18 or over unless documentary evidence says otherwise: a passport, whether their own or one they are named in, an official identity document, or a birth certificate. Without a record, an under-18 is charged for.
- The receipt is prescribed
- A fiscal receipt under Article 51 and the Thirteenth Schedule of the VAT Act, with the contribution shown separately from the accommodation fee, because it is not part of what the guest pays for the accommodation. Manual receipt books and point of sale systems alike.
- Registration is partly done for you
- Providers have to register, and the MTA says it will register those who already hold one of its licences and notify them. Returns are filed online.
- Two properties, one cap
- To cap a guest who has already paid elsewhere, keep the evidence, including a copy of the other provider's receipt.
Returns are filed and payment is made at eco-contribution.com, which is the address the MTA gives on its own service page. It is not an MTA site and the domain does not pretend otherwise once you look: it is run by the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, and the MTA lists its support address as MHRA's. The money is remitted to the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, to which the MTA has delegated the operational side, or as the MTA otherwise directs.
The 15% rate is probably not yours.
The 15% final withholding tax is the standard advice for Maltese rental income, and for a licensed short let it is the wrong provision. The Commissioner for Revenue's own manual draws the line: long lets are treated as investment in nature and taxed under Article 4(1)(e) of the Income Tax Act, and short lets are treated as trading in nature and taxed under Article 4(1)(a).
Article 31D and its 15% attach to the first of those. A letting that requires an MTA licence is treated as a commercial tenement and falls outside the definition of a tenement for that article. Anyone filing a TA24 on short-let income should check it with an accountant.
VAT
Records
This is not tax advice
Asked and answered.
- How much is the eco-contribution in Malta?
- From 1 July 2026, €1.50 per night for each guest aged 18 or over at the start of the visit, capped at €22.50 per person per visit. It was €0.50 a night capped at €5 for about a decade, so an operator who set a price once and has not revisited it is now collecting far too little. The contribution is due under the Eco-Contribution Act (Cap. 473), and the Malta Tourism Authority is the competent authority.
- Who is liable for the eco-contribution, the owner or the property manager?
- The licence holder, always. The MTA guidelines state that the responsibility and liability cannot be shifted or delegated and remain at all times imposed on the licence holder. A licence holder may delegate collection, payment and reporting to an operator registered with the MTA, but only where prior formal notification has been given to the MTA. Without that notification, liability stays exclusively with the licence holder. If a properly delegated operator then fails to collect, pay or report, the MTA may put the duty back on the licence holder, and may do so retrospectively.
- Do children pay the Malta eco-contribution?
- No, but only if you can show it. The contribution is due for each person aged 18 or over at the start of the visit, and the MTA guidelines assume every guest is an adult unless documentary evidence is produced: a passport, whether the guest has their own or is named in another, an official identity document, or a birth certificate. Without a record on file, an under-18 is charged for.
- Does the 15% tax rate apply to a Malta short let?
- Generally not, and this is where the common advice is wrong. The Commissioner for Revenue's own manual on the taxation of rental income draws the line: long lets are treated as investment in nature and taxed under Article 4(1)(e) of the Income Tax Act, while short lets are treated as trading in nature and taxed under Article 4(1)(a). The 15% final withholding tax under Article 31D attaches to the first of those. A letting that requires an MTA licence is treated as a commercial tenement and falls outside the definition of a tenement for that article. Confirm your own position with an accountant.
- What VAT applies to short-let accommodation in Malta?
- The Eighth Schedule to the VAT Act (Cap. 406) sets a reduced rate of 7% for the letting of, or provision of accommodation in, premises which for that purpose are required to be licensed under the Malta Travel and Tourism Services Act. The licensing condition is the point: it is what brings a licensed short let inside the reduced rate. Registration is under Article 10 or Article 11 depending on turnover. This is not tax advice and your accountant should confirm it.
- Does the eco-contribution have to be shown separately on the receipt?
- Yes. The MTA guidelines require a fiscal receipt in the form set out in Article 51 and the Thirteenth Schedule of the VAT Act, and the eco-contribution must be disclosed separately from the accommodation and related fees, because it is not part of the consideration paid for the accommodation. This applies whether you use a manual fiscal receipt book or a point of sale system.
Sources.
- The eco-contribution figures and every mechanic above are from the Malta Tourism Authority's guidelines on the eco-contribution due in respect of the provision of licensable accommodation, issued under the Eco-Contribution Act (Cap. 473) and the Designation of the Competent Authority Order (S.L. 473.01). The authority names the amendment that moved the rate as the Budget Measures Implementation Act, 2026 (Act III of 2026), Part X, and says the Designation of the Competent Authority Order (S.L. 473.01) is amended by article 83 of Act III of 2026. That is the authority naming the instrument rather than us quoting it: we have not read Act III itself. Read in full and last checked on 25 August 2026. The authority's own environmental contribution page carries the same rate.
- The income tax position is from the Commissioner for Revenue's Manual on Taxation of Rental Income, last checked on 8 August 2026. That manual carries its own notice that it is technical guidance rather than binding law, and its summary page still prints the old eco-contribution rate, which is a fair measure of how widely the change has yet to land.
- The VAT rate is the Eighth Schedule's, for premises that must be licensed. We have not been able to read it off a government page directly, so treat it as corroborated rather than quoted, and confirm it with an accountant.
thetenant.app is not the MTA and not a tax adviser. We read what is published, cite it, and say when we could not check something. The duty stays with the licence holder.
What the licence requiresRunning it