What a Malta VAT invoice must contain.

Which document you have to issue

Under article 50 of the VAT Act, a person registered under article 10 who makes a supply to someone who identifies themselves with a VAT number must give them a tax invoice. For other supplies, article 51 asks for an invoice, receipt or other document in the form set out in the Thirteenth Schedule, which covers fiscal receipts.

This guide is about the tax invoice. I am a software developer, not a tax adviser, so use it to understand what your system has to produce, and confirm your own case with your accountant.

The details a tax invoice must contain

Item 3 of the Twelfth Schedule lists them. Item 1 adds that a document is not a tax invoice unless all the particulars are properly stated, or the invoicing requirements of Directive 2006/112/EC are fully met. The core list is:

• The date of issue.
• A sequential number, based on one or more series, that uniquely identifies the invoice.
• The supplier’s name, address and VAT number.
• The customer’s name, address and the VAT number under which they received the supply.
• The quantity and nature of the goods, or the extent and nature of the services.
• The date of the supply, or of a payment on account, if it differs from the date of issue.
• The taxable value per rate or exemption, the unit price excluding tax, and any discount not already in the unit price.
• The VAT rate applied.
• The VAT amount payable, except where a special arrangement excludes that detail.

Special wording and exempt supplies

Some situations need an extra mention on the invoice. The Schedule lists “Cash accounting” where VAT becomes chargeable on payment, a self-billing mention where the customer issues the invoice, “Reverse charge” where the customer is liable for the VAT, and the margin scheme wordings for travel agents, second-hand goods, works of art, and collectors’ items and antiques. A tax representative’s VAT number and details are required where one is liable for the VAT.

Where no tax is chargeable, the invoice must give a brief reference to the relevant provision of the Act or the Directive, or another indication of why. This matters for software: an invoice line has to carry not just a rate but the reason when the rate is zero or exempt.

Timing, corrections, currency and language

A tax invoice must be issued by the fifteenth day of the month after the chargeable event, or after payment is received if that comes first. A summary invoice may cover several supplies if the tax on all of them becomes chargeable in the same calendar month.

Simplified invoices are allowed in certain cases, including small-value invoices and for small enterprises under the exemption in item 16 of Part Two of the Fifth Schedule. The Schedule sets the conditions and limits, so check them rather than relying on a summary. A document that amends an invoice and refers to it specifically and unambiguously is treated as an invoice, which is what a credit note should do.

Amounts may be shown in any currency, provided the VAT payable is shown in euro using the conversion mechanism in the Seventh Schedule. For control purposes the Commissioner may require a translation into Maltese or English.

E-invoices, storage and public bodies

The Schedule defines an electronic invoice as one that contains the required information and is issued and received in any electronic format. Its use is subject to acceptance by the recipient. The authenticity of its origin, the integrity of its content and its legibility must be ensured from issue until the end of the storage period. Each business decides how, and the Schedule says any business controls that create a reliable audit trail between an invoice and a supply can do it.

Invoices must be stored in the original form in which they were sent or made available, paper or electronic. The records rules in article 48 require records to be kept for at least six years from the end of the year to which they relate. If you store invoices electronically, you must allow the Commissioner online access, download and use of them.

Public bodies are a separate case. The Electronic Invoicing in Public Procurement Regulations (L.N. 404 of 2018) implement Directive 2014/55/EU. They require contracting authorities and entities to receive and process electronic invoices that comply with the European standard EN 16931-1:2017, for contracts above the EU publication threshold. The regulations leave the sender free to choose between that format and paper. I found no general obligation in the VAT Act to e-invoice other businesses. Rules do change, so ask the Commissioner for Tax and Customs or your accountant what applies to you now.

What this means for invoicing software

Turned into requirements for a system, the law above gives a practical checklist. Most items follow directly from the Schedule. Never editing an issued invoice, and keeping the PDF exactly as sent, are my own design choices for meeting it.

• Numbering that is sequential within a series and unique, which means an issued invoice is never edited or deleted, only corrected.
• A VAT number and address on every customer record, and a check for a missing one before an invoice is issued.
• A rate or exemption reference on every line, and the mandatory wording for reverse charge, margin schemes and the rest, so that no line is saved without its reason.
• Credit notes that point at the original invoice.
• Storing the invoice as sent, with the PDF generated once and kept, and an audit trail of who issued it.
• Euro VAT even for foreign-currency invoices.
• A clean export for your accountant, so the books and the invoices never disagree.

Where to go from here

My invoicing and quoting service builds these rules into the system rather than leaving them to memory, and can connect to your accounting software such as Xero. Storex runs invoicing and VAT summaries inside its own system. If you invoice from spreadsheets today, the spreadsheets versus a system comparison shows where the risks sit.

This guide is not tax advice. Check anything specific to your business with your accountant or the Commissioner for Tax and Customs. When you are ready to scope an invoicing system, the quote builder takes about five minutes.