There are no restrictions or formalities with customs when bringing your personal effects from any EU country into Malta. However, personal effects coming from outside any EU country must adhere to the rules & regulations listed in the Council Regulation 918/83.
If you’d like to receive more information, or have any questions, please contact Malta Controller of Customs at +356 25685121
COUNCIL REGULATION NO. 918/83
1. This Regulation sets out those cases in which, owing to special Circumstances, relief from import or export duties shall be granted respectively when goods are put into free circulation or are exported from the customs territory of the Community.
2. For the purposes of this Regulation:
(a) ‘Import duties’ means customs duties and charges having equivalent effect and also agricultural levies and other import charges provided for under the common agricultural policy or under specific arrangements applicable to certain goods resulting from the processing of agricultural products;
(b) ‘Export duties’ means agricultural levies and other export charges provided for under the common agricultural policy or under specific arrangements applicable to certain goods resulting from the processing of agricultural products;
(c) ‘Personal property’ means any property intended for the personal use of the persons concerned or for meeting their household needs.
The following, in particular, shall constitute ‘personal property’:
- Household effects,
- Cycles and motor cycles, private motor vehicles and their trailers, camping caravans, pleasure craft and private aero planes.
Household provisions appropriate to normal family requirements, household pets and saddle animals, as well as the portable instruments of the applied or liberal arts, required by the person concerned for the pursuit of his trade or profession, shall also constitute ‘personal property’. Personal property must not be such as might indicate, by its nature or quantity, that it is being imported for commercial reasons;
(d) ‘Household effects’ means personal effects, household linen, furnishings and equipment intended for the personal use of the persons concerned or for meeting their household needs;
(e) ‘Alcoholic products’ means products (beer, wine, aperitifs with a wine en alcohol base, brandies, liquors or spirituous beverages, etc.) falling within heading Nos 2203 to 2208 of the Combined Nomenclature.
3. Save as otherwise provided in this Regulation for the purpose of applying Chapter I, the concept of third countries also includes those parts of Member States' territories excluded from the customs territory of the Community by virtue of Regulation (EEC) No 2151/84 (1).
RELIEF FROM IMPORT DUTY
PERSONAL PROPERTY BELONGING TO NATURAL PERSONS TRANSFERRING THEIR NORMAL PLACE OF RESIDENCE FROM A THIRD COUNTRY TO THE COMMUNITY
Article 2
Subject to Articles 3 to 10, personal property imported by natural persons transferring their normal place of residence from a third country to the customs territory of the Community shall be admitted free of import duties.
Article 3
The relief shall be limited to personal property which:
(a) Except in special cases justified by the circumstances, has been in the possession of and, in the case of non-consumable goods, used by the person concerned at his former normal place of residence for a minimum of six months before the date on which he ceases to have his normal place of residence in the third country of departure;
(b) Is intended to be used for the same purpose at his new normal place of residence.
In addition, Member States may make relief conditional upon such property having borne, either in the country of origin or in the country of departure, the customs and/or fiscal charges to which it is normally liable.
Article 4
Relief may be granted only to persons whose normal place of residence has been outside the customs territory of the Community for a continuous period of at least 12 months (proof has to be presented to Customs when processing documentation, i.e. certificate from the Embassy, proof of employment, letter from an authorized person…attorney, notary etc.).
Article 5
No relief shall be granted for:
(a) Alcoholic products;
(b) Tobacco or tobacco products;
(c) Commercial means of transport
(d) Articles for use in the exercise of a trade or profession, other than portable instruments of the applied or liberal arts.
Article 6
Except in special cases, relief shall be granted only in respect of personal property entered for free circulation within 12 months from the date of establishment, by the person concerned, of his normal place of residence in the customs territory of the Community.
The personal property may be released for free circulation in several separate consignments within the period referred to in the preceding paragraph.
Article 7
1. Until 12 months have elapsed from the date on which its entry for free circulation was accepted, personal property which has been admitted duty-free may not be lent, given as security, hired out or transferred, whether for a consideration or free of charge, without prior notification to the competent authorities.
2. Any loan, giving as security, hiring out or transfer before the expiry of the period referred to in paragraph 1 shall entail payment of the relevant import duties on the property concerned, at the rate applying on the date of such loan, giving as security, hiring out or transfer, on the basis of the type of property and the customs value ascertained or accepted on that date by the competent authorities.
Article 8
1. By way of derogation from the first paragraph of Article 6, relief may be granted in respect of personal property entered for free circulation before the person concerned establishes his normal place of residence in the customs territory of the Community, provided that he undertakes actually to establish his normal place of residence there within a period of six months. Such undertaking shall be accompanied by a security, the form and amount of which shall be determined by the competent authorities.
2. Where use is made of the provisions of paragraph 1, the period laid down in Article 3 (a) shall be calculated from the date on which the personal property is brought into the customs territory of the Community.
Article 9
1. Where, owing to occupational commitments, the person concerned leaves the third country where he had his normal place of residence without simultaneously establishing his normal place of residence in the customs territory of the Community, although having the intention of ultimately doing so, the competent authorities may authorize duty-free admission of the personal property which he transfers into the said territory for this purpose.
2. Duty-free admission of the personal property referred to in paragraph 1 shall be granted in accordance with the conditions laid down in Articles 2 to 7, on the understanding that:
(a) The periods laid down in Article 3 (a) and the first paragraph of Article 6 shall be calculated from the date on which the personal property is brought into the customs territory of the Community;
(b) The period referred to in Article 7 (1) shall be calculated from the date when the person concerned actually establishes his normal place of residence in the customs territory of the Community.
3. Duty-free admission shall also be subject to an undertaking from the person concerned that he will actually establish his normal place of residence in the customs territory of the Community within a period laid down by the competent authorities in keeping with the circumstances.
The latter may require this undertaking to be accompanied by a security, the form and amount of which they shall determine.
Article 10
The competent authorities may derogate from Articles 3 (a) and (b), 5 (c) and (d) and 7, when a person has to transfer his normal place of residence from a third country to the customs territory of the Community as a result of exceptional political circumstances.