Election Desk: Less taxing times ahead

Welcome to the Election Desk. This is where we round up the major headlines of the last 24 hours, together with some of the more light-hearted and funnier sides of the campaign trail. 

Fuel for thought

The PN’s offshore fuel hub came under the spotlight on Wednesday after Robert Abela made a bold claim that the proposal is actually the brainchild of “Malta’s biggest fuel smuggler”. Abela even said that the same guy had actually approached him with an identical project, but he dismissed it.

Abela made the claim twice, and Borg denied it each time. On Thursday, Borg signed a sworn affidavit saying that he never met any conrabandist or anyone involved in illegal activity with regard to this investment.

Borg doubled down and dared Abela to go to the police commissioner with his allegation. He even put it on Abela, arguing that the prime minister met with a known criminal and did nothing about it.

Now, everyone is speculating as to who this smuggler might be, and whether this guy is a free man or already facing charges.

The affidavit presented by Alex Borg to journalists.

Your tax bracket, explained

The PN made a series of bombshell pledges between Wednesday and Thursday. First, Alex Borg said the party would abolish inheritance tax outright, regardless of how much is inherited. Later, Borg was joined by Adrian Delia to propose major tax cuts across the board.

Tax can be a daunting topic for many. It’s a complex system of thresholds and deductions, but we’re here to break it down into more digestible pieces for you.

In Malta, you are not taxed a lump rate on your entire income. Rather, your income gets split into portions and each portion is taxed at different rates. Those rates range from 0% to 35%.

The PN basically wants to raise the thresholds at which each tax rate kicks on, meaning more of your income gets taxed at lower rates. This will benefit all taxpayers, but high earners stand to gain the most. Right now, income above €60,000 is taxed at 35%. This is the highest possible rate in Malta’s tax system. But the PN wants to raise the threshold to €80,000, meaning anyone earning between €60,000 and €80,000 would pay less tax on that portion of their income.

The PN's proposed tax cuts.

Gaining momentum

For a third party with limited resources, Momentum have had an impressive marketing run so far. There was a hiccup at the start of the campaign, when the cleansing department removed the party’s banners because the campaign had, strictly speaking, not started yet. The banners were hung up the night before Abela announced the election.

However, the party got their banners back, created promotional ‘newspapers’ to hand out in public, and now even have billboards along two major routes. If you’ll be driving along the St Paul’s Bay bypass or St Julian’s regional road tunnel, look out for Momentum’s Bidla ta’ vera [“A real change”] slogan.

One of Momentum's billboards on the St Paul's Bay bypass. Photo: Partit Momentum.

Check, please

The Labour Party turned its eyes to tourism on Thursday. Ian Borg took centre stage at the press conference and announced that Labour would create a €30 million fund for restaurants to upgrade their products.

Apart from that, Alison Zerafa Civelli was also there to announce that part of the eco-contribution paid by tourists per night will start going towards local councils’ budgets. Starting from June, the eco-contribution will be charged at €1.50 per tourist per night slept at a local accommodation. Labour says 50c of the contribution will go to local councils.

In a third proposal, Cressida Galea announced that a new Labour government would improve the Grand Harbour’s home portering services.

Everybody's a first-time buyer

Later in the evening, Robert Abela announced yet another pledge for would-be home buyers. Elderly homeowners who sell their home to buy a smaller property will be considered as first-time buyers and benefit from the same tax benefits.

Under a Labour government, everybody is going to become a first-time buyer it seems. Just a couple of days ago, Abela also announced that separated couples will be treated as first-time buyers when they buy a second property after their marriage. 

It's interesting how Abela told the Labour Party event that this generation "never benefited from any scheme". That's a bit rich, isn't it? The elderly have certainly had their share of difficulties, but on housing, they were given highly subsidised land to build their homes. If they were tenants, their rents were frozen at post-war levels and they had an indefinite right to remain in the property. Talk about affordable housing, right?