Lm603.6m collected in tax revenue in 2003

During 2003, the government's total tax revenue amounted to Lm603.6 million, the National Statistics Office said yesterday. This represents 81.6 per cent of the total government recurrent revenue last year, an increase from the figure of 77.8 per cent in 2002.

Indirect taxes amounted to Lm257.1 million or 42.6 per cent of total tax revenues, including Lm50.1 million in excise duties.

Income tax increased its share of total tax revenue from 32.7 per cent in 2000 to 37.1 per cent in 2003. While at 19.6 per cent personal income tax basically kept a consistent share over the four year reference period, corporate income tax increased its relative share from 10.3 per cent to 13.9 per cent.

Social contributions' relative share of total tax revenue has declined from 22.6 per cent in 2000 to 20.3 per cent in 2004.

The overall tax burden is measured as the total amount of taxes and actual social contributions as a percentage of GDP. At 32.7 per cent, Malta's tax-to-GDP ratio is considerably lower than the EU-25 average of 40.3 per cent for 2003. However the gap between Malta and the EU-25 has narrowed considerably since 2000, when Malta's ratio was estimated at 28.5 per cent compared to an EU-25 average of 41.3 per cent.