August 24, 2020
On the 14th of August the government of Malta and Russia reached an agreement in negotiating new terms of the double taxation treaty (“DTT”), which was originally signed in 2013.
According to these amendments the withholding tax rate for interest and dividend payments have been increased to 15% (instead of 5%). This rule will not apply to the limited list of institutional investments. The effective date of these changes is not clear yet, but it is anticipated that it will be effective as of next year.
It is worth to mention that Russia has agreed on the same terms with Cyprus and currently discussing the same amendments with the Netherlands and Luxembourg.