[ S.L. 463.53 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
(2024)1 SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION 463.53 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
(2024)REGULATIONS 1st January, 2024 LEGAL NOTICE 53 of
- The title of these regulations is the Research and Development
(2024)Regulations. Citation.
- requires: In these regulations, unless the context otherwise Interpretation. "Act" means the Malta Enterprise Act; Cap.
- "aid intensity" means the gross aid amount expressed as a percentage of the eligible costs before any deduction of tax or other charge; "Corporation" means Malta Enterprise as established by article 7 of the Act; "eligible costs" means that expenditure that may qualify for assistance in terms of these regulations and as shall be further established in the Guidelines; "experimental development" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty, as amended from time to time; "Guidelines" means such Guidelines as may be published by the Corporation from time to time in terms of the Act, establishing the parameters of implementing the aid granted by virtue of these regulations; "industrial research" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty, as amended from time to time; "undertaking" shall have the same meaning as assigned to it in the Act.
- Where the Corporation is satisfied that an undertaking requires assistance to carry out a project for the execution of experimental development and, or industrial research, the Corporation may assist such an undertaking by means of a tax credit or a cash grant or a combination thereof, as a percentage of the eligible costs in accordance with the terms and conditions set out in the Guidelines. Assistance to undertakings to carry out a research activity. 2 [ S.L. 463.53 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
(2024)Aid intensity. 4. The assistance provided shall not exceed eighty per cent (80%) of the eligible costs. The Corporation shall establish the aid intensity in the Guidelines based on the aid intensities established in Commission Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 of 17 June 2014 declaring certain categories of aid compatible with the internal market in application of Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty, as amended from time to time. Utilisation of tax credits. 5.
(1)An undertaking benefiting from tax credits in accordance with these regulations and the respective Guidelines shall be entitled to deduct from the amount of income tax which is due on its chargeable income derived from its trade or business in the year of assessment immediately following the granting of the tax credit, an amount equivalent to the tax credits granted.
(2)An undertaking that in any year of assessment does not utilise any tax credit granted to it or deducts a value from the amount of income tax which is due on its chargeable income derived from its trade or business that is less than the tax credit granted to it, may carry forward the unutilised tax credit for the subsequent years of assessment.
(3)Tax credit granted in accordance with these regulations and the respective Guidelines shall not give rise to a right to a refund of tax.
(4)Where an undertaking has benefited from a tax credit granted in accordance with these regulations, the tax credit shall be deemed to have relieved from tax that part of the undertaking’s chargeable income which, when multiplied by the rates of tax at which it was chargeable in that year, is equal to the tax credit, and where the undertaking is a company and such undertaking or any subsequent company distributes the income which is so deemed to have been relieved from tax, such undertaking shall state in the dividend warrant pertaining to any such tax distribution that such income has been relieved from tax by a tax credit in accordance with this regulation. Cap. 123. S.L. 123.101.
(5)(a) In the case of an undertaking which is a company, the chargeable income which is deemed to have been relieved from tax in accordance with sub-regulation
(4)shall be, for the purposes of the Income Tax Act, allocated to the respective tax accounts of the company in question in accordance with the Tax Accounts (Income Tax) Rules and any dividends, or part thereof, distributed from such income shall be exempted from income tax in the hands of the members of the company on receipt of such distribution. (
- b)Where a dividend referred to in paragraph (
- a)is distributed to a member which is also a company, in this subregulation referred to as "the second company", the said dividend shall likewise be distributed by the second company to its members in the form of dividends exempt from income tax in the hands of the RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
(2024)[ S.L. 463.53 recipients, and where a member of the second company is also a company, the preceding provisions shall apply mutatis mutandis as though references to the first company were references to the second company, and as though references to the second company were references to that member, and the principle set out in this subregulation shall continue to be applied for as long as such income, or part thereof, to which this regulation applies are distributed by way of dividends.
(6)Tax credit shall not be due to any undertaking under this regulation unless it is claimed in the appropriate section of a tax return submitted by not later than the relative tax return. 6.
(1)The Corporation shall establish in its Guidelines a deadline for the submission of applications for assistance.
(2)Assistance shall not be granted in accordance with these regulations by the Corporation after the 31st December
- In the eventuality that a new scheme is issued, the provisions in respect of which the assistance was granted prior to the issuance of the new scheme shall continue to apply thereto. Deadline for submission of applications for assistance. Transitory provision. 3