Hi offshoreguys,
First of all, thank you all for the wealth of information shared across this forum – it's truly an invaluable resource for those of us navigating international structuring.
I'm an EU citizen currently considering relocating to Malta in 2026 under the self-sufficient residency route. My plan is to establish Maltese tax residency (renting a flat, registering address, etc.) while spending approximately 90–100 days per year physically in Malta.
I run a business offering IT development services to clients in Western Europe and the US. All development, PM, and sales operations are handled by independent contractors based in Ukraine , there’s no operational presence planned in Malta.
I’ve been researching various structuring options and came across the US LLC (Disregarded Entity) setup, combined with the election to be treated as opaque in Malta , credit to user Anonymous1234 for describing this setup so thoroughly in the "Best Management Location for LLC" thread. In my scenario, the US LLC would have a Ukrainian manager, and I would only work for the company during the time I'm outside of Malta.
However, after a few paid consultations with well-known CSPs in Malta, I was advised that despite the research being technically correct, the risk of Malta asserting PE or PoEM still remains high , especially given that I would be the sole owner of the LLC, and it would be difficult to prove I didn’t carry out any work while being physically present in Malta during those 90–100 days. Additionally they mentioned, that the LLC would also need to be audited in Malta (which actually is against what I've found during my research, as I thought it needs to be audited only after 700k euro turnover).
As expected, all CSPs strongly recommended the traditional fiscal unit approach (Malta Trading Co + Cyprus Holding), which I’d really prefer to avoid, mainly due to the cost and complexity. Maintaining a Malta Ltd, audit, accounting, 5% CIT, and the Cyprus layer pushes the yearly burden well beyond €17k + 5% CIT – which doesn’t align well with my business model.
So my questions are:
First of all, thank you all for the wealth of information shared across this forum – it's truly an invaluable resource for those of us navigating international structuring.
I'm an EU citizen currently considering relocating to Malta in 2026 under the self-sufficient residency route. My plan is to establish Maltese tax residency (renting a flat, registering address, etc.) while spending approximately 90–100 days per year physically in Malta.
I run a business offering IT development services to clients in Western Europe and the US. All development, PM, and sales operations are handled by independent contractors based in Ukraine , there’s no operational presence planned in Malta.
I’ve been researching various structuring options and came across the US LLC (Disregarded Entity) setup, combined with the election to be treated as opaque in Malta , credit to user Anonymous1234 for describing this setup so thoroughly in the "Best Management Location for LLC" thread. In my scenario, the US LLC would have a Ukrainian manager, and I would only work for the company during the time I'm outside of Malta.
However, after a few paid consultations with well-known CSPs in Malta, I was advised that despite the research being technically correct, the risk of Malta asserting PE or PoEM still remains high , especially given that I would be the sole owner of the LLC, and it would be difficult to prove I didn’t carry out any work while being physically present in Malta during those 90–100 days. Additionally they mentioned, that the LLC would also need to be audited in Malta (which actually is against what I've found during my research, as I thought it needs to be audited only after 700k euro turnover).
As expected, all CSPs strongly recommended the traditional fiscal unit approach (Malta Trading Co + Cyprus Holding), which I’d really prefer to avoid, mainly due to the cost and complexity. Maintaining a Malta Ltd, audit, accounting, 5% CIT, and the Cyprus layer pushes the yearly burden well beyond €17k + 5% CIT – which doesn’t align well with my business model.
So my questions are:
- Has anyone here successfully operated a US LLC while being a non-dom tax resident in Malta? How did you handle or mitigate the PE/PoEM risks?
- Can you recommend anyone for tax-lawyer or CSP, who can provide me with such support?
- Would it help to insert a holding company (e.g., manager-managed LLC or UK Ltd) between myself and the operating US LLC, so that I don’t directly own or manage the operating entity?
