Cap. 123 ст. 28Non-resident shipowners.

(1) Subject to the provisions of article 12(1)(k), where a person not resident in Malta carries on the business of shipowner or charterer and any ship owned or chartered by him calls at a port in

Malta, his full profits arising from the carriage of passengers, mails, livestock or goods shipped in Malta shall be deemed to accrue in Malta: Provided that this article shall not apply to goods which are brought to Malta solely for transhipment.

(2) Where for any accounting period such person produces the certificate mentioned in sub-article (3), the profits arising in Malta from his shipping business for such period, before deducting any allowances for depreciation, shall be a sum bearing the same ratio to the sums receivable in respect of the carriage of passengers, mails, livestock and goods shipped in Malta as the ratio for the said period shown by the certificate of the total profits to the total sum receivable by him in respect of the carriage of passengers, mails, livestock and goods.

(3) The certificate shall be one issued by or on behalf of any income tax authority with regard to which the Commissioner is satisfied that it computes and assesses the full profits of the non-resident person from his shipping business, on a basis not materially different from that prescribed by this Act, and shall certify for any accounting period as regards such business -

(a) the ratio of the profits or, where there are no profits, of the loss, as computed for the purposes of income tax by that authority, without making any allowance by way of depreciation, to the total sums receivable in respect of carriage of passengers, mails, livestock or goods; and

(b) the ratio of the allowance for depreciation as computed by that authority to the said total sums receivable in respect of the carriage of passengers, mails, livestock and goods.

(4) Where at the time of assessment, the provisions of sub-article (2) cannot for any reason be satisfactorily applied, the profits arising in Malta may be computed on a fair percentage of the full sum receivable on account of the carriage of passengers, mails, livestock and goods shipped in Malta: Provided that where any person has been assessed for any year of assessment by reference to such percentage, he shall be entitled to claim at any time within six years after the end of such year of assessment that his liability to tax for that year be recomputed on the basis provided by sub-article (2).

(5) Where the Commissioner decides that the call of a ship belonging to a particular non-resident shipowner or charterer at a port in Malta is casual and that further calls by that ship or others in the same ownership are improbable, the provisions of this article shall not apply to the profits of such ship and no tax shall be chargeable thereon.