Facebook ads VAT
and billing in Malta.

Article 10. Most established businesses that charge VAT are registered under Article 10. You declare the reverse-charged VAT on your Maltese VAT return as output tax and, if your sales give you the right to deduct, claim the same amount back as input tax on the same return. For a fully taxable business the net effect is nil, but it still has to appear on the return.

Article 11. Many small businesses and freelancers in Malta are registered under Article 11, the small undertaking scheme, and do not charge VAT. The MTCA explains that a taxable person in Malta who is not registered under Article 10 and receives services on which Maltese VAT is due must register under Article 12 no later than the date the service is received, and that there is no threshold for services. Article 12 registered persons pay the VAT and cannot recover it. An Article 11 number is not a VAT identification number, so the number to give Meta is your MT-prefixed Article 12 number.

Exempt businesses. Clinics, schools, insurance and some other businesses make sales that are exempt without credit. They also have to account for the reverse-charged VAT, and they can usually recover little or none of it. For all of these businesses, the true cost of €1,000 of ad spend is closer to €1,180. Plan your budget with that number, and talk to your accountant before you start, not when the first return is due.

Receipts are in the Billing section of Ads Manager, under payment activity. Pick the date range, find the transaction and download the receipt from the action column. Each receipt shows the Meta entity that sold the ads, your account details and a VAT line. Meta points out that the receipt shows a VAT total even when no VAT was charged, so a zero there is normal under the reverse charge.

With automatic billing you may get several receipts a month, one each time your payment threshold is reached plus one on the monthly bill date. Download them all at the end of each month and send them to your accountant with your bank or card statement, so every charge can be matched. Larger advertisers working with Meta’s sales team can sometimes pay by monthly invoice instead, with its own tax rules; most small businesses in Malta pay by card.

Keep the receipts with your other VAT records. Maltese rules require VAT records to be kept for years, and a missing month is far harder to find later than to download now.

Meta has two main ways to pay. With automatic billing, which is what most cards and PayPal set up, your ads run first and Meta charges your card each time your costs reach your payment threshold, and again on your monthly bill date for anything left. Meta may raise the threshold as you build a payment history. With available funds, you add money in advance and Meta deducts your ad costs from that balance, usually once a day; when the balance runs out, the ads stop.

Budgets, spending limits and the payment threshold are three different things. The budget on a campaign or ad set controls how much the ads try to spend. An account spending limit is a hard cap on what the whole account can spend until you change it. The payment threshold only decides when you are charged, not how much you spend.

For most small businesses in Malta, automatic billing with a business card and a campaign budget you are comfortable with is the simplest setup. Add an account spending limit if several people or an agency have access and you want a safety net.

If an agency runs your ads, there are usually two bills. The ad spend is charged by Meta to your own ad account, under the reverse charge described above. The management fee is invoiced by the agency, and whether VAT is added depends on the agency’s own VAT registration. Ask for both to be shown clearly and make sure the ad account, the Page and the payment method belong to your business.

With Malta Digital, Meta charges the ad spend to you directly, so it never passes through us, and our Meta ads management starts from €1,249 a month, excluding VAT. Use the calculator to see your ad budget, fees and VAT-adjusted cost side by side before you decide.