MALTA Law and Practice Contributed by: Rosanne Bonnici and Rebecca Diacono, Fenech & Fenech Advocates
10. Charitable Planning 10.1 Charitable Giving
Surrogate pregnancy arrangements are not recog - nised by Maltese law; accordingly, a surrogate preg - nancy contract may arguably be in breach of local public policy rules. As a result, there is no clarity on how the local authorities may be expected to act if faced with a case involving a child born to a surrogate, locally or overseas. From a succession perspective, it appears that such a child would not have the succes - sion rights that are granted to a child of the deceased under current law. 9.2 Same-Sex Marriage The Civil Unions Act was published in 2014 and intro - duced same-sex civil unions. Following the introduc - tion of the Civil Unions Act, other laws, including the ITA, were amended to accord rights to same-sex part - ners in a civil union that are equivalent to the rights of spouses in a heterosexual marriage. The Marriage Act and Other Laws (Amendment) of 2017, supplemented by the Conversion of Civil Unions into Marriage Regulations, 2017 (Legal Notice 382 of 2017), amended various laws so as to eventually grant same-sex partners the right to effectively convert their civil union into a marriage. As spouses for all purposes of the law, same-sex spouses now enjoy equality of treatment with heterosexual spouses across a range of laws, including taxation.
The ITA makes limited provision for tax-deductible donations to charities and organisations of a public and/or philanthropic character. In addition to the particular arrangements to be found therein, the ITA provides for a general exemption from the payment of income with respect to the income (and, therefore, including chargeable capital gains) derived by any institution, trust, bequest or foundation having a public character and engaged in philanthrop - ic work, should it be so declared for the purposes of said exemption by the relevant minister. There is in fact a Legal Notice, updated from time to time, with a list of qualifying organisations. 10.2 Common Charitable Structures Local charities typically take the form of a public ben - efit foundation. Such foundations must be registered with the Registrar for Voluntary Organisations in order to be entitled to receive donations from the public.
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