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Good practice Imported

Cross-Referencing Every Taxpayer — Malta's SAS-Powered AI Push Against VAT and Tax Evasion

Malta · Valletta · See the Malta profile · See the Valletta profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 14% 80/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Malta committed €3m to deploy SAS AI tools that cross-reference registries and bank data to flag VAT fraud; officials attribute most of a €650m year-on-year 2024 revenue rise to the tools, with VAT refunds now processed within a month instead of three to four.

650 € million
Additional tax revenue collected in 2024 vs 2023 (2024)
1 month (down from 3-4 months)
VAT refund processing time after rollout (2024)
3 € million
Budget committed to deploy the AI tools (2022)
86.7 %
Share of Malta's 2022 government revenue from taxes/social contributions (2022)
Cross-Referencing Every Taxpayer — Malta's SAS-Powered AI Push Against VAT and Tax Evasion

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Malta Tax and Customs Administration (MTCA), Ministry for Finance
Period
2022–2024
Region (NUTS)
MT001
Keywords
tax administration, VAT compliance, fraud detection

Context

Taxes and social contributions made up 86.7% of Malta's 2022 government revenue (€5.1 billion). The Malta Tax and Customs Administration (MTCA) previously relied on manual sampling to select audit cases, leaving most filings unchecked, prompting Finance Minister Clyde Caruana to commit €3 million to AI software already used by tax authorities in the UK, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Ireland and Canada.

Objectives

Automatically flag missing-trader ('carousel') fraud, fictitious invoices and inflated VAT refund claims by cross-referencing taxpayer registries, bank-account data and property, land and vehicle records, replacing manual sampling.

Activities

MTCA rolled out SAS Visual Investigator, SAS Visual Analytics, SAS Intelligent Decisioning and SAS Viya 4, initially scoped to VAT returns and drawing on international data-sharing agreements, with extension to all tax forms planned within three years.

Results

Malta reported collecting €650 million more in tax in 2024 than in 2023, with officials attributing most of the increase directly to the AI tools. VAT refunds that previously took three to four months are now processed within the same month.

Conclusions

These figures are self-reported by the tax administration and its vendor rather than independently audited, and the claim that 'most' of the 2024 revenue increase stems from AI has not been isolated from other concurrent enforcement measures or economic conditions.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — €3 million committed by the Finance Minister to deploy SAS Visual Investigator, SAS Visual Analytics, SAS Intelligent Decisioning and SAS Viya 4.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Initially scoped to VAT returns during the 2022-2024 rollout; slated for extension to all tax forms within three years.
Staffing & skills
Malta Tax and Customs Administration (MTCA), Ministry for Finance, overseen by Commissioner for Tax and Customs Joseph Caruana

Conditions for success

  • Access to cross-referenced taxpayer registries, bank-account data, and property/land/vehicle records
  • International data-sharing agreements enabling cross-border matching

Common failure modes

  • Self-reported revenue-increase attribution not independently audited or isolated from other concurrent enforcement measures or economic conditions

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

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Data sources

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