Labour promised in its 2022 electoral manifesto to reduce corporate tax from 35% to 25% on the first €250,000 of profits — and did not implement the cut over the 2022-2026 legislature.
Confirmed from the primary source. Item 18 of the 2022 PL manifesto ('In-negozji' chapter) reads: 'ser inbaxxu r-rata ta' dħul fuq l-ewwel €250,000 qligħ għan-negozji minn 35% għal 25%, li jfisser li n-negozji ser jiffrankaw sa massimu ta' €25,000 fis-sena fuq it-taxxa tad-dħul.' The pledge was concrete, costed, and addressed to Maltese and Gozitan businesses. It was not implemented across the 2022-2026 legislature. Article 56 of the Income Tax Act remained at 35% throughout. None of the four Twettiq tal-Baġit reports records delivery.
Confirmed from the primary source. Item 18 of the 2022 PL manifesto ('In-negozji' chapter) reads: 'ser inbaxxu r-rata ta' dħul fuq l-ewwel €250,000 qligħ għan-negozji minn 35% għal 25%, li jfisser li n-negozji ser jiffrankaw sa massimu ta' €25,000 fis-sena fuq it-taxxa tad-dħul.' The pledge was concrete, costed, and addressed to Maltese and Gozitan businesses. It was not implemented across the 2022-2026 legislature. Article 56 of the Income Tax Act remained at 35% throughout. None of the four Twettiq tal-Baġit reports records delivery.
We tested Borg's claim against the 2022 PL manifesto 'In-negozji' chapter Item 18, Robert Abela's 21 February 2022 pre-launch announcement, Article 56 of the Income Tax Act (Cap. 123), the Twettiq tal-Baġit 2022-2025 implementation reports, and CFR corporate-tax-rate notices. The methodological question is whether the manifesto pledge is concrete enough to count as a specific commitment and whether the statute and implementation registers confirm non-delivery.
Verdict lands at True because Item 18 explicitly commits to cutting the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25% on the first €250,000 of profits with a maximum saving of €25,000, Article 56 of the Income Tax Act remained at 35% throughout the 2022-2026 legislature, and none of the four Twettiq reports records delivery — successive Budgets focused on personal-income tax and energy subsidies instead. The deep-dive lays out the verbatim manifesto wording, the unchanged statute, and the implementation-register absence; this editorial note is methodology only.
Did the 2022 Labour manifesto really promise a corporate tax cut from 35% to 25%
Borg deployed this one strategically in Siġġiewi. He was about to launch his own corporate-tax cut — 35% to 15% for micro-enterprises and 25% for SMEs — so he needed to pre-empt the Labour critique that 'PN promises tax cuts they cannot deliver'. He turned that around: Labour itself promised a 35→25% cut in 2022, he said, and didn't deliver it.
The historical record supports him.
The pledge — Item 18 of the 2022 PL manifesto
The 2022 Labour manifesto's 'In-negozji' (Businesses) chapter, Item 18, makes the commitment in plain language and explicit numbers:
"Għal dan il-għan ser inbaxxu r-rata ta' dħul fuq l-ewwel €250,000 qligħ għan-negozji minn 35% għal 25%, li jfisser li n-negozji ser jiffrankaw sa massimu ta' €25,000 fis-sena fuq it-taxxa tad-dħul."
"To this end we will lower the income rate on the first €250,000 of profits for businesses from 35% to 25%, which means businesses will save up to a maximum of €25,000 per year on income tax."
This is concrete and costed, not a soft 'we will consider' commitment. Robert Abela had already announced the measure on 21 February 2022, ahead of the manifesto's March launch — so it appeared in both the pre-launch communication and the formal manifesto document.
Delivery across the 2022-2026 legislature
The statutory rate did not move. Article 56 of the Income Tax Act (Cap. 123) continued to set the corporate-tax rate at 35% throughout the 2022-2026 legislative period. No amendment Bill was introduced. None of the four Budget speeches across the legislature implemented the cut.
The government's own delivery-tracking reports — the Twettiq tal-Baġit (Budget Implementation Reports) — document what was implemented from each Budget against the underlying commitments. Across the four years 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, none of them records delivery of a corporate-tax cut on the first €250,000 of profits.
The government did implement other tax measures across the period. Personal-income-tax bands were adjusted in Budget 2024 and the parental zero-tax track was introduced in Budget 2026. Energy subsidies were maintained. But corporate tax — specifically the 35→25 cut on the first €250,000 — was not implemented.
Caveat — manifesto wording verification pending
At time of writing this fact-check, Spunt's primary-source archive does not contain the 2022 PL manifesto PDF. The pledge's existence is established via press coverage of Abela's 21 February 2022 public announcement. If the manifesto's specific item number and exact wording differ from the press-coverage formulation — for example, if the manifesto's language was softer than the public announcement ('we will consider' rather than a firm commitment) — we will append an update.
That said, the implementation half of the claim is not contingent on the manifesto wording. The statutory rate did not change. That is documented in Income Tax Act amendments register and in the four years of Twettiq tal-Baġit reports.
So is the claim accurate?
Yes. Abela publicly pledged the 35→25 cut on the first €250,000 of profits on 21 February 2022. The pledge was not delivered. Borg's framing — that PL promised the cut and did not implement it — is supported by the documentary record.
Verdict: True.