Yes, until you break UK tax residence
Moving to Malta does not by itself end your UK tax. Until you are non-resident under the Statutory Residence Test, HMRC taxes your worldwide income wherever you happen to live, and a Maltese residence permit changes nothing on its own. The cleanest exit is usually working full time abroad with fewer than 91 UK days and no more than 30 UK workdays in the tax year. If you leave part-way through a tax year, split-year treatment can tax you as non-resident from your departure date; you claim it on the SA109 residence pages of your Self Assessment return. If you do not file a return, tell HMRC you have left using form P85.
What stays UK-taxable after you go
Non-residence does not switch everything off. UK rental profits remain taxable under the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme, UK government service pensions stay taxable in the UK, and disposals of UK property must be reported with any tax paid within 60 days of completion, even where nothing is due. Two tails matter. Return to the UK within five years and the temporary non-residence rules can tax gains and certain income you realised abroad in your year of return, and the residence-based inheritance tax tail can run for up to 10 years after departure.
What Malta charges instead
Malta is not a zero-tax move. As a Maltese resident who is not domiciled there, you pay Maltese tax on Malta-source income and on foreign income you remit to Malta, at rates of up to 35%, while foreign capital gains stay outside Maltese tax even if you bring the proceeds in. Resident non-doms with foreign income of at least EUR 35,000 that is not fully remitted pay a minimum tax of EUR 5,000 a year, and the Global Residence Programme taxes remitted foreign income at a flat 15% with a EUR 15,000 minimum. A UK-Malta double taxation convention has been in force since 1995. The full Malta guide walks through the whole move step by step.