A number of South Africans, including professional golfers, “exploited” Malta’s residency scheme to ease their tax burdens and gain access to the Schengen area, leaked e-mails in the Panama Papers show.

A South African financial advisory firm told Panama company Mossack Fonseca that Malta’s residency scheme was a popular choice with wealthy South Africans looking to avoid paying taxes. It said the scheme was particularly popular with South African pro-golfers playing on the US and European tours.

The residency scheme’s popularity stemmed from the fact that it allowed South Africans to ease their tax burden, the firm said.

“As soon as a South African can convince the South African tax authorities that h/she is no longer resident in South Africa for tax purposes, then the South African ceases to pay tax on his worldwide income.

“Being a Malta resident implies only paying tax on income remitted into Malta, so worldwide income is effectively received tax free, with the exception of withholding taxes charged by most of the countries nowadays on prize money earned at sporting events,” a 2011 leaked e-mail said. The South African firm asked Mossack Fonseca for alternatives to Malta’s scheme after a “massive and serious misuse of this arrangement”, which, it said, was “apparently by Iranian citizens”, led to the indefinite suspension of the scheme.

Questions sent to the Justice Ministry over three weeks ago asking if it knew of such claims and whether an investigation had ever taken place remained unanswered at the time of writing.

The residency scheme was suspended in December 2010 and initially replaced by the high net worth individuals scheme, which did not prove popular because the minimum value of purchased property had been raised from €116,000 to €400,000.

The residency scheme was relaunched by the current government in June 2013 with lower thresholds.

Candidates for the residence programme need to meet minimum property value requirements at €275,000 for property in Malta and €220,000 for property in Gozo and the southern region of Malta.

The e-mails show that Mossack Fonseca touted residency schemes in Panama, the Bahamas, Dominica and St Christopher and Nevis as alternatives to the Malta scheme.

The South African firm informed Mossack Fonseca that these locations were “too far off the beaten track” for a South African playing on the European tour.