ABB exemptions

Goods and/or services exempt from ABB

The following deliveries of goods and/or services in the Caribbean Netherlands  are exempt from ABB. For the sake of readability, the text per exemption has occasionally been shortened.

• The delivery of basic necessities, insofar as they belong to chapters of the harmonised system to be designated by Ministerial Regulations, as referred to in Section 3.1 Subsection 2 under a of the Customs and Excise Duties Act BES. It includes the following goods: milk and dairy products, bird's eggs, natural honey and other edible products of animal origin, vegetables, plants, roots, tubers, fruit, citrus peel and melon peel, coffee, tea, maté, spices, cereals, products of the flour industry, malt, starch, inulin, wheat gluten, fats, oils and products of their dissociation, processed edible fats and waxes, sugar and confectionery, preparations of grains, flour, starch or milk and pastries;
• The provision of public passenger transport and school bus services by road (taxi, bus etc.) The exemption is applicable and limited to the transport of persons from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’;
• The services provided by hospitals and medical research laboratories, as well as those provided by physicians, dentists, dental technicians, nurses and obstetricians, physiotherapists and remedial therapists, chiropractors, speech therapists, dieticians, podiatrists and psychologists (insofar as they are qualified and licensed) in the said capacity;
• The delivery of prescription medicines for human use by a physician within the meaning of the Medicines Decree BES;
• The delivery of medical artificial and auxiliary devices;
• The provision of non-commercial education. It includes publicly funded and organised education and general education provided by not-for-profit entrepreneurs, vocational training, as well as education in music, dance, drama and visual education provided to people under the age of 21. Education also includes tutoring, (preliminary) examination training, and the taking of examinations within the framework of that education, as well as supplies and services closely related to that education. Education of a leisure nature (e.g. car and motorbike driving lessons) and/or aimed at acquiring personal life skills is not exempt;
• The handling of postal items that the concession holder is required to transport pursuant to the provisions of and by virtue of Section 2 Subsection 2 of the Postal Act BES;
• The supply of water, electricity, and gas by water, electricity, and gas companies as well as the supply of fuels for the generation of energy to those companies;
• The supply and installation of non-integrated solar panels and collectors and integrated solar panels and collectors that serve as roofing material, provided they are supplied and installed at a location other than an electricity company; the same applies to products designated by Ministerial Regulation that are intended to be connected to it, even if they are supplied and installed separately;
• The supply and installation of wind turbines, provided they are supplied and installed at a company other than an electricity company; the same applies to parts specially designed or adapted for wind turbines, even if they are supplied and installed separately;
• The supply of immovable property, other than a newly manufactured building or a newly manufactured part of a building and the land belonging to it, if transfer tax is payable in respect of the said supply;
• The life insurance, health insurance, and reinsurance services by insurance companies and the services by insurance intermediaries. Life insurance is understood as an insurance policy with (almost) the sole purpose of providing one or more instalments of benefits and dependent on the life of the insured person, also including funeral insurance, regardless of the manner of payment;
• The rental of hotel rooms and apartments if a tourist tax is payable pursuant to an island ordinance;
• Services that consist of giving the opportunity to participate in casino games, lotteries, scratch cards, number tickets, betting on numbers, bingo, and similar games if gaming tax is payable;
• The provision and lending of funds and the services relating to securities, bank notes and coins (except those that are not legal tender and/or have a collector's value). Securities are not understood to include documents representing property, rights on immovable property, rights in rem giving the right holder the power to use an immovable property, and the share certificates and shares, the possession of which entitles the holder de jure or de facto to ownership or enjoyment of an immovable property or part thereof;
• The delivery of goods and the supply of services to professional consuls and other professional representatives of foreign powers, as well as the officials attached to them and persons residing with and employed by them, all provided they are foreigners and are not entrepreneurs in the Caribbean Netherlands and subject to reciprocity;(Attention! For this exemption, you must submit a request to B/CN)
• The transport services by means of aircraft or sea-going vessels;
• The services performed in a sea or airport area on the Caribbean Netherlands in respect of incoming and outgoing goods and services not yet imported for sea-going vessels and aircraft used as a means of public transport for the carriage of passengers or goods, (including war aircrafts) but excluding pleasure craft;
• The supply of fuels, lubricants, and other fluids intended for the propulsion, lubrication, and other technical uses on board sea-going vessels and aircraft, as well as the delivery of goods intended for supplying outgoing sea-going vessels (excluding inshore fishing vessels), lifeboats, ships for assistance at sea, warships of which the destination is a port or anchorage outside the Caribbean Netherlands, and aircraft;
• The services provided by an entrepreneur established in a commercial and services warehouse in the said capacity;
• Deliveries of goods to an entrepreneur established in a commercial and services warehouse, insofar as the said goods are used for the benefit of the goods and business assets of the said entrepreneur present in that warehouse;
• The services provided to an entrepreneur established in a commercial and services warehouse, only insofar as the said services are provided for the benefit of the activities legally authorised in a commercial and services warehouse or for the benefit of its goods and business assets present in that warehouse;
• The provision of care and nursing to persons admitted to an institution, as well as the provision of food and beverages, medicines, and dressings to the said persons, as well as services by nursing and old people's homes insofar as these services relate to the accommodation and care of the residents;
• The letting to private individuals residing in the Caribbean Netherlands of immovable property that is furnished, intended and used for permanent occupancy;
• The delivery of goods and the provision of services for projects insofar as they are at the expense of Aruba, Curaçao or St. Maarten in the context of mutual aid, or at the expense of international organisations in the context of development aid;
• Services referred to in Section 7.1 preamble under a of the BES Tax Act, if transfer tax is payable in respect of the provision of the said services. This involves performances that qualify as services for the purposes of ABB and fall under the concept of (taxable) ‘transfer’ for the purposes of transfer tax: services consisting of the establishment, surrender, and termination of usufruct, of use and occupancy, easements, ground lease, superficies, ground rents, whether payable in cash or in kind and such acts in respect of immovable property or the rights to which it is subject. The exemption from ABB is not applicable if, for whatever reason, no transfer tax is levied.