ABB exemptions

Goods and/or services exempt from ABB

The following deliveries of goods and/or services on the BES islands are exempt from ABB. The text of each exemption has sometimes been kept brief for the purpose of legibility.

• The delivery of bread, grain, potatoes, and rice. Snacks like gingerbread [Dutch: ontbijtkoek], rice crackers, and biscuits are not considered bread, but breakfast bread (croissants) and bake-off bread are;
• Arranging public passenger transport and school bus services (taxi, bus, etc.);
• The services provided by hospitals and laboratories for medical research, as well as the services provided by physicians, dentists, nurses, obstetricians, physiotherapists, physical therapists, chiropractors, speech therapists, dieticians, podiatrists, and psychologists;
• The delivery of prescription medication for human usage;
• The delivery of medical instruments;
• Arranging non-commercial education. This concerns education funded and organised by the government, general education and professional education provided by companies without the aim of making a profit, and education in music, dance, drama, and visual arts funded granted to persons below the age of 21. Education focussed on leisure activities (such as car and motorcycle driving lessons) or with an aim of acquiring personal skills provided to non-youth will never be exempt. This will not constitute a professional education;
• Arranging mail shipments which the mail carrier is required to transport;
• The supply of water, electricity, and gas by water pipelines, electricity, and gas companies, as well as the delivery of fuel for generating electricity to those companies;
• The delivery of an immovable property, a building not consisting of a new construction or a newly constructed part of a building and associated premises, if transfer tax is due on this delivery;
• The life insurances, health care insurances, and reinsurances by insurance firms and the services provided by intermediaries in relation to insurances. A life insurance is defined as an insurance which (virtually) exclusively aims to arrange one or more benefit instalment(s) and depends on the life of the insuree. Funeral insurances (irrespective of the manner of payment) are not exempt;
• The rental of hotel rooms and apartment if tourist taxes are due based on an island decree;
• Services consisting of the opportunity to participate in casino games, lotteries, scratch tickets, numbered tickets, betting on numbers, bingo, and similar games if gambling taxes are due;
• Providing and lending funds and the services related to securities, banknotes, and currency notes (except for those that are not valid tender and/or have a collector's value). Mediation is included in the provision and lending of fund and services; custody and management are exempt;
• The delivery of goods and the provision of services to professional consuls and other professional representatives of foreign powers, as well as their interim staff and the persons residing at and employed by them, provided that these are foreign nationals and not an entrepreneur on the BES islands and subject to the condition of reciprocity. Please note! You must submit a request to Customs Caribbean Netherlands for this exemption;
• Shipping services using aircraft or sea-faring vessels;
• The services provided in a seaport or airport on the BES islands related to the incoming and outgoing goods not yet imported there and services for the benefit of sea-faring vessels and aircraft used as a public means of transport for the transport of passengers or goods (including military vessels), except for leisure craft;
• The delivery of fuels, lubricants, and other liquids, intended for propulsion, lubrication, and other technical uses on board of sea-faring vessels and aircraft, as well as the deliveries of goods intended to supply outgoing sea-faring vessels (except for ships used for coastal fishing), rescue craft, ships used to provide aid on sea, military ships destined for a port or anchor site outside of the BES islands, and aircraft;
• The services provided as such by an entrepreneur established at a trade and service warehouse;
• Delivery of goods to an entrepreneur established at a trade and service warehouse, insofar as these goods are used for the goods and assets of these entrepreneur present at this warehouse;
• The services provided to an entrepreneur established at a trade and service warehouse, exclusively insofar as these services are provided for activities duly permitted at this trade and service warehouse, or for the goods and assets present at this warehouse;
• Caring for and nursing institutionalised persons, as well as providing food and drinks, medication, and bandage materials to these persons, as well as services provided by care and nursing homes insofar as these services concern the accommodation of and care for the residents;
• Letting of immovable properties to private persons residing on the BES islands, which properties are furnished, intended, and used for permanent occupancy;
• Services within the meaning of Article 7.1, preamble, section A, of the BES Tax Act, if transfer tax is due in relation to the provision of these services. This concerns performances that qualify as a service based on the ABB and which are covered by the definition of ‘taxable’ transfer in the context of transfer tax: services consisting of the establishment, waiver, and termination of usufruct, use, occupancy, easements, leasehold, building rights, land charges, due either in cash or in kind, and such actions related to immovable properties or the rights to which these are subject. The exemption from GET does not apply if no transfer tax is levied for any reason.

For a complete summary, visit the following link in the ABB Manual.