Administrative obligations

Right to exemption from administrative obligations

You have the right to be exempted from administrative obligations if you meet the following conditions:

• You have a sole proprietorship or the company is a partnership of natural persons, such as a partnership, a general partnership, or a man/wife partnership, and you are established on the BES islands, and;
• Your turnover (excluding ABB) amounts to less than USD 10,000 per calendar year, and;
• You exclusively provide services and/or untaxed deliveries, and;
• You keep the administrative documents in a clear manner.

To qualify for an exemption from administrative obligations, you must submit a written request to B/CN. The exemption request form can be downloaded here. After an assessment, you will receive a decision to inform you whether or not you qualify for an ABB exemption.

What requirements do the administrative records have to meet?

The entrepreneur must keep an administrative system in which:

• goods delivered and services provided by and to him are registered;
• the import and export of goods into or from the BES islands on which he is established are registered;
• other details that are relevant in relation to the ABB exemption are registered;
• register the expenditure and proceeds in relation to any deliveries of goods and provision of services to/by him on a daily basis;
• his administrative records concerning turnover are kept in such a clear manner that it is possible to determine that taxes are levied correctly and the ABB due for a certain period can be determined;
• copies are kept of invoices sent and issued by him.

An administrative system must be kept in a regular manner and data must be kept in a way in which you can ensure that you will be able to file the required returns in a timely fashion and based on which Belastingdienst Caribisch Nederland has sufficient opportunities to verify the accuracy of the returns.

Does an invoice have to be issued?

The obligation to issue an invoice applies only to an entrepreneur considered a manufacturer for ABB purposes. If you are an entrepreneur but not a manufacturer, you will not be required to issue invoices.

You, as a manufacturer, are only required to issue an invoice at the request of the purchasing entrepreneur. You must issue the invoice within fifteen days following the month in which the delivery took place.

If the manufacturer agrees with the purchasing entrepreneur that the fee will be paid in advance or in instalments, the manufacturer must draw up and issue an invoice for each (partial) payment (such at the request of the purchasing entrepreneur).

Please note!
If you, as a manufacturer, must issue an invoice, you are required to create and keep an extract/copy of the invoice.

What requirements does an invoice have to meet?

The invoice must list the following details:

• the day on which the delivery takes place;
• the name and address of the manufacturer and his customer;
• the crib number of the manufacturer;
• an ongoing invoice number and a date;
• a description and the quantity of the delivered goods;
• the fee and the ABB amount.

Disclaimer

The information on this page is not yet current and must be adapted in relation to the legislative changes that have taken effect on 1 January 2020. For this reason, you cannot derive any rights from this page. If you have any questions about this, you can contact Belastingdienst Caribisch Nederland.