Import

Monthly credit

You must submit an import declaration to Customs to assign goods the import customs-approved treatment. Unless an exemption applies, you must pay the import tax based on this declaration directly to Belastingdienst Caribisch Nederland (B/CN). The BES Customs and Excise Duties Act offers you the opportunity not to pay the import tax due for each return. This is the so-called monthly credit permit. This means that all import tax payments for the declared goods in the course of a calender month are collected by B/CN.

At the start of each new month, you will receive an overview of the taxes for which you have been granted credit by B/CN. The total of these taxes must be paid to B/CN as a lump sum. This payment must take place within 8 calendar days of the end of the calendar month in which the customs debt arose.

This makes handling the declaration process easier and will give you access to the goods faster.

Request to qualify for monthly credit

• you must submit a written request to the inspector of Douane Caribisch Nederland, Customer Service Team (refer to contact for the contact details).
• enclose an extract of the registration of your company with the Chamber of Commerce to the request;
• the request must list the average number of import declarations you submit to Douane Caribisch Nederland and the amount of each type of import tax for which you want to be granted a monthly credit. Keep a potential increase in your import activities in mind;
• on behalf of the Recipient of Belastingdienst Caribisch Nederland, the inspector will determine the monthly credit amount in consultation with you, and the amount you must grant as security (deposit) for this purpose.

The monthly credit permit can include additional conditions.

Import tax exemption

There are many instances in which an exemption from import tax applies. This depends on:

• the type of goods;
• the destination of the goods;

Often, an exemption for both general expenditure tax (GET) and excise duties applies, but not always. The ‘documents’ section contains an overview with all exemptions in case of the permanent import of goods. 

Applicability of exemption based on import declaration

To ensure that the exemption is applied correctly on your import declaration, you must list the right codes in fields 1 and 37 in the declaration you submit to Customs. These codes are set out in the Single Document Manual, available in the ‘downloads’ section. Listing these codes will ensure that the declaration application of Douane Caribisch Nederland (Asycuda World) will apply the exemption. Of course, Customs will also verify whether you claim a certain exemption from import tax correctly.