Objecting to a Sint Maarten Tax Assessment

You have two months to object to a Sint Maarten tax assessment. The two months in principle run from the date printed on the assessment, not from the day it reached you. The Inspector then has nine months to decide. Filing an objection does, in principle,  not suspend your obligation to pay.

The two month deadline

Two months from the printed date. That is the whole rule, and it is the one most often missed, because people count from the day the envelope arrived.

A missed deadline is not always fatal. The period runs from the printed date only where the assessment actually went out in the way the law requires, and it is for the Inspector to show that it did. Where that cannot be shown, the clock starts when you became aware of the assessment, which is often through a collection measure. Beyond that, a late objection can still be excusable where you acted as soon as the position became known to you and the delay is explained by circumstances that were not yours to control. 

What happens after you file

The Inspector records the date of receipt and sends an acknowledgement. Keep it, because everything after that is counted from that date.

From receipt the Inspector has nine months to decide. Silence is not neutral. If nine months pass with no decision, that counts as a decision and you can take the matter further to Court without waiting any longer.

Going to the Court

Appeal goes to the Court in First Instance within two months of the date on the decision.

Where the Inspector never decided at all, the window is twelve months, counted from the moment those nine months ran out. That second window is the one most often lost, because a file that has gone quiet feels like a file that is still open.

You still have to pay

An objection does not stop collection. Deferral of payment is a separate request to the Receiver and it is not granted automatically. An assessment under objection is still an assessment that can be collected.

Where it usually goes wrong

Three things account for most of the files that reach us too late. Counting the two months from receipt instead of from the printed date. Waiting for a decision that never comes, and letting the twelve month window run out as well. Filing a bare objection to stop the clock and never supplementing it.

How we work on these files

We take the file as it stands, including files where the period has already run. Where an objection is still open we take over the correspondence with the Inspectorate. Where the deadline has passed we look at what is left, which is a different route with a lower chance of success.

If you are holding an assessment you disagree with, send it to us before the two months run out.

For the tax rates, the filing deadlines and the regimes that sit behind most assessments, see Doing Business in Sint Maarten: A Tax Guide.

For the returns themselves and the dates they have to be in, see Sint Maarten Tax Forms and Filing Deadlines.