Sint Maarten Tax Forms and Filing Deadlines

Wage tax and turnover tax returns are due within fifteen days after the end of each month. The provisional profit tax return is due within three months after the financial year ends and the final return within six. Room tax is remitted before the fifteenth day of the following month. The collective wage statement and the third party list are due by the end of January. The forms themselves are published by the Tax Administration. This page sets out which one you need and when it has to be in.

Where the forms are

The Tax Administration publishes the forms in four sections. We link to the source rather than keeping copies here, because forms are replaced from time to time and an out of date form causes more trouble than it saves.

Forms for businesses holds the verzamelloonstaat, the opgave derden and the requests to reduce or postpone a filing. Income tax forms holds the return itself and the explanatory guides in English and Dutch. Profit tax forms holds the provisional and the final return. The Receiver’s section holds the application for a refund of income, wage or profit tax.

Wage tax and social premiums

Monthly. The return and the payment are both due within fifteen days after the end of the month. Social security and health insurance premiums run on the same return and the same date.

Two further filings follow once the year has closed. The verzamelloonstaat, the collective wage statement covering every employee, and the third party list, which reports what was paid to people who are not on the payroll, both have to be in by the end of January.

Turnover tax

Monthly. The return and the payment are both due within fifteen days after the end of the month. A private individual who only exploits an asset for a lasting return can ask for the period to be set at a calendar year instead.

Profit tax

Two returns each year. The provisional return has to be filed and paid within three months after the end of the financial year, so 31 March for a calendar year, and there is no extension on it. The final return follows within six months, so 30 June, and a three month extension can be requested for that one.

Income tax

Income tax is assessed rather than paid on return. The form has to be back within the period the Inspector states on it, which is at least two months from the date it was issued. If no form has reached you within six months after the end of the year and you expect to owe tax, you are required to ask for one. Waiting for a form that never arrives is not a defence.

What goes on the return depends on whether you are a resident of Sint Maarten for tax purposes. Residence is judged on the facts rather than on registration. Someone who leaves the island for less than a year is still treated as living here, and someone who stays here for under a year while living in the Netherlands, Aruba or Curaçao is not.

If you are a resident

A resident is taxed on worldwide income. The return groups that income into four sources: immovable property, movable capital, business and employment, and rights to periodic payments. In practice we need the annual wage statement from every employer, the pension and annuity statements, the bank and investment statements showing interest and dividends, the rent received on any property that is let together with the loan details, and the annual figures for any business or professional activity. Accounts, property and shareholdings held outside Sint Maarten belong on the return as well.

Where a property is let to third parties the taxable yield is fixed at 65 percent of what is received, and no costs are taken into account other than the interest and the costs of the loan. The home you live in yourself produces no taxable income.

The deductions are where most of the paperwork sits. Mortgage interest on the main home, the maintenance of that home and the fire and natural disaster premiums, the AOV and AWW premiums, life and annuity premiums, gifts to institutions established here, and the medical, study and support costs claimed as extraordinary charges. Each of these has its own ceiling and the ceilings are checked, so keep the statement rather than the estimate.

If you are not a resident

A non-resident is taxed only on income from Sint Maarten sources. That covers property situated here and claims secured by a mortgage on it, business or professional activity carried on here, employment performed here, fees as a director or supervisory board member of a company established here, and in some cases income from a substantial interest in such a company.

For a non-resident return we need the lease and the rent received, the mortgage statement if the property is financed, the purchase deed, any local payroll or director’s fee statements. Most of the deductions a resident can claim are closed off. Interest is deductible only where the debt is secured by a mortgage on property here, and the extraordinary charges and the child allowance do not apply at all.

Room tax

Room tax is charged on guests who are not registered residents of Sint Maarten. The operator collects it and remits it before the fifteenth day of the following month. Late payment triggers a surcharge on top of the tax.

A period with nothing to declare still needs a return

This is the point missed most often. Where no wages were paid or no turnover was realised, the return still has to go in, showing nil. Penalties for filing late and for paying late sit next to the tax itself, and the administration applies them.

Our own material

The two documents below are ours and we keep them current. The reference sheet puts every filing deadline on one page. The checklist covers what to gather before a personal income tax return is prepared, split into what a resident needs and what a non-resident needs.

Sint Maarten Tax Filing Deadlines (PDF)

Sint Maarten Income Tax Return Checklist (PDF)

If an assessment is wrong

The period to object is short and it runs from the date printed on the assessment. Objecting to a Sint Maarten Tax Assessment sets out the deadlines and the route to the Court. For the rates and the regimes behind these returns, see Doing Business in Sint Maarten: A Tax Guide.

How we work

We prepare and file these returns for private clients, entrepreneurs and property owners on Sint Maarten, and we deal with the Inspector and Court when something goes wrong. Every file is handled personally by Marco Aalbers. Contact us to discuss yours.