Both for resident natural persons as well as legal persons, the tax system is based on the criteria of world revenue. The exception are non residents, who are only taxed on the revenue obtained directly in Curazao.

There is no wealth tax.

Taxation of Individuals

Personal income tax for individuals is defined by bands and normally ranges from 0% to 48.25%, according to the volume of revenue received during the financial year.

There are special particular regimes such as, for example: Fixed 10% for all the revenue from a foreign source (regime for pensioners) or fixed 19.50% for revenue received from Private Interest Foundations or Trusts.

Taxation of Corporate Entities

Company tax is 25%.

General Value Added Tax (VAT) is 6% and, for other products, such as, for example, first need assets or services of interest to the region, there are reduced VAT rates.

Other Taxes

At the level of notable taxes, we could distinguish the following:

• Property Conveyance Tax (real estate): 4%

• Inheritance tax: 6% maximum

• Donation tax: 24% as a general rate and 25% for Private Interest Foundations and Trusts.

Characteristics of Curazao NV Companies

There are now various types of companies in Curazao, the most common being the Curaçao Naamloze Vennootschal (NV), equivalent to the European SA, or American corporations.

NV companies are highly flexible companies, both in terms of shareholders as well as directors, as both offices may be held by natural or legal persons, both resident or foreign. Even so, it is recommendable for at least one local resident to be appointed to the office of director.

With regard to the stock capital, there is no obligatory minimum required and it must be nominative (although in the case of the NV, these may be transformed to bearer shares once the company is formed. However, the possibility of adapting and regulating the Articles of Association, voting rights, distribution of the shareholding value, as well as conveyance of shares in the company.

With regard to their accounting obligations, NV companies must prepare annual financial statements, that must be prepared within the 8 months following the financial year end, according to the criteria of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Large companies also require an external annual audit. In order to be considered a large company, these must fulfil a series of requisites based on the value of their assets, the amount of profit and the number of workers.