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The Daily Herald has been informed that the total tax revenues for 2014 in Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba have been calculated at 109 million euros, which is two million more than the estimated 107 million euros that will be collected in 2013. The draft 2014 budget of the Dutch government, the so-called Miljoenennota 2014, mentioned these figures of the Dutch public entities Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba, in its general overview on tax and premium revenues 2013-2014.
The draft 2014 budget of the BES Fund, the fund that supplies the free remittance (“vrije uitkering”) to the three public entities for the execution of their tasks, provided different figures on the tax and premium revenues in the Caribbean Netherlands. According to the overview presented as part of the BES Fund budget, the total calculated tax and premium revenues for 2014 will amount to 90.4 million euros. Of this amount, an estimated 86.8 million euros will be generated by the new fiscal system of the Caribbean Netherlands which went into effect on January 1, 2011, a few months after the three islands became part of the Dutch Constellation. The revenues from the old Antillean fiscal system will generate an estimated 3.6 million euros. Wage tax and national insurances premiums generate the largest chunk of the revenues in 2014 with 55.6 million euros. The general sales tax ABB yields the second largest revenue with 24.5 million euros. Excises will generate an estimated 4.9 million euros in 2014. The transfer tax will yield some 1.8 million euros next year, the profit tax 0.4 million euros and the gambling tax 0.5 million euros. The revenue of the real estate tax, which still hasn’t been introduced on the islands, has been set at zero.
Government expects a lower revenue from the income tax, which has been put at minus 0.9 million euros in 2014. Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk made a reference to the tax revenues in the Caribbean Netherlands in a letter he sent to the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament on Monday. In a debate with the First Chamber of the Dutch Parliament, the Senate, on June 4 this year, Plasterk promised to provide information on the tax revenues and premiums in the Caribbean Netherlands. In the letter the minister referred to the 2014 draft budget of the BES Fund. Plasterk further announced that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the Caribbean Netherlands will be included in the strategic plan of the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS), so Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem can give precise information to the Dutch Parliament.
