On Fri­day, August 23, the King­dom Council of Ministers agreed to the Tax Plan BES Islands 2025, which entails a tax increase for persons with a higher income on Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba (the BES islands). This policy is meant to improve the tax system and benefit residents of the Carib­bean Netherlands with lower incomes.

“With the proposed BES Islands Tax Plan 2025 bill, the cabinet wants to further improve the tax system on the BES islands. Since the intro­duction of the tax sys­tem on the BES islands in 2011, various changes have taken place, mainly to update the former An­tillean rules and to better align it with the tax sys­tem in European Neth­erlands,” it was stated in the list of decisions made by the Kingdom Council on Friday.

Important steps to im­prove the local tax sys­tem were already taken last year with the BES Islands Tax Plan 2024 Act. “With the BES is­lands Tax Plan 2025, the cabinet furthers these improvements. Further­more, this bill contains measures to better com­bat poverty there by shifting the focus of the levy from low incomes to high incomes.”

In addition, the tax-free allowance will be linked to the minimum wage and the rate of the yield tax will be increased.

As the bill has been agreed on by the Council of Ministers, State Sec­retary of Tax Affairs and Tax Administration Folk­ert Idsinga will now send the law proposal to the Council of State’s Advi­sory Division for approv­al. The final policy mea­sures will be announced on Budget Day, Tuesday, September 17.

The Daily Herald.