|
||||
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
| System of Goverment | Privatization | Investment Incentives | |
| Legislative / Labor Laws | Tariffs and Treaties | ||
| Tax Structure | Economic Free Zones |
|
|
| Tariffs and Treaties | |
| Curaçao has tax treaties with
the Netherlands, Norway and the U.S. Food and beverage products imported into Curaçao are subject to four types of tariff: import duties (calculated over c.i.f. value), excise duties (on beer and spirits), economic levy (on products that are already locally manufactured), and expenditure tax (also called "sales tax"). Most imported food items, including most fruits and vegetables, cereal, soup, spaghetti, tea, and spices, receive a 10.5 percent import tax. Many products can be imported duty-free, such as: beef, chicken, some baby foods, potatoes, dried peas and beans, some grains, olive and sesame oils, milk (powdered milk duty-free only in containers less than 2.5 kg), cream, and cheese. Other import duty rates include the following: citrus fruits, 5 percent; sugar, 4.5 percent; fish, 4.5 percent; fruit juice, ground coffee, yogurt, and bread, 5.5 percent; non-chicken poultry, 17 percent; oyster, 17 percent; prepared fish or poultry, 18.5 percent; rice, 25 percent; beer, 28¢ per liter; and margarine, at about 3¢ per kilogram. Import duties on margarine, butter, sugar, beverages and alcohol are not based on c.i.f. value, but on weight or quantity. Special excise duties are applied to imports of alcoholic beverages in addition to other taxes. Beer receives about 67¢ per liter in excise tax (in addition to 28¢/liter import duty, 50¢/liter levy tax, and a 6 percent sales tax). Duties on stronger spirits vary depending on the alcohol content of the product. For a spirit that is 50 percent alcohol content, there will be about $16.80 per liter in excise tax, plus import duties, sales tax, and levy tax. Some products also are protected by economic levy (resulting in an additional tariff rate), such as: bacon ($1.11/kg), ham ($1.12/kg), powdered milk in containers larger than 2.5 kg ($1.00/kg), ice cream ($1.28/liter), yogurt (39¢/liter), wheat flour (14¢/kg), cornmeal flour (19¢/kg), rice (25 percent), margarine (50¢/kg), edible oils except olive and sesame (33¢/liter), bread (4.5 percent), bread dough (24.5 percent), sweetened fruit juices (33¢/liter), malt (42¢/liter), beverages without alcohol (50¢/liter), beer (53¢/liter). Most food items, those in particular that are considered primary necessities of life, such as meat, poultry, grains, and rice, receive no expenditure tax, while most beverages are subject to a 6 percent sales tax. |
