Breaches will be made punishable by law
PHILIPSBURG--The turnover tax (ToT) is "an indirect tax with the character of a consumption tax" that should not be listed as a separate item on invoices, it was stated in a press release issued by the Department of Communications on Wednesday.
A Ministerial Regulation also has been drafted making it a punishable offence to place the ToT separately on the bill, invoice or receipt. This will be punished with a fine of a maximum NAf. 5,000 per bill, invoice or receipt. It was not specified when the regulation would go into effect.
"Pending the publication and implementation of the Ministerial Regulation, the Tax Department wishes to caution businesses to start making the necessary adjustment to their administration," the release stated. It was not specified what timeframe businesses would be given within which to make the necessary adjustments.
The Tax Department was quoted as saying in the release that, since the implementation of the ToT, "it has been a point of discussion whether the ToT should be stated separately on the bill, invoice or receipt.
"The ToT is an indirect tax with the character of a consumption tax. ... Therefore the ToT should not be stated separately on the bill, invoice or receipt. Based on the intent of the law, the former Inspectorate of Taxes of the Netherlands Antilles informed various businesses that the ToT should not be stated separately on the bill, invoice or receipt," the release stated.
Based on complaints from a number of consumers who had indicated that businesses had been listing ToT as a separate item on bills, The Daily Herald sent a number of questions to Finance Minister Hiro Shigemoto on January 28 seeking clarity on the matter.
The minister was asked whether businesses were allowed to apply the ToT in this manner (by charging a five per cent "tax" on receipts) and, if the approach referred to was not legal, what measures were being/would be put in place to ensure that businesses did the correct thing and did not fleece the unsuspecting public, as had been suggested.
He was also asked whether ToT was a cost for consumers or for businesses and if there was anything that government could and/or would do to ensure that businesses did not take advantage of the situation by increasing their prices significantly, in some cases by as much as 25 per cent, as the Chamber of Commerce and Industry has said has been done by some businesses.
This newspaper did not receive answers to its ToT questions. The minister indicated yesterday, after a follow up e-mail had been sent requesting a response, that a general press release would be issued on the subject yesterday, March 16.
