Curaçao: local rules

Curaçao has no stand-alone transfer pricing act and no general arm's length section in the Profit Tax Ordinance 1940 (Landsverordening op de winstbelasting 1940). The brief pointed to art. 1b, but art. 1B is the rule on purpose vehicles (doelvermogen), so that was wrong. The rules that exist are: art. 6(2)(c) of the Profit Tax Ordinance, which denies a deduction for interest and rent paid to a group company or a person with a substantial shareholding to the extent the terms differ from those between independent parties; art. 43(11) and (12) of the General National Taxes Ordinance (Algemene landsverordening Landsbelastingen, ALL), which make companies that deal with related parties keep records showing how the terms came about and that they are terms independent parties would agree; and Chapter VIII of the Profit Tax Ordinance (arts. 42 to 47, added by P.B. 2018 no. 30) for the master file, local file and CbC report. Curaçao follows the OECD Guidelines in practice, but no official page read says so in the law itself.

Every company must keep records of its related-party terms under ALL art. 43(11) and (12), with no revenue threshold. A group entity taxable in Curaçao must also keep a master file (groepsdossier) and a local file (lokaal dossier) in its records for each year, by the deadline for the profit tax return, if its multinational group had consolidated revenue of at least NAf 100m (now XCG 100m, assumed at par) in the prior year (art. 46). They are not filed with the return. They go to the Inspecteur on request. They must be in Dutch or English and follow the formats in the Landsbesluit winstbelasting (P.B. 2018 no. 19), which track OECD Guidance on Transfer Pricing Documentation (Chapter V of the Guidelines).

The law prescribes no pricing methods. The test is whether terms are those independent parties would agree (ALL art. 43(11) and Profit Tax Ordinance art. 6(2)(c)). The Landsbesluit formats for the master and local file follow the OECD Guidelines, so OECD methods are the practical standard. Curaçao has no formal APA programme. The Inspecteur can give a ruling on request under ALL art. 61 (decision within 2 weeks, at most 30 days).

There is no transfer pricing specific penalty for a missing master or local file in the texts read. General rules apply: a late return can bring a fine of up to NAf 2,500 (ALL art. 18) and late payment up to NAf 10,000 (art. 19), now in XCG at par. A CbC filer that fails its CbC duties on purpose or through gross negligence can be fined NAf 100,000 to NAf 250,000 (ALL art. 21b). Amounts were not checked for later indexing.

The Staten van Curaçao passed the Minimum Tax Ordinance 2024 (Landsverordening minimumbelasting 2024) on 1 September 2026. ICB Instituut reports it as dated 13 October 2026 and published on 22 October 2026 as P.B. 2026 no. 231. The Minister of Finance said on 13 April 2026 that Curaçao will NOT introduce a QDMTT or a UTPR, only an income inclusion rule (IIR) that applies from fiscal years starting on or after 1 January 2025. So there is no domestic top-up tax on low-taxed profits in Curaçao, and the brief's QDMTT premise was wrong. The IIR reaches only low-taxed group entities outside Curaçao. A side-by-side safe harbour applies from fiscal years starting on or after 1 January 2026, and for groups with a US ultimate parent it can bring Curaçao top-up tax to nil. Per EY, the information return or notification is due 15 months after year end and the minimum tax return and payment 17 months after year end, with 18 and 20 months for the transition year (normally 2025). In the draft law the longer transition periods do not apply to a group that already filed an information return in another country with a qualifying agreement with Curaçao, so the tool shows 15 and 17 months.

Profit tax: a provisional return and payment are due by the last day of the 3rd month after the fiscal year end, with no extension (ALL art. 15(2)). The definitive return and payment are due by the last day of the 6th month (art. 15(4)). On a reasoned request the Inspecteur decides within 15 days, and if there is no refusal the deadline moves 3 months (art. 15(6)). The Belastingdienst says that from fiscal year 2023 this extension is automatic, and it has set later one-off dates: 31 December 2024 for calendar 2023 and 15 December 2025 for calendar 2024 (first 1 December 2025). Nothing was found yet for fiscal year 2025. Rate: 15% on the first XCG 500,000 and 22% above that (Rootz guide). Weekends and holidays: the Algemene termijnenlandsverordening (consolidated text P.B. 2024 no. 43) moves a statutory term that ends on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday to the next day, but art. 4(a) excludes terms of more than three months, so it does not reach any deadline in this file except arguably the 3 month provisional return.