WILLEMSTAD – Curaçao has the highest combined tax and mandatory social-premium burden among the countries of the Dutch Kingdom, with approximately 42% of gross domestic product flowing through taxes and social insurance contributions, according to figures reviewed by Curaçao Chronicle.
The comparison is supported by the latest half-year report from the financial supervision colleges, which includes 2025 factsheets for Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten. Curaçao's collective burden stands at approximately 42% of GDP, compared with roughly 38% in Aruba and 23–24% in Sint Maarten.
The Netherlands is also below Curaçao. Statistics Netherlands reported this month that the Dutch government collected €460.5 billion in taxes and social contributions in 2025. That represented 38.8% of Dutch GDP.
The Curaçao figure does not mean that an average resident personally hands over 42% of his or her salary to the government. Collective burden is a macroeconomic measurement comparing all tax and mandatory social-premium revenues with the total size of the economy.
It therefore includes considerably more than payroll deductions. Corporate profit tax, turnover tax, import duties and other taxes are included, together with compulsory contributions financing social insurance programs.
The Cft figures show that Curaçao's ordinary tax component is approximately 28% of GDP. Mandatory social premiums add roughly another 14 percentage points, bringing the combined burden to around 42%.
That distinction is particularly significant when Curaçao is compared with Aruba. Aruba's tax component is also around 28% of GDP, but its social-premium burden is closer to 10%, resulting in a total of approximately 38%.
Sint Maarten is at the opposite end. Its total burden is only around 23–24% of GDP, consisting of approximately 14–15 percentage points in taxes and about nine percentage points in social premiums.
The figures also show that Curaçao's high position is not a one-year anomaly. The Cft's chart indicates that the collective burden remained above 40% of GDP throughout the 2021–2025 period.
The comparison nevertheless requires some caution. Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten's 2025 figures are budget figures in the Cft report, while the Netherlands' 38.8% represents preliminary actual results compiled according to Dutch national-accounts methodology.
Even with that qualification, the available official data point in the same direction: Curaçao currently has an exceptionally high level of taxes and compulsory social contributions relative to the size of its economy.