WILLEMSTAD - The "National Ordinance Tax Review 2019" was adopted as on 30 December. The National Ordinance was also published directly in the government's digital publication magazine and thus became law before 1 January.

Especially important for the new year are the profit tax legislation and the law with regard to the e-zones. The tax base in the income tax has been clarified and brought into line with international trends and guidelines.

The changes are intended to meet the conditions of both the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Code of Conduct Group of the European Union (EU COCG).

The Social and Economic Council (SER) explained earlier that these changes are necessary and even inevitable due to the fact that international guidelines on combating base erosion and profit shifting are constantly evolving.

The essence of the law is that there is a limitation on the levying of profit tax at a domestic company if there is a foreign source of income. The National ordinance for economic zones 2000 has been repealed and replaced by customs zones.

The e-zone legislation had to be speeded up based on instructions from the EU Code of Conduct Group (COCG), in particular to eliminate ring fencing aspects. Ring fencing takes place when part of the assets or profits of a company are financially separated without necessarily being exploited as a separate entity.