WILLEMSTAD - In July, the Curaçao tax authority paid out five million guilders in tax refunds. Finance Minister Javier Silvania announced that starting from 2025, refunds will be processed much faster thanks to an improved automation system.
The processed tax returns for the first half of 2024 resulted in the payout of over fourteen million guilders in refunds. In the last week of July, a portion of this amount, specifically five million, was disbursed.
Additionally, there is still 5.3 million in tax assessments for which the recipients' bank details are missing. Further refunds will be processed in the coming weeks of August, amounting to nearly four million guilders.
2023
The number of tax returns filed for 2023 up until June 2024 is nearly 35,000. At the beginning of July, assessments for the year 2023 were issued via the ADAF system, dated July 29, 2024. More information about this will be provided in the third quarterly report of the tax inspection.
The tax authority explains that there are often questions about how assessments for 2023 can be issued while older returns from 2019 to 2022 are still pending. The assessments for 2023 were processed through the automated ADAF system.
The outstanding returns from previous years involve cases that fall outside the automated process and therefore need to be handled manually. Approximately six hundred of these returns are processed each week.
The goal is to complete the returns for the years 2019 to 2022 by the end of this year. The tax authority emphasizes that calling customer service to inquire about the status of a return does not affect the processing speed. They ask for understanding regarding the situation.
The income tax return for 2024 will be partially pre-filled by the tax authority. Various system improvements will be implemented this year. A significant portion of the returns is expected to be processed automatically, enabling faster refunds in 2025.