WILLEMSTAD - The Tax Authority has announced that employers must submit their cumulative wage statements for the year 2023 by March 1, 2024, or risk a penalty of NAf 5,000. The legal deadline for submitting the cumulative wage statement was initially set for February 1, 2024, but employers now have an extension until March 1, 2024.
A "cumulative wage statement" is a document or report used by employers to report the total wage data of all employees for a year to the tax authority. This report includes detailed information about salaries, premiums, and other contributions paid or withheld from employees. It also includes personal and tax identification of each employee, such as the crib number.
The cumulative wage statement is an essential tool for the government to audit and collect income tax and social security contributions. It also ensures the accuracy of tax returns filed by individual employees. For employers, it is a crucial part of their tax and administrative obligations. Failure to submit or inaccurately submit this statement can lead to fines and other legal consequences.
Timely submission is intended to expedite the payment of income tax refunds. The Tax Authority will pre-fill the wage data from the cumulative wage statements into the income tax returns for 2023 to prevent errors and simplify the filing process. This is expected to reduce discrepancies in the processing process and enable customers to receive their refunds more quickly.
From April 1, 2024, the Tax Authority will make the pre-filled tax return available to customers. However, customers are responsible for verifying and, if necessary, correcting this pre-filled information.
Additionally, the Tax Authority emphasizes the importance of organizing payroll administration, with special attention to including crib numbers for all employees. Without these crib numbers, the cumulative wage statement cannot be submitted. Employees who have not yet submitted their crib number to their employer can find this number in correspondence from the Tax Authority or request it through a web form.