Guide in Tax Administration A Project by the Government Accountant’s Foundation

The Government Accountant’s Foundation (SBAB) broadens its services with the introduction of the project, Guia den i Atministrashon Impuesto Temporal (GUAIT), or Guide in Tax Administration in English. This project aims to assist entrepreneurs in maintaining a sound financial administration in their businesses. This project is also intended for entrepreneurs who are in a challenged financial position. They can be helped by SBAB with their administration and fiscal affairs.

SBAB’s mission is to implement tax laws and regulations in an efficient, effective and customer-oriented manner. The focus is to improve tax compliance in Curaçao, hence increasing the island’s tax revenues.

The tax revenue of a country depends on the following factors:
– The economy and gross national product of the country.
– The tax system; complicated tax systems generate aversion. – The tax rates themselves.
– The extent to which the country is able to expertly train staff and/or recruit local and international labor.
– The attitude of the employees of the tax department, which is partly dependent on the job satisfaction of those employees. – The acceptance by the population of the tax system and tax rates.
– The mentality and/or tax ethics of the population.
– The perception of the population that the government spends its tax revenues appropriately.
– The geographical conditions – the tax systems and rates of islands within the region.

In order to positively influence companies to improve tax compliance, SBAB started a project in the fourth quarter of 2010, “Starting Entrepreneurs, “ or the “Starter Project.” This project allowed SBAB to assist and support entrepreneurs with little or no experience in setting their taxes. The support provided by this project included: setting up and managing the financial administration of each company, completing any obligations with regard to taxation and the like, and answering all kinds of questions on entrepreneurship.
The execution and subsequent work on the Starter Project showed that even with existing companies there was a great need for assistance in the area of financial and tax matters. Those in the field found that many entrepreneurs were unable to approach an administrator, accountant or consultant to help with a backlog of unpaid commitments or high taxes. For this reason, SBAB decided to expand the Starter Project and implemented GUAIT. Now, besides giving guidance to new entrepreneurs, this project also assists those whose company is in a bad financial situation, administration is poor due to the challenged financial situation and the administrator, accountant, tax advisor or entrepreneur can’t be paid due the challenged financial situation.

With GUAIT, SBAB has the following objectives:
– Provide positive reinforcement to obtain the desired level of tax compliance.
– Provide assistance to new entrepreneurs and existing business owners who are unable to pay an administrator, accountant or tax advisor.
– Reduce the number of companies that go out of business because of financial problems.
– Broaden the scope for administrator, accountant or tax advisor. Reducing the number of failed entrepreneurs increases the number of potential customers for these professionals.
– Improve the relationship between SBAB, entrepreneurs and administrative services.

The main advantage of the GUAIT project is that fewer companies will go bankrupt because of the debt incurred on taxes and social contributions. This in turn has more activity, more jobs and more tax revenue as a result. This results in a win-win situation.
Eligibility for the GUAIT project is determined by an intake interview and an investigation into the company’s tax situation. Using the information gathered, the SBAB determines if the business is able to hire an administrator, accountant and tax adviser. Companies that qualify for GUAIT are those that are willing to manage their own financial bookkeeping and are not able to afford an administrator, accountant or tax adviser. A company that qualifies for GUAIT will get one year of assistance in financial administration, plus support to enter in to a settlement agreement to rectify any tax discrepancies.
If a company is eligible and decides to participate in GUAIT, the business owner must agree to the following conditions:

If no due diligence has been announced by the SBAB Immediately upon signing the GUAIT agreement, the company should enter into a contract with an accountant, auditor or tax advisor to help with tax administration.
After one year, the business owner is required to deal with an administrator, accountant or tax advisor to execute, provide and submit tax returns.
After the one year period, if the company chooses to handle its tax administration itself, the SBAB will continue to monitor whether the business is complying with its tax obligations. Entrepreneurs take risks by investing their assets in a company. That company will, in turn, contribute to the economy by creating jobs and paying taxes. On this basis, SBAB also finds it extremely important that employees of the SBAB better understand the entrepreneurs and the areas where they run in to the most challenges. This project provides that opportunity. If an entrepreneur would like to be part of this project, he/she can contact the following people:

Mr. Oswin Lint / Mevr. Vanessa Medema
Phone: 734-2714/ 734-2444/ 734-2423
E-mail: oswin.lint@sbab.cw

Ms. Shanela Cathalina
Phone: 734-2444 of 734-2414
E-mail: shanela.cathalina@sbab.cw