BITCOIN AND YOUR TAX LAWYER

 So we have this client who lives in Europe. He is totally okay with our invoice but he was dead set on paying us in bitcoins. For a tax lawyer that can be a bit of an issue as the control on bitcoins is of course less than with regular money. On the other hand; I had been reading up on accountants addressing the issue on how to report an amount of bitcoins in your financials. So it seems that bitcoins are becoming more mainstream and we want to remain up to date with everything we do, so why not. We have this family friend who is like the apostle of bitcoin and he was eager to explain to us how to proceed. I was so fascinated by all he had to say that at the end of the meeting he pointed out that he have had like a cup of coffee which I had forgotten to offer. Together we created a bitcoin wallet and he even paid in USD 10 to get me started. That was last Friday July 23rd. Saturday our client paid the amount due and now with amazement I am looking at a staggering (unrealized) yield.

Being a tax lawyer you are supposed to know something about law, about accounting but also about economics. Public Finance was a subject taught on university.

Now sitting on this modest amount of bitcoins one starts to think. One of my best friends in the Netherlands told me to go and cash immediately. Apart from the fact that in Curacao that may be not so easy to achieve I feel I should watch what will happen.

Contrary to the picture above bitcoins are not real coins. They are zeros and ones and lead a pure digital existence. There is no backup from any central bank or government or like in the old days from a gold reserve. That gold reserve for most countries is still there but under President Nixon it was decided to let go of the direct link between the gold reserve and the amount of money a country could print. And boy have they been printing. If you can say the interest is the price of money it becomes clear that money is readily available for those who need a loan. For bitcoins there is an end to how much there can be created and that may have a positive influence on the value. Same of course goes for other cryptocurrency like Ethereum and such.

There is a rumor that shortly Amazon may be accepting bitcoin as payment and one country (El Salvador) even decided to accept bitcoin as legal tender. These are without a doubt positive occurrences for bitcoin. So far bitcoin has been to much an investment and not enough a means of payment.

I do hope we are not facing yet an other worldwide financial crisis whilst still amid the pandemic but I do have the feeling the the bottom of the US Dollar and the Euro both rest on quicksand.

Anyway, if our esteemed clients wishes to pay our invoice in bitcoin he/she now can.

Obligation to file Curaçao property has been lifted

 A spot of good news. The Curaçao tax authorities have not imposed property tax assessments for the year 2019 stating that they are in waiting on a change in relevant tax legislation that will alter their position.

The legal consequence of not imposing mentioned tax assessments is however that then home owners and such need to file a property tax return.

Our professional organization has warned the tax authorities with respect to the amount of tax returns to be expected and that made that obligation to file is now set until October of this year.

Have you however acquired a property in the mean time or the value of your property has undergone substantial change in value the obligation to file is still in place.

Questions? Do not hesitate to contact us on:

(*) 599 9 7374916

or

tanushka.djaoen@mullertax.com

or

peter.muller@mullertax.com

AANGIFTEPLICHT VOOR DE ONROERENDEZAAKSBELASTING

Door middel van dit schrijven willen wij u graag attenderen op de in 2019 ingevoerde aangifteplicht voor de onroerendezaaksbelasting.

Dat speelt in de volgende gevallen (waarbij wij om redactionele redenen een en ander wat inkorten):

1                 Indien u het genot verkrijgt van een onroerende zaak dient u binnen twee maanden na die verkrijging aangifte te doen bij inspecteur der belastingen;

2                 Als zich een wijziging voordoet bij de onroerende zaak die maakt dat de waarde meer dan 5 procent wijzigt met een minimum van ANG 25.000,--;

3                 De onroerendezaaksbelasting werkt met tijdvakken van telkens vijf jaar. De onroerendezaaksbelasting is ingevoerd met ingang van het jaar 2014. Het eerste vijfjarige tijdvak beliep derhalve van 2014 tot en met 2018. Het volgende tijdvak is ingegaan op 1 januari 2019. Zelfs indien u aangifte voor de onroerendezaaksbelasting heeft gedaan na invoering van de aangifteplicht dient wederom aangifte te worden gedaan indien u geen aangifte onroerendezaaksbelasting over 2019 heeft ontvangen. Deze aangifte dient gedaan te worden voor 28 februari 2021.

Indien u dat niet doet kan de inspecteur u een boete opleggen van 100 procent van het bedrag van de aanslag dus het is de moeite waard om hier aandacht aan te besteden.

Ons kantoor is u daarbij graag van dienst uiteraard.

U kunt ons telefonisch bereiken op (*)599 9 7374916 of per email:

tanushka.djaoen@mullertax.com of

peter.muller@mullertax.com

Buyer beware; or rather: miracles take time

Just a word of advice for those who want to take up residence in Curacao, or may want buy a second home here or otherwise want to invest. This is not your country of origin so things may be different here.
Let me give you some examples. A few years ago a german speaking client stated that his tax lawyer also did his bookkeeping and made his yearly financials. He was quite upset when I explained to him that I can assist his accountant by looking at the figures from a tax perspective or may be confront the accountant with obvious mistakes (everybody makes mistakes). Recently a client put forward that his issues should be addressed more swiftly. He had not taken his tax position into account for years and now we were hired to clean up the mess. We consider it our job and we are happy to do so of course.

But cleaning up needs the cooperation of the tax authorities and they on average need three quarters of a year to react to correspondence. So logically it will take over a year to settle problems.

I realize that we need to communicate this more to our non-Caribbean clients therefore I thought it wise to put this to writing.

Curacao is not the Netherlands with a nicer climate.
It is more South-America where Dutch happens to be one of the official languages and the legal language for that.

With reference to the cartoon: we are totally happy to extinguish your fiscal fires but allow for some time. We are dependent on the tax authorities. That goes for us and even so for our trusted colleagues in the field. And even better. As a fireman would probably say: prevention is better than extinguishing. So, if are are investing in Curacao please contact a competent tax lawyer before you are buried in a pile of tax assessments. Cleaning up afterwards is always more costly and is time consuming.

Immobiliensteuer auf Curacao (Gesetzliche Aenderungen)

Wenn Sie einen Haus besitzen auf Curacao sind folgende besteuerungen leider da fuer Sie:

Einkommensteuer wenn Sie Mieteinnahmen bekommen;
Umsatsteuer auf die Mieteinnahmen wenn Sie nich dauernd an einem Einheimischen vermieten; und,

Immobiliensteuer. Und die hat Sie im formalischen Bereich etwas geandert. Wenn Sie ab den  1en September 2019 Immobilien auf Curacao kaufen brauchen Sie eine Anzeige fuer die Immobiliensteuer beim Steueramt ein zu tragen. Und wenn Sie keine Veranlagung fuer die Immobiliensteuer bekommen brauchen innerhalf 12 Monate nach dem Jahresende auch selber dafuer eine Anzeige beim Steueramt ein zu tragen.

Fuer Fragen oder/und Kontakt bitte schreiben Sie uns ueber:

info@mullertax.com

oder whatsapp nach (00)599 9 6942852.