Curacao runs its own tariff
Start here, because getting it wrong wastes weeks. Do not assume a regional common external tariff line copied from another island applies to your shipment. Curacao publishes its own tariff of import duties, the Tarief van invoerrechten, under the customs authority’s legislation pages. Curacao is also an EU Overseas Country and Territory, and the European Commission places such territories outside both EU territory and the EU single market, so it does not sit inside the EU customs union either.
The practical effect on your budget is that duty on your shipment is set by a national schedule you can look up, not by a regional agreement you may have read about in guidance written for somewhere else. Ask your agent to show you the heading and the rate together, out of the published tariff, rather than quoting a number from memory.
What the declaration requires
If you import goods you must file a declaration with Douane Curacao. Importers are in principle liable for invoerrechten, meaning import duty, for omzetbelasting, the turnover tax generally shortened to OB, and for accijnzen, excise, where those apply.
- Customs value is built on the goods plus costs such as freight and insurance, a CIF basis.
- Classification runs on the Harmonized System, administered by the World Customs Organization.
- The tariff is published as the Tarief van invoerrechten under the legislation pages.
- Douane Curacao states a preference for clearance through ASYCUDA World.
- A douane-expediteur, a customs forwarder with ASYCUDA access, can lodge the entry for you.
The duty rate we will not quote you
There is no honest way to publish a duty percentage for natural stone into Curacao on a page like this. The tariff exists and is published, but the rate that applies depends on the HS heading your stone is declared under, and that is a decision made with your agent against your own invoice. Ask for it in writing before you fix a landed-cost figure. A supplier who hands you a confident percentage without having seen your classification is guessing with your money. The same caution applies to anyone offering a single all-in landed rate per square foot without asking what you are importing, at what depth, or where on the island it is going.
Turnover tax: what is published
The Curacao Belastingdienst publishes the OB schedule, and it is worth reading rather than paraphrasing.
- 6% general rate.
- 7% on insurance and on short-term lodging up to 90 days.
- 6% on medium-term lodging from 91 days to one year.
- 0% on long-term residential rental of at least one year.
- 9% on a listed set of luxury goods and services, including motor vehicles, yachts, prepared foods, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, mobile phones, weapons and entertainment access.
Natural stone and pavers do not appear on that published 9% list. Published guidance on the rate applied at import does not agree with itself, however, so treat the general rate as expected rather than settled and confirm the rate for your HS code with your customs agent.
The anti-cumulation deduction
This one is genuinely useful for trade buyers and easy to miss. Under the anticumulatieregeling, an importer of trade goods may apply to the Inspector for permission to deduct 50% of the OB paid on imported trade goods from the OB owed in that period. It is an application rather than an automatic entitlement, and it is tied to trade goods. If you are importing our paving stock for Curacao buyers to resell or to install under contract, put this in front of your accountant early.
Filing frequency and cash flow
From January 2025 the published OB filing frequency runs on turnover thresholds: annual below XCG 30,000, quarterly between XCG 30,000 and XCG 75,000, and monthly above XCG 75,000. The practical point for a paving contractor is timing, because a large stone import lands the charge in one period while the revenue from the job arrives across several. Walk the calendar through with your accountant before the container is booked, because the deduction and the filing frequency are cash-flow tools rather than administration.
On currency, the Caribbean guilder became the official currency on 31 March 2025, pegged at USD 1 to XCG 1.79, and from 1 July 2025 only XCG is accepted for cash payments. We quote in US dollars, so agree with your bank which currency the invoice, the duty payment and the site payments are each settled in.
Charges that do not belong on the sheet
Landed-cost sheets pick up phantom lines. Four worth striking out.
- The afvalstoffenbelasting, the waste tax, is a household and utility charge collected through the Aqualectra bill. It is not an import surcharge on building materials.
- Regional common external tariff lines copied from another island’s guidance.
- Any duty percentage quoted without reference to your declared HS heading.
- Free-zone storage assumed as free, when the Curacao Harbor Free Zone is a staging tool with its own costs.
Building the landed cost honestly
Work outward from the stone itself, and keep each line separately sourced.
- Goods value, priced by format, thickness and finish.
- Ocean freight and insurance, which together give the CIF value customs works from.
- Import duty at a rate confirmed against your declared HS heading.
- Turnover tax at the rate your customs agent confirms for that heading.
- Terminal handling, any free-zone staging, and the road leg to site.
The page covering our Curacao supply arrangements sets out what we quote and where your agent takes over. Ask for every number in writing, and treat any rate that arrives without a classification behind it as an estimate.