PHILIPSBURG — Tax reform. Tax compliance. Tax evasion. Tax fraud. These are all well-known terms in St. Maarten where fooling the tax inspectorate is seen by quite some citizens and companies as a national sport. According to some experts, compliance stands at 30 or maybe 35 percent, meaning that the majority of those who ought to be tax payers are not paying anything at all. Ralph Cantave recently interviewed tax attorney Quincy Lont about St. Maarten’s tax system on his radio broadcast The News Behind the News. One of the more noteworthy statements from that interview indicate that there is…
Author: The Publisher
By Hilbert Haar Bad things happen when good people do nothing. I have been unable to source this quote but it feels appropriate for the topic I want to discuss here (again): corruption. More in particular: corruption in St. Maarten. When I wrote about it earlier under the headline Mar, bribe and destroy I could not begin to imagine the number of reactions it would trigger. Those reactions did not come in the form of signed letters to the editor; they simply flooded the Whatsapp of the publisher of StMaartenNews.com. That showed, at the very least, that there are…
Cayhill — Local professionals Nathalie Tackling and Emilio Kalmera recently joined the APS Board as members. The APS Board now consists of four persons: Shaira Bommel, Arjen Alberts, Kalmera, and Tackling. There is still a vacancy for an independent Chairman of the Board. Nathalie Tackling is a Sint Maarten native with an extensive background in corporate and legislative law. She obtained two Masters of Laws: one in Trade & Corporate Law from the University of Maastricht (Netherlands) and one in Intellectual Property Law from the George Washington University School of Law (Washington, DC). Upon her return to Sint Maarten,…
By Terrance Rey A Dutch friend of mine was once amazed at the size of my house. He concluded that I must be rich. In the Netherlands he lives two floors high in a flat. I drive a jeep, he rides a bicycle. One might think that we only live in villas here. But that’s all appearances. The reality is very different. On Sint Maarten people often speak of ‘property rich but cash poor.’ I often hear people say that if you have land, you can easily get a loan from the bank. After all, you can use the land…
PHILIPSBURG — The NAGICO Cricket Club will be debuting their new uniforms and gears this weekend, in the ongoing T-20 competition being held at the Carib Lumber Ball Park. The team received these new uniforms, courtesy of their title sponsor; NAGICO Insurances. The entire uniform includes long jogging pants, long sleeve shirts and matching caps, all emblazoned with the NAGICO logo and brand colors. The uniforms were unveiled in an air of excitement, as the design was created and selected by the Team’s Board, which was also represented at the handing over. “We are grateful for this sponsorship from NAGICO”…
By Hilbert Haar It is not a good week for the United St. Maarten party (USp), its faction leader Claudius Buncamper and its founder Frans Richardson. Like attracts like, or as the Dutch like to say: soort zoekt soort. This seems to apply to the kind of people the USp attracts: characters with a tendency to bend rules and regulations beyond breaking point to get what they want. Buncamper is facing a 3-year prison sentence and Richardson received a 12-month sentence, on top of an earlier conviction to 36 months. To be clear: the 3 years of imprisonment against Buncamper…
PHILIPSBURG — The public prosecutor demanded on Monday a 3-year prison sentence against Member of Parliament Claudius Buncamper and a 12-month sentence against his wife, former Public Health Minister Maria Buncamper-Molanus. The court announced it will render its verdict probably on December 23, but in any case no later than January 13, 2022. On December 23, it is exactly eleven years ago that Buncamper-Molanus was forced to step down as Minister of Public Health (after a bit more than two months in office) because of the Eco Green scandal. The public prosecutor later took the Buncampers to court and sentenced…
~ Also Inquires Regarding the Mullet Bay Inquiry to “Give Mullet Bay Back to the People” ~ Philipsburg – With the Mullet Bay beach very much in the news lately, MP Sarah Wescot-Williams is attempting to get answers to her questions which were evaded by the Minister of VROMI in the public meetings dealing with Government’s policies on the granting of long lease land. In her letter to the Minister, the MP reminded the Minister of her attempts to get some clarity with respect to what is taking place at Mullet Bay beach. “During the sessions of public meeting no.…
PHILIPSUBRG — Financial supervisor Cft expressed serious criticism of St. Maarten’s 2021 budget in a letter from Cft-chairman Prof. Dr. Raymond Gradus to Finance Minister Ardwell Irion on October 13. The Cft is especially concerned about the huge deficits at the social funds and it urgently advises the government to take measures immediately. The financial situation of these funds is “untenable,” Gradus writes. The ZV (healthcare insurance), OV (accident insurance) and FZOG (Fund for healthcare costs of retired civil servants) funds recorded a combined deficit of 291 million guilders ($162.6 million) at the end of 2020, an increase of 21…
PHILIPSBURG — In the view of MP Wescot, “The coalition might have breathed a sigh of relief, following the contentious meetings of parliament on the long lease land policies of government, but this saga seems far from over. In the case of the Vineyard Heights/Over the Bank land, concerns remain regarding the mounting claims by inheritors.” It is on this matter, that the public meeting of parliament produced 3 motions directed to the ministry of VROMI. Motion no. 1 dated October 20th, i.a. called for cessation of all handlings regarding Vine Yard Height/Over the Bank, until a policy is put…
