PHILIPSBURG – During the last three months of the year, bailiffs of the tax inspectorate issued more than 1,400 warrants to private citizens and businesses whose fiscal obligations apparently are not current. The warrants all have one line in common: “Without known place of residence in St. Maarten or elsewhere.” In other words: the tax inspectorate is unable to find these tax payers. So who are these tax fugitives?
The untraceable taxpayers fall in around fifty different categories – from private citizens to bars and restaurants, and from car rentals to law offices. The activities of a large majority of the companies are untraceable. Who knows what companies with names like No Problem, Springsteen Corporation, No Limit Solutions or Cheerful Chairs International were up to? At least one entrepreneur probably foresaw what was coming after Hurricane Irma when he named his enterprise Titanic Fashion.
Of the 1,439 warrants the tax inspectorate published in the National Gazette between October 11 and December 20, 447 (31 percent) fall in the category Unknown. Leading the pack after that are Retailers (194, or 13 percent), followed by Restaurants and Bars (128, or 9 percent) and Private Citizens (86, or 6 percent).
The top ten of St. Maarten’s tax fugitives is completed by companies in the categories Construction and Contractors (65 – 5 percent), Marine Industry (58 – 4 percent), Real Estate (57 – 4 percent), Management and Consultancy (40 – 3 percent), Jewelers and Watches (28 – 2 percent).
The contractors-category contains a few remarkable entries. One is Energizer, a construction company owned by former MP Silvio Matser. Why the tax inspectorate is unable to find this company – or its (possibly previous) owner is a mystery. Others are Ballast Nedam Caribbean, Ballast Nedam Curacao and Volker Stevin Caribbean, an entity that was involved in the construction of the causeway bridge across the Simpson Bay Lagoon.
In the category real estate Adiland Blue Mall is a remarkable name, as is Peyton Cromwell’s Eclid Holding.
The tax inspectorate is also after companies in categories where one would least expect them: seven accountants (among them Hassink & Roos), five law offices (among them HBN Law), eight medical professionals (among them Soeters Dental Care), two religious organizations, one labor union (UFA), one company in funeral services, one bailiff (Patrick’s Deurwaarder and Incasso) and last but not least: the ‘Stichting tot Bevordering van Volksontwikkeling’ – the entity that manages the Raoul Illidge Sports Complex.
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Related article:
Opinion piece: “Tax fugitives“
