Everyone has a tax country of residence and every organization has a country of tax residence. Financial institutions are obliged to determine the tax residence or country of residence of their customers. They do this for new customers in a different way than for existing customers.

A new customer

From January 1, 2016, financial institutions in CRS countries are obliged to have new customers submit a ‘self-declaration’. In Curaçao, natural persons can do this with the ‘Determining tax residency’ form and organizations with the ‘Determining tax status’ form. Almost all financial institutions in Curaçao use these forms. They were drawn up by the Ministry of Finance.

An existing customer

For customers who were already account holders on January 1, 2016, the financial institutions may rely on the information they already have. If there is a suspicion that this information is incorrect, the institution must ask the customer to provide a self-declaration. The reason for this may be, for example, a move abroad, if the customer provides a foreign telephone number, or if the information is outdated.