Good to know
Good to Know
- Bonaire's official currency is the US Dollar, so there is no local-currency conversion involved in any business cost quoted for the island — figures are already in USD.
- Registration is not optional for any income-generating activity, including freelancing — even sole proprietors and freelancers must register in the Commercial Register and pay the mandatory annual Chamber of Commerce contribution.
- The Business Affairs Desk (Bedrijvenloket) inside the Chamber of Commerce's Ondernemershuis specifically helps people starting a business from outside Bonaire, since the local permit process can be confusing for non-residents — worth contacting before flying in.
- A foreign owner does not need to be physically present to incorporate a BV — a notarized Power of Attorney can let a local representative (lawyer or formation agent) handle the notary and registration steps.
- Getting the business ('vestiging') permit is a separate step from company registration itself, and depending on your activity you may also need sector-specific licenses (alcohol/catering, restaurant, street trading, environmental) on top of the basic business permit.
- Bonaire's tax system is genuinely different from mainland Netherlands tax law: there is no corporate profit tax at all, but a 5% tax applies specifically when a company pays out profits as dividends.
- If you form a BV but it doesn't meet the local 'substance' requirements (enough local staff/premises, or staying under the small-business turnover/asset thresholds), the tax authorities can treat it as Dutch-domiciled instead, which changes the tax outcome substantially — get local accounting advice before assuming the 5% rate applies to you.
- For US citizens specifically, owning a foreign (Bonaire) company can trigger separate US reporting and tax rules (like GILTI/Form 5471) on the US side — this is a US home-country tax matter, not a Bonaire filing, so it sits outside Bonaire's own tax obligations but is worth planning around with a cross-border tax advisor.
- A sole proprietorship is registered directly online through the Bonaire Chamber of Commerce and its registration fee scales with invested capital rather than being a flat fee.
Corporate Tax System Overview
- Details
- Since 2011 Bonaire abolished the classic corporate profit tax and replaced it with a 'revenue tax' (opbrengstbelasting), sometimes called a 'yield tax', charged only when a company distributes profits, not on retained earnings.
- Profit Tax
- Bonaire has no standard corporate profits tax (winstbelasting).
- Consequence Of Not Qualifying
- If neither substance test is met, the entity is instead treated as domiciled in the European Netherlands and its profits become subject to the full Dutch corporate profit tax there rather than Bonaire's regime.
- Qualifying As A Bonaire Resident Entity
- To benefit from the 5% revenue tax rate instead of being deemed domiciled in the European Netherlands (and subject to Dutch corporate profit tax there), an incorporated entity must obtain an 'establishment permit' (vestigingsplaatsbeschikking) from the tax authorities showing sufficient local substance.
Revenue Tax Rate
- Rate Percent
- 5
- Applies To
- Profit distributions (dividends) paid by an incorporated entity (BV/NV) to its shareholders, where the shareholder is treated as Bonaire tax-resident.
Substance Test Options
- At least 3 local employees and a leased or owned commercial building worth at least $50,000 USD, OR
- Total sales no more than $80,000 USD and total assets not exceeding $200,000 USD, with no trust/fiduciary, insurance, or financial services activity.
Other Recurring Local Business Taxes
Expenditure Tax / ABB (Bonaire's Turnover/sales-type Tax)
- Rate Goods Percent
- 8
- Rate Services Percent
- 6
- Small Business Exemption Threshold
- $20,000
Entrepreneurs whose turnover in the preceding year was under this threshold may request an exemption from the Expenditure Tax, subject to conditions.
Wage Tax (Loonbelasting)
- Description
- Withheld by the employer on salaries paid to staff, including an owner-director's own salary if operating through a BV.
Real Estate Tax (Vastgoedbelasting)
- Effective Rate Range
- Roughly 0.4%–0.8% depending on property type (sources differ slightly on the exact effective rate; hotels get a discounted rate).
- Description
- Levied on income deemed to arise from certain business-owned real estate, calculated as a fixed percentage of official fair market value rather than actual rental income.
Transfer Tax (Overdrachtsbelasting)
- Rate Percent
- 5
- Applies To
- Transfers of real estate, relevant if a company buys/sells business premises.
Freelancer Sole Proprietor Vs Full Company
- General Decision Factors
- Bonaire's own accountants frame the choice as depending mainly on expected profit level and liability risk: a sole proprietorship (eenmanszaak) is simpler and cheaper to run at lower profit levels, while a BV becomes more worthwhile once profits are more substantial, since it caps personal liability and lets profit accumulate inside the company without tax until distributed.
BV Company
- Best For
- Higher-profit businesses, anyone wanting liability protection, or situations involving investors or multiple owners.
- Liability
- Shareholder liability is limited to their capital contribution; personal assets are generally shielded from business debts.
- How It Works
- A 'Besloten Vennootschap' (BV) is a separate legal entity, fully foreign-ownable, requiring notarized Articles of Incorporation and registration in the Commercial Register (handled by the notary rather than the entrepreneur directly on Bonaire).
- Tax Treatment
- The BV itself is not taxed on retained profits (no profit tax); the 5% revenue tax applies only when profits are actually distributed to shareholders, provided the BV qualifies as Bonaire tax-resident under the substance tests above.
- Administrative Burden
- Higher than a sole proprietorship: requires a notary to incorporate, quarterly wage and ABB filings, and an annual financial statement filing.
- Director Salary Practice
- A director drawing income from a profitable BV should generally pay themselves a market-commensurate salary; one Bonaire-based US tax advisory firm cites a practical working minimum of around $12,000 USD/year as a starting reference point, with the rest able to remain as company profit taxed only on distribution.
- Shareholder Requirements
- Only one shareholder is required and that shareholder can also be the sole manager/director.
Sole Proprietorship Eenmanszaak
- Best For
- Freelancers, solo consultants, and small operations with modest profit and limited liability risk, especially early on.
- Liability
- The owner is personally and fully liable for business debts; there is no separation between personal and business assets.
- How It Works
- An individual entrepreneur (not a separate legal entity) registers directly with the Bonaire Chamber of Commerce.
- Registration
- Registered directly online with the Bonaire Chamber of Commerce (KvK Bonaire); registration fee is set on a sliding 13-tier scale based mainly on invested capital.
- Tax Treatment
- Profits are taxed as personal income tax in the owner's hands rather than under the company revenue-tax regime, since there is no profit tax on Bonaire for entities but income earned outside an entity is taxed as individual income.
Registration Fee Range
- Amount USD Max
- 600
- Amount USD Min
- 65
- Currency Local
- USD
- Amount Local Max
- 600
- Amount Local Min
- 65
Currency Note
Bonaire's official currency is the US Dollar (USD), so all local and USD figures below are identical.
Filing Obligations For An Incorporated Business
Filing Obligations For An Incorporated Business
- Quarterly wage withholding tax filing and payment (if the company has employees or pays the owner-director a salary).
- Quarterly Expenditure Tax (ABB) filing and payment.
- Quarterly revenue tax reporting/payment when profit distributions are made.
- Annual financial statement (annual accounts) filing for the company.
Incorporation Process And Requirements
- Corporate Tax Context
- Bonaire's BES tax regime differs from mainland Dutch corporate tax; sources reviewed disagreed on the exact current rate/structure (a flat 25% corporate income tax figure versus an older description of a 5% 'yield tax' on distributed profits with conditions), so this should be verified directly with a Bonaire tax adviser or the Belastingdienst Caribisch Nederland before relying on it for planning.
- Registry Body
- Chamber of Commerce Bonaire (Kamer van Koophandel Bonaire, 'KvK Bonaire') maintains Bonaire's own Commercial Register, separate from the Netherlands' Handelsregister. Every company on the islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands registers with its own local chamber of commerce.
- Shelf Companies
- Not available on Bonaire — every BV must go through the full drafting and registration process from scratch.
- Who Must Register
- Every business active on Bonaire must be registered in the Commercial Register, including sole proprietorships and freelancers, and membership in the Chamber of Commerce is mandatory for all registered businesses.
- Legal Framework Overview
- Bonaire is a special municipality of the Netherlands (one of the three 'BES islands' making up the Caribbean Netherlands, alongside Saba and St. Eustatius). Business activities are regulated under Dutch legislation with local adjustments specific to the BES islands, and business registration is handled locally rather than through the mainland Dutch KVK.
- Local Partner Or Sponsor Requirement
- No mandatory local-partner or local-sponsor requirement was found for foreign incorporation. A BV can be formed with a single shareholder, that shareholder can be a foreign natural person or a foreign legal entity, and can reside outside Bonaire. Foreigners who cannot appear in person can register by proxy, using a notarized Power of Attorney authorizing a local resident, law firm, or formation company to act as their legal representative for the notarial and registration steps.
- Business Permit Substantive Requirements
- To qualify for the local business ('vestiging') permit issued by the Public Entity of Bonaire, an applicant must show: (1) sufficient knowledge of the operations to be performed, (2) sufficient capital for those operations, and (3) that the operations do not conflict with the public interest.
Timeline
- Business Permit Processing
- Since April 1, 2021 the Chamber of Commerce and the Public Entity of Bonaire have coordinated the permit process, and applications can now be filed online, which shortens processing time versus the paper process, though an exact day-count for online approval was not published in the sources reviewed.
- Overall Realistic Estimate
- Plan for roughly 2–4+ weeks end-to-end for a straightforward single-owner BV or sole proprietorship (notary/registration plus the business permit), longer if the activity requires additional sector licenses (e.g., food service, alcohol sales) or if documents must be legalized/apostilled from abroad.
- Chamber Of Commerce Registration
- One sourced estimate puts typical Chamber of Commerce registration at approximately 14 business days.
Official Links
- https://bonairechamber.com/en/register/ (Chamber of Commerce Bonaire — Commercial Register)
- https://bonairechamber.com/en/advice-and-information/permits-and-licences/ (Chamber of Commerce Bonaire — permits and licenses overview)
Steps To Incorporate
- 1. Choose a legal structure and a company name that does not duplicate an existing registered name; a BV's name must end in 'Besloten Vennootschap' or 'BV'.
- 2. For a BV, have Articles of Incorporation drafted and notarized by a civil-law notary; any later amendments requiring registration must also be notarized.
- 3. Register the company in the Commercial Register of the Chamber of Commerce Bonaire to obtain a registration/extract number.
- 4. Apply for the mandatory business permit ('vestigingsvergunning') from the Public Entity of Bonaire (the local government), submitting a Chamber of Commerce extract that is less than seven working days old.
- 5. Apply for any additional sector-specific permits triggered by the registered business activities — common examples include the environmental permit, the license to sell alcohol/operate a catering or hospitality establishment, the restaurant license, and the street trader's license.
- 6. Tax registration follows on from Chamber of Commerce registration; businesses are subject to Bonaire/BES tax rules rather than mainland Dutch tax rules.
Common Legal Structures
- Sole proprietorship (eenmanszaak)
- Partnership (VOF-type structure)
- Besloten Vennootschap (BV) – private limited liability company, the most common vehicle for foreign-owned businesses
- Naamloze Vennootschap (NV) – public limited company
AI-generated estimateData refreshed July 2026
Sources cited for this category
These are the sources cited in this business permits & incorporation for foreigners research for this city. Individual figures may not each trace to one of them.
More About Bonaire
Data last updated July 2026 · Verify anything important.