Your household goods to Bonaire: the exemption you apply for before shipping

Yes, your household goods go to Bonaire tax-free, but not automatically. Customs Caribbean Netherlands only grants the exemption from import taxes to those who hold a permit, and you apply for it before shipping, with a signed list of everything you want exempted. What it costs otherwise: Bonaire levies no import duty, but it does levy the general expenditure tax of 8% on the customs value, and that value is the purchase price plus the freight and insurance costs to the island. The trap is the clock: the goods must have been yours for at least six months, they must reach the island within six months of your settling, and you may not sell, rent out or lend them for twelve months after that.

What conditions does Customs set?

The exemption from ABB and excise applies to removal goods: Customs itself lists furniture, appliances, clothing, personal belongings, a car and pets. The conditions are on one page and all apply at once:

• you have owned and used the goods, with the exception of passenger vehicles, for at least six months;
• a passenger vehicle must have been in your possession and use for twelve months;
• you submit a signed list of all goods for which you claim the exemption;
• you import the goods within six months of taking up residence in the Caribbean Netherlands;
• you do not lend, pledge, rent out or transfer them within twelve months of import.

What never counts as removal goods: pleasure craft, sports and hobby vehicles, alcoholic drinks beyond a normal household stock, and tobacco products. On those you simply pay tax on import and, where applicable, excise.

What do you pay without a permit?

Item	Rate or deadline
Import duty, all goods	0%
General expenditure tax (ABB) on Bonaire	8% of the customs value
ABB on a passenger car or van	25%, electric 0%
Customs value	purchase price plus freight and insurance to the first place of entry
Ownership period for ordinary removal goods	at least 6 months
Ownership period for a passenger vehicle	at least 12 months
Import after settling	within 6 months
No selling, renting out or lending	12 months after import

The ABB is levied on the customs value. Whoever lets a container with an insured value of, say, twenty thousand dollars arrive without a permit pays 8% on that amount and on the freight, and for a car in the same container 25% on the value of the car plus its share of the freight. The permit is therefore no formality but the difference between nothing and a four-figure bill.

The order is: first the permit, then the ship. Customs Caribbean Netherlands wants the application with the signed goods list before the import. A container already on its way without a permit is cleared at the full rate on arrival, and the six months count from your settling, not from your arrival with the container.

What do you arrange on the Dutch side?

Bonaire lies outside the European Union, and you notice that on departure. Dutch Customs writes that whoever moves to a country outside the EU must file an export declaration for the removal goods, with an inventory list of the items going along. That list is practically the same as the signed list Customs Caribbean Netherlands asks for: so make it once, per box, and use it on both sides. Separate rules apply to cars and motorcycles; those are in your car to Bonaire, including the reason why the bpm refund does not exist here.

What do you deliberately leave behind?

Customs doesn't make the choice for you, but the rules do a little. Drink and tobacco beyond a household stock cost excise and ABB. A boat or a quad never counts as removal goods. And a car you have owned for less than twelve months pays 25%, while the rest of the container is free; whoever buys another car in the last months before leaving makes precisely the mistake that costs most. Whoever brings a pet will see that it, too, falls under the exemption as removal goods, but with its own vaccination clock.

Where the container sits in the planning, next to admission and registration, is in the step-by-step plan for Bonaire.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 3 of 5 of the journey, step 3.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Bonaire or go straight to step 3.1 in the open plan.