Your household goods to Sint Eustatius: the exemption before the ship, 6% ABB and the pier of Oranjebaai

Yes, your household goods go to Sint Eustatius tax-free, but not by themselves. Customs Caribbean Netherlands grants the exemption from import taxes only to whoever holds a permit, and you apply for it before shipping with a signed list of everything you want exempted. What it costs otherwise: no import duty on Statia, but the general expenditure tax of 6% on the customs value, and that value is the purchase price plus the freight and insurance costs up to the island. That is two points less than on Bonaire, and it is still a four-figure bill for a full container. The trap is the clock: six months of ownership, import within six months of settling, no sale for twelve months.

What conditions does Customs set?

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

• you move from outside the Caribbean Netherlands to one of the islands and go to live there, and you lived at least 183 days per calendar year outside the Caribbean Netherlands;
• you have owned and used the goods, passenger vehicles excepted, for at least six months; a passenger vehicle 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 on the island;
• 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 above a normal household stock, and tobacco products.

What do you pay without the permit?

Item	Rate or term
Import duty, all goods	0%
ABB on import on Sint Eustatius and Saba	6% on the customs value (Bonaire: 8%)
ABB on a passenger car or van on Sint Eustatius	progressive: 18% up to USD 20,000, above that 22 and 30%; electric 0%
Excise on Sint Eustatius and Saba	only on the import of petrol; not on cigarettes and spirits
Customs value	purchase price plus freight and insurance up to the first place of arrival
Ownership period for ordinary removal goods	at least 6 months
Import after settling	within 6 months
No sale, rental or lending	12 months after import
Luggage on the ferry from Sint Maarten	one 50 lb bag free; each extra bag $ 30

Whoever lets a container with an insured value of twenty thousand dollars arrive without a permit pays 6% on that amount and on the freight; a car in the same container falls under the progressive car rate. One difference from Bonaire that touches the shopping list: on the Windward Islands you only pay excise on import on petrol, not on drink or tobacco, although a stock above household use remains subject to ABB.

The order is: first the permit, then the ship. Customs Caribbean Netherlands wants the application with the signed goods list before import. A container already under way without a permit is cleared at 6% on arrival, and the six months count from your settling, not from the day the ship comes in.

What do you arrange on the Dutch side?

Sint Eustatius 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: make it once, per box, and use it on both sides.

Where does the container arrive, and what goes in the suitcase?

The island's only seaport is the Charles A. Woodley Pier in Oranjebaai, which handles cargo daily from 6 to 18 and unloads general cargo, containers and building materials under customs supervision; the harbour office is open from 8 to 17, and Customs itself is on H.M. Queen Beatrix Road in Oranjestad. That is the container side. The suitcase side runs via Sint Maarten: the Makana ferry carries one bag of at most 50 lbs free and charges $ 30 for each extra one. What you need in the first weeks, before the ship is there, therefore travels along by hand via Sint Maarten, and what is too heavy or too big waits for the container.

What do you deliberately leave behind?

Customs does not make the choice for you, but the rules do a little. A boat or a quad never counts as removal goods. A car you have owned for less than twelve months pays the progressive rate while the rest of the container is free. And whoever takes a pet sees that it too falls under the exemption as removal goods, but with its own vaccination clock and its own place in the small aircraft from Sint Maarten. Where the container sits in the planning, next to admission and registration, is in the step-by-step plan for Sint Eustatius.

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 Sint Eustatius or go straight to step 3.1 in the open plan.