Moving to a free port: the container, the car and the hurricane season

You move your belongings to Sint Maarten without a customs file, because the island is a free port: no import duties are levied.

Whoever knows the Curaçao stories does expect such a file, with exemption forms, ownership requirements and bans on selling. That doesn't exist on Sint Maarten. Customs is an enforcement service and not a till, and the only levy it collects is the excise on petrol.

What it does cost then:

• the sea container;
• the residual bpm you leave behind in the Netherlands, the car tax still contained in the value of your car;
• on the island, every year, the motor vehicle tax of XCG 275 or 750 (Caribbean guilders), which you buy as plates.

The trap is the calendar: a container that arrives in the middle of the hurricane season.

Why is the container the clock of your planning?

The household goods go by sea container from Rotterdam to Philipsburg. That means weeks on the water, and with that the clock of your whole journey. The choice is the same as at every overseas destination:

• your own 20- or 40-footer (a container twenty or forty feet long);
• a part load per cubic metre;
• selling and starting over there.

That last option is more expensive on an import island than it sounds: furniture comes by boat and is priced accordingly. The cost indication reckons with € 2,500 to 6,000 for a part container, € 4,000 to 13,000 for a 20-footer and € 5,500 to 15,000 for a 40-footer, with the caveat that no mover publishes a route price to Sint Maarten.

Ask for three quotes for the same inventory, and watch what is not included. The insurance and the local handling are the items the bill runs up on. An inventory list with values you make while packing. Not for an exemption, because that is not needed here, but for your insurer and a smooth clearance (the handling at customs).

What does the car cost, if there is no import duty?

On Curaçao the twelve-month requirement decides whether your car can come. On Sint Maarten that requirement doesn't exist, because there is no exemption to earn: there is no import duty. Bringing it costs the freight (cheapest in the household container), the clearance, the inspection and the plates.

Item	What it is	Source
Import duty	none: Sint Maarten is a free port	Customs Sint Maarten
Residual bpm	lost: the refund on export applies only on durable registration in an EU member state, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway	Belastingdienst
Motor vehicle tax passenger car	XCG 275 (petrol) or XCG 750 (diesel or gas) a year, by quarter for a start in the course of the year	Motor vehicle tax, articles 4 and 5
Plates	apply for and collect at the Receiver from the first working day of January to the end of February; on the car from 1 March	Motor vehicle tax, article 11
Inspection certificate	valid two years for a passenger car for own use	Inspection of motor vehicles, article 6
Collecting the plates	proof of payment, valid insurance and valid inspection; three days	Public Service Center

Two things belong in the sum.

• The residual bpm you lose. The refund on export applies only within the EU/EEA, so a young car invisibly takes thousands of euros of residual value along. Rather bring a written-off car, or buy one on the local market, where as at home you drive on the right with the wheel on the left.
• The annual plate cycle. You pay the motor vehicle tax by buying new number plates every year in January and February, with valid insurance and an inspection certificate as conditions at collection.

Your Dutch driving licence you need not exchange: the Road Traffic Ordinance treats licences issued in the Netherlands as equal to the Sint Maarten one. What does count is the expiry date, because a Sint Maarten licence you only get once you are in the population register. Read car and driving licence on Sint Maarten.