Working on Curaçao: no work permit, but a CRIB number, and a payslip with four premiums

Yes, you may work on Curaçao without a work permit. The National Ordinance on Foreign Labour forbids an employer to let a foreigner work without a work permit, but article 3 exempts everyone admitted by operation of law under article 3 of the admission law, and as a Dutch citizen with a certificate of conduct, housing and sufficient means of support you fall under that. Applying for jobs, taking employment or starting a sole proprietorship therefore works as at home. The find is at the Tax Administration: you only exist there with a CRIB number, to be applied for as soon as you are registered at Kranshi and have a sédula, and without that number no employer can pay you correctly. The pitfall is the payslip itself: besides wage tax of 9.75 to 46.5%, four premiums come off (AOV/AWW, AVBZ and bvz), and you file a return on your worldwide income, so also on what you still earn or receive in the Netherlands.

May I work, and as a self-employed person?

The rule is strikingly short. The ban in the labour law "does not apply with respect to a foreigner" who has admission by operation of law under article 3 of the admission law; part f of that article names the adult Dutch citizens who show that they have a certificate of good conduct over the last five years, housing and sufficient means of support. That is exactly the declaration by operation of law you apply for anyway. The law keeps one reservation: by island decree a work permit can still be required for economic reasons. No such arrangement is currently on the government's pages; whoever goes to work in a protected sector asks the employer.

For a sole proprietorship the same right of admission applies; the establishment and licensing requirements for businesses fall outside this article.

What is on my Curaçao payslip?

Your employer withholds wage tax in the same brackets as income tax, from 9.75% up to and including 46.5%, and in addition the employee's share of four premiums: the AOV (old age), the AWW (widows and orphans), the AVBZ (exceptional medical expenses) and the bvz (basic health insurance). At the end of the year you receive an annual statement, the wage tax card, with the wage, the withheld premiums and the withheld wage tax. For the bvz it is 13.6% of annual income, split into an employer's and an employee's share; too much or too little withheld employee premium is settled with your assessment.

Item	What applies
Work permit	not needed for those admitted by operation of law (LAV art. 3)
CRIB number	compulsory for every taxpayer; apply by e-mail with sédula or passport, name and address, after your Kranshi registration
Wage tax	9.75% up to and including 46.5%, in brackets
Premiums on the payslip	AOV/AWW, AVBZ and bvz (bvz 13.6% of annual income, employer's plus employee's share)
Turnover tax in the shop	6%, 7% or 9%
Minimum hourly wage	Cg 11.93 from 1 January 2026 (indexation of 1.8% compared with Cg 11.72)
Income tax return	online, within 2 months of the invitation; without invitation on your own initiative, up to 36 months

What do I earn, and what is the minimum?

Wages are lower than in the Netherlands, and the floor is fixed: the statutory minimum wage is an hourly wage indexed annually to consumer prices. For 2026 the Social and Economic Council advised in December 2025 on the increase from Cg 11.72 to Cg 11.93 per hour, an indexation of 1.8% from 1 January 2026. Whoever converts a salary into euros adds the more expensive groceries and the turnover tax of 6, 7 or 9% invisibly in every price; the cost indication for Curaçao works through the first months.

How does the tax return work?

Everyone living on Curaçao is a domestic taxpayer and files a return on their worldwide income: wages, profit, interest and dividend, rental income (65% of the proceeds) and periodic payments, wherever earned. The Tax Administration sends an invitation by post; after that you have two months to file online, with extension on request. If no invitation comes while you do have income, you file on your own initiative, up to 36 months after the filing year opened. What the Netherlands may still tax (AOW, government pension, a rented-out house) is governed by the BRNC kingdom act; that is in tax and the penshonado scheme.

The order is the pitfall: first the declaration by operation of law, then Kranshi, then the sédula, only then the CRIB number. Whoever has a job on day one but the chain not yet complete can work but cannot be paid correctly. So start with the application for the declaration from the Netherlands, and have the CRIB application ready for the day the sédula is in.

One thing to remember for whoever also still has Dutch income: the penshonado scheme and local work exclude each other, also for your partner. Whoever takes a job on the island thereby chooses the ordinary rate on the whole income.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 1 of 5 of the journey, step 1.2: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Curaçao or go straight to step 1.2 in the open plan.