WILLEMSTAD – A ruling by the District Court of Gelderland has important implications for Curaçao-based companies operating within international corporate structures. The court has determined that the Dutch tax inspector wrongly refused to issue formal loss determinations for a Curaçao-incorporated company, even though statutory assessment and reassessment deadlines had already expired.
The case involved a Curaçao company that forms part of a wider international group fully owned by a single shareholder. The company was incorporated in 2008 and was statutorily established in Curaçao during the years 2010 and from 2012 through 2015. Following an investigation into its place of effective management, the Dutch tax authorities concluded that the company’s actual place of management during those years was in the Netherlands.
As a result of that conclusion, other companies within the same structure were issued corporate income tax reassessments in the Netherlands. The Curaçao company itself, however, had incurred losses during the relevant years. In 2021, it formally requested the issuance of loss determinations for the years 2010 and 2012–2015.
The Dutch tax inspector rejected the request and declared the company’s objection inadmissible, arguing that both the regular assessment period and the reassessment period had expired. The central legal question was whether the inspector was still required to issue a loss determination under those circumstances.
In its judgment, the Rechtbank Gelderland ruled that the inspector’s refusal constituted a decision that was subject to objection and appeal. The court emphasized that under Dutch corporate tax law, losses must be formally established through a decision that can be contested. The fact that such decisions are usually issued alongside a tax assessment does not mean they are limited to that timeframe.
According to the court, the law does not impose a deadline for requesting a loss determination, nor does the absence of a filed tax return prevent such a request. Referring to established case law from the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, the court noted that loss determinations can also be issued when no assessment has been imposed or when an assessment was issued outside the statutory time limits.
During the hearing, the tax inspector acknowledged that there was no longer any dispute regarding the amount of the losses claimed by the company. In light of this, the court decided to settle the matter directly. It declared the company’s appeals well founded, annulled the earlier decisions on objection, and formally established the loss determinations for the years 2010 and 2012 through 2015.
The ruling is particularly relevant for Curaçao-based entities involved in cross-border structures, especially in cases where disputes arise over place of management and tax residency. It underscores that procedural deadlines do not automatically extinguish a company’s right to have losses formally recognized, even years later.
