The Suriname VAT return, explained

A business established in Suriname with a taxable turnover of more than SRD 1,000,000 in a calendar year, excluding VAT, must register for VAT straight away (article 21). All of its activities count together.

Below that amount the business is exempt: it doesn't file returns or pay VAT, but it can't reclaim VAT on its purchases either. A small business can ask the inspector to apply the VAT rules anyway; it then keeps them for at least the next two years.

Exempt is not the same as 0%. On both you charge no VAT, but VAT on purchases is only deductible when they're used for taxed supplies, which include those at 0% but not exempt ones (article 14).

The VAT period is a calendar month. The return must be filed, and the VAT paid, before the 16th of the following month (article 13): the return for March is due by 15 April. Returns are filed online in the Belastingdienst's portal, in whole SRD with the cents dropped.

Late payment costs interest, and VAT that's paid late or not at all can lead to a fine. Once you're registered, file every month, also when there's nothing to pay.

The return follows the flow of your business: VAT you owe on what you sell (Total A), less the VAT you paid on what you buy (Total B).

• Domestic supplies: sales at 5%, 10%, 25% and 0%, exempt sales and private use of business goods.
• Exports: goods and services supplied abroad, both at 0%.
• Goods and services from abroad: purchases where you account for the VAT yourself (reverse charge).
• Total A: all VAT you owe.
• Input VAT: VAT charged on your domestic purchases, and VAT paid on imports.
• Total B: all VAT you can deduct.
• The balance: Total A less Total B, with corrections of earlier periods, to pay or to reclaim.

Sales lines show the amount excluding VAT and the VAT on it. Only VAT on a proper invoice (article 27 and 28) or on an import document can be deducted.

A supplier abroad that provides services to your business in Suriname doesn't charge Surinamese VAT. You account for it yourself (article 11): add the VAT to what you owe and, when you use the service for taxed supplies, deduct it as input VAT on the same return. The net effect is usually nil, but both sides must be on the return.

When you invoice a customer who has to account for the VAT themselves, your invoice says "BTW verlegd" instead of charging VAT.

VAT paid to customs on goods you import for your business is deductible as input VAT, with the import document as proof. If a customs broker paid it for you, they must give you a statement showing the VAT within fifteen days of the import (article 27).

When a business customer pays in advance, you must invoice the advance before it's due, with the VAT on it (article 27). VAT is due when you invoice or receive the payment. The final invoice charges VAT on the whole amount and takes off the advance and the VAT already invoiced.

Some VAT is never deductible, even when the expense is for your business (article 14):

• Food, drinks and tobacco.
• Business gifts and other gifts.
• Wages in kind and staff entertainment.
• Passenger cars and the costs that go with them, except for car dealers, car leasing companies and vehicles over 3,500 kg.

• Treating exempt sales as 0%, or the other way round.
• Forgetting the reverse charge on services from suppliers abroad.
• Deducting VAT without a proper invoice or import document.
• Deducting VAT on meals, gifts or passenger cars.
• Not filing in a month without sales.
• Invoicing an advance payment without VAT.

CoreBooks fills the return from every posted invoice, bill and bank transaction, laid out like the Belastingdienst's form, in whole SRD and with the deadline. Tax codes for every rate, reverse charge and import VAT are added in one click, and a filed return shows anything that changed in the period afterwards.