Hello Everybody:

What is the average salary of a School teacher in Bonaire ? Is it a good place to work and live for 10-20 years ? Can we buy a house (average with three bedrooms) ? How much it would cost ? What is the average monthly expense for a family (two children, husband and wife)? Is about NAFL 5,000/month a good salary to lead a normal life there ?

I will appreciate if you would give me the requested info.

Thank you

Naf 5000 gross would be about Naf 3900 nett. This could be considered a good income on Bonaire.
Question is if you would be able to adjust to the local situation. You have to consider that Bonaire is an island. Everything has to be brought in. Rice probably comes from Surinam, meat probably comes from Venezuela.
In the neighborhood, so very affordable. Potatoes and fresh milk come from USA, so a little further away and more expensive. If you would like rookworst from Holland ( like I do) you would pay like 9 guilders.So again if you would be willing to adjust your lifestyle, things could work out for you.
Buying a house, well I don't know where you are coming from but compared to eg Dutch prices I would say buying a house is relatively cheap. Renting is pretty expensive.
If you would rent in a acceptable neighbourhood, you might pay 1000 to 1200 guilder for a 3 bedroom house.
Last question ; 10-20 years ?? I don't know about that. In this part of the world I think we live by the day, maybe week or month.
I have been on this island for 12 years now and basically I never regretted it. I have seen lots of people come and leave frustrated in a couple of weeks/months. On the other hand I have seen people come and fell in love with the island within days and never left. (like my wife and myself). But looking ahead 20 years. I don't know about that.

Hello Jan,

I noted that you are a tax consultant by profession so I can't resist asking you a general tax question. I hope you don't mind :-).

Info on the Sunbelt Realty website states that income from investments (dividends, capital gains, etc) are not taxed on the Netherlands Antilles. Is this really true? If so, it would appear that the primary Netherlands Antilles tax expense for someone retiring on Bonaire and living off of investments would be property taxes (assuming they own rather than rent). Correct?

Thanks,
Barton

Hello Barton

I would have hoped I could answer your question with a simple yes or no since this is obviously an application for a free consult.
I will make an exception for you and try to explain the situation. The info you read is not correct or maybe better; not complete.

If you reside on the island we are talking of a situation that you are more than a yearly tourist but actually stay on the island for lets say 9 months or maybe even longer, own a house and consider yourself living on this island, than you are considered A status taxpayer, meaning that you will have to file your worldincome and pay taxes on that worldincome. Even if you already pay your taxes in the USA. The reason for that is simple, no tax treaty. So double taxation.
So now we have to see what items would be taxable, since there are big differences in what is taxable in the USA and what is taxable here.
Taxable in the Antilles ; interest / dividend / pension / rent, to give some examples
Not taxable ; capital gain eg buying a house and selling it with profit / buying and selling shares and making profit. But as long as you do not do this on a professional basis. In that case the profit would be taxable.
Now last but not least ; we have a special tax rate for retired people. Under certain conditions you can apply for 10% rate.
The above is not the complete story. It is just to give you an idea. Lots of restrictions / conditions etc.
I cannot go into detail, specially since this is a free consultation.
I would advice to consult a tax consultant before moving to Bonaire to discuss all the options.
Don't ask me whom I would advice cause I think Jake would charge me for advertising.

We don't want to create any more paperwork for Jan to process when he does our taxes :-)

Hello Jan,

Thank you for your detailed response. I had not intended to have my post be a request for free personal consultation. I apologize if it appeared that way.

My motivation was to possibly obtain some general, basic information that would be useful for this group, information that corrects or clarifies, as you stated, information that is misleading on another web site. Again, thank you for being willing to share the basics.

I will, (dare I say it?) contact you directly to discuss your recommendations.

Thanks,
Barton

Hello Barton

I did not mind the free consultation. It sometimes worries me that businesses trying to sell something are not beiing completely complete.

I will be in Bonaire for three weeks, May 1-22. I hope to devote the week of May 17-21 to finding out some of the costs involved in retiring there. Taxes are an area of great interest. If anyone could point me in the correct direction to find this information, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Very interesting information, Jan. I'll have to look into what determines retirement in Bonaire. I know my pension will be evermore taxed by New York State no matter where in the world I live, but a 10 % tax rate otherwise as an island resident is most appealing. Especially if being out of the US more than six months excuses one from US federal taxes.

Seb,

Being outside the U.S. for more than six months does not excuse you from U.S. taxes. You can get a foreign earned income exemption after meeting some much more stringent criteria. I'll explain it to you over ribs at Bobbe Jans on Sunday :-)

Jake