The 2026 Sint Maarten Employer Compliance Calendar

Running a business in Sint Maarten means answering to two government bodies on a fixed rhythm: the Belastingdienst (the Sint Maarten Tax Office) and SZV (Sociale & Ziektekostenverzekeringen), the agency that administers social and health insurance. Some obligations come around every single month; others land once a year on a date you cannot afford to forget. The problem for most owners is not willingness to comply — it is keeping every recurring deadline in view at once, so nothing slips while you are busy running the business.

This guide pulls the whole year into a single compliance calendar. It covers what you file, how often, who you file it with, and roughly when — so you can see your employer obligations for 2026 on one page. Treat the timing here as a planning framework and always confirm the exact dates each year with the Belastingdienst and SZV, because deadlines and figures are reset periodically by the authorities.

The master compliance calendar

Below is the full picture. Every recurring obligation a typical Sint Maarten employer carries, what frequency it runs on, which authority receives it, and the timing you should plan around. Use it as your control sheet, then confirm the exact 2026 dates with the authorities before you file.

Obligation	Frequency	Filed with	Typical timing
Wage tax (loonbelasting) — aangifte loonheffing	Monthly	Belastingdienst	Declare and pay generally around the 15th of the following month
SZV premiums — ZV (sickness) & OV (accident)	Monthly	SZV	Declare and pay generally around the 15th of the following month
SZV premiums — AOV/AWW (old age & survivors)	Monthly	SZV / Belastingdienst	Declared with the monthly wage filing, generally around the 15th
AVBZ (long-term & exceptional care)	Monthly	SZV / Belastingdienst	Declared with the monthly wage filing, generally around the 15th
Turnover tax (TOT/BBO, 5%)	Monthly	Belastingdienst	File a return every month even when taxable turnover is nil
Profit tax (winstbelasting, 34.5%)	Annual	Belastingdienst	Return due 30 June; extensions available on request
Annual wage statements (year-end loon reconciliation)	Annual	Belastingdienst / SZV	After year-end, aligned with the tax authority's stated schedule

Timing is indicative and set by law; confirm the exact dates each year. CaribTax applies the current-year figures and deadlines on every filing.

The monthly rhythm

The heartbeat of Sint Maarten compliance is the monthly close. Once each payroll month ends, you calculate what was withheld and owed, then declare and pay it. Wage tax and the social security contributions are declared and paid on a monthly cycle, generally by around the 15th of the following month. In practice that means the work you do in one month is reported and settled in the first half of the next.

The monthly wage filing — the aangifte loonheffing — bundles together the wage tax (loonbelasting) withheld from employees and the SZV premiums (AOV/AWW, AVBZ, and the ZV/OV contributions). It is one combined discipline: get the calculation right, submit the declaration, and remit the payment before the window closes. Our payroll deadlines and penalties guide breaks the monthly window down in detail, and the mechanics of the wage filing itself are covered in the complete employer payroll guide.

Turnover tax runs on its own monthly track. Under the TOT/BBO regime, entrepreneurs must register and file a return every month — and this is the part owners most often miss — even when taxable turnover for the month is nil. A quiet month does not excuse the filing; a nil return is still a return that must be submitted. We explain the mechanics fully in our guide to turnover tax (TOT/BBO) in Sint Maarten.

So a typical month for a Sint Maarten employer contains three moving parts: the wage tax declaration and payment, the SZV premium declaration and payment, and the turnover tax return. All three cluster in the first half of the following month, which is why the middle of every month is the pressure point in the calendar.

The once-a-year obligations

Layered on top of the monthly rhythm are the annual events. The largest is profit tax (winstbelasting). The annual profit tax return is due 30 June, with extensions available on request, and the rate is 34.5%. Because it arrives only once a year, it is easy to under-plan for — but the fines for filing late escalate quickly, so it deserves a place on the calendar the moment the year begins. Our profit tax guide walks through the return, the request for extension, and the payment mechanics.

The second annual layer is the year-end wage reconciliation: the annual wage statements that summarise, per employee, everything that was withheld and paid across the twelve monthly filings. These reconcile your monthly declarations against the full-year totals and feed both the Tax Office and SZV records. They are administrative rather than dramatic, but they must tie out to the monthly filings you submitted through the year.

What changes on 1 January

The calendar is not static from year to year. Several of the figures you plug into your monthly filings are reset with effect from the start of the year, which means January is the month to re-check your inputs before the first run.

Each year the SZV Director publishes new pension amounts, premium percentages, and maximum wage limits, effective 1 January. So the premium rates and wage ceilings you used last December may not be the ones that apply in the new year. For reference, in 2025 the AOV/AWW maximum premium wage ceiling was ANG 131,966.57 per year, and the ZV premium was split 8.3% employer / 4.2% employee — but you should always pull the current-year figures from SZV rather than carrying last year's forward. The authoritative source is the SZV page on wage limits and premiums, alongside the broader guidance for employers.

The statutory minimum hourly wage is also revised periodically at the start of the year — it stood at NAf 10.86 as of 1 January 2025. If the minimum moves, any employee at or near the floor has to be adjusted before your first payroll run of the year, which in turn changes the amounts flowing through your monthly filings. General government guidance and announcements are published via the Government of Sint Maarten. When you have questions about filing through the SZV employer portal, the employer portal FAQs are a practical starting point, and our own walkthrough of the SZV employer portal covers the submission steps.

Your downloadable compliance checklist

If you want a simple recurring routine to work from, this is the shape of the employer year. Keep it beside your accounting file and tick each item as it clears.

1. Every month: calculate wage tax (loonbelasting) and SZV premiums, submit the aangifte loonheffing, and pay — generally by around the 15th of the following month.
2. Every month: file the turnover tax (TOT/BBO) return, even when turnover is nil.
3. Every month: issue compliant, itemised payslips to each employee and keep the records.
4. Each January: pull the new SZV premium percentages, wage ceilings, and any minimum-wage change, and update your payroll inputs before the first run.
5. By 30 June: file the annual profit tax return, or request an extension in good time.
6. After year-end: complete the annual wage statements and reconcile them against your twelve monthly filings.
7. Throughout: keep clean records so any Belastingdienst or SZV review is a formality, not a scramble.

Missing a step is rarely a matter of intent — it is a matter of visibility. Penalties in Sint Maarten are largely automatic, applied without the authorities needing to chase you first, and interest accrues on late payments. That is why the safest position is a system that never lets a month slip. Our penalties and fines guide sets out what missing each deadline actually costs.

How CaribTax keeps you on the calendar

CaribTax — the tax advisory division of BrightPath Caribbean — runs the full compliance calendar for Sint Maarten employers so nothing is left to memory. We handle the monthly wage tax and SZV premium filings, the monthly turnover tax returns, the annual profit tax deadline, and the year-end wage statements, and we apply each year's updated figures from 1 January. You approve; we file, on time, every period. Explore the full Sint Maarten payroll service, see how we manage recurring filings under ongoing compliance, or request a quote using the form above.