Tax authorities make a virtue out of necessity! After the fire in the tax office, the material damage to furniture and computer hardware is undoubtedly considerable. I understand that the data is stored electronically elsewhere, and backups have been made.
However, piles of “papers” have been destroyed; I assume that this concerns particularly objections and requests for deferment of payment; in contrast to the returns that must be submitted electronically, these still have to be physically delivered on paper to the tax office.
I propose to make the need a virtue and to open the possibility of allowing objections and requests for deferment of payment via e-mail (or via the already existing portals of taxpayers) if especially the first must be able to be realized quickly.
With this, from the moment of submission, these items can be stored – securely – digitally, people are prevented – at any new/temporary – location, this increases efficiency, saves trees and necessary storage space, and will generally reduce the cost of doing business on Curaçao.
Fred Rabbeling
Curaçao
