St. Maarten – SZV change of the AOV/AWW premium wage limit for 2023 and 2024

The SZV recently confirmed that the AOV/AWW maximum premium wage limit should have been ANG 117,091.61 as of January 1, 2023, and should not have been increased to ANG 126,329.49 per year.

The aforementioned wage limit of ANG 117,091.61 already applied from July 1, 2020 to 2022.

For 2023, this adjustment means that for employees with a higher annual salary than ANG 117,091.61, an excessive amount of AOV/AWW premium has been paid by both employer and employee. This also applies to the first few months in 2024, in which the increased wage limit has already been wrongly applied.

Regarding any excess AOV/AWW premium paid for 2023, the employee will receive the excess premium paid back after submitting the 2023 Private Income Tax Return.

As for 2024, Celery software has now been updated and the correct wage limit is being applied. The previous months in 2024 in which the increased wage limit was applied can be adjusted in two ways:

1) Reopen the closed pay runs processed in 2024 and then Celery will automatically apply the correct wage limit – the result of this is of course changed AOV/AWW premium, wage tax, net wages, declarations and journal entries or

2) Wait for the annual settlement of the AOV/AWW premium – this takes place for every employee in Celery in December (or earlier in the event of a termination date during the current financial year).

So, in fact you don’t have to do anything and simply continue processing the current year with the correct wage limit. The first months of 2024 in which the excessive wage limit was applied will automatically be adjusted retroactively in Celery later this year.

The effect of this adjustment is that both employer and employees will pay less AOV/AWW premium, so in that respect, it is a ‘positive’ result.

Attachments:

SZV – 2023-AOV-AWW-Amounts-&-Wage Limits-Web

5. AB 2023, no. 59 Landsbesluit Indexering Algemene Ouderdomsverzekering 2023

SZV – Wage Limits & Premium_2023

6. AB 2023, no. 60 Landsbesluit Indexering Algemene Weduwen- en Wezenverzekering 2023