Software update: Aruba payrolls now also possible in Celery

In particular, the calculation of wage tax is completely different on Aruba from that of the neighbouring islands. For example, on other islands the deduction of wage tax in a monthly payroll has to be determined by using the Monthly Wage Tax Table. On Aruba however, each month the wages paid so far have to be converted to full year’s wages on which yearly wage the annual income/wage tax has to be determined. And to determine the wage tax that has to be deducted in the pay slips, the yearly wage tax has to be converted back again in proportion to the taxable wage processed thus far. This can, for example in the months after the payment of a one-time bonus and/or overtime, result in an increase in the monthly regular wage tax in comparison with previous months. In that case the increase in the annual wage has caused a higher deduction of annual and related monthly wage tax.

Moreover, two tax tariff groups are used on Aruba for the deduction of wage tax. Which tariff group is applicable depends on whether that employee is married or sole earner, whether he/she has a spouse with own income and it is also based on the age of the children. We have built Celery in such a way that if the spouse and children information is entered correctly, Celery determines itself the correct tariff group.

With regard to the fiscal child deduction, an employee on Aruba is entitled to deduct this benefit if he/she is the single earner or the highest-earning partner and the children have to be younger than 17 years of age on January 1st of this year. On Aruba, only the highest-earning partner is therefore entitled to the fiscal child deduction. This is important to be aware of while processing a payroll, because in practice this law is often applied incorrectly. In this case the problem can be that at the beginning of the year, for example due to both spouses’ salaries being almost equal and because of overtime/bonuses etc., it is not always clear which of the two spouses will be the highest-earning spouse this year.

For incomes up to AWG 2,500 per month, on Aruba a Repair Surcharge applies which is paid to the employees concerned. In principle this repair surcharge is accounted for by the government because it has to be deducted by the employer from the total payable wage tax and social premiums.

A notable feature of Celery is that its monthly wage tax declaration has the exact same layout as the original declaration form. Moreover, Celery can even print the correct payment references per tax and social premium type on the declaration, meaning that this Celery form can be printed and signed for the monthly submission to the Tax Authorities.

Choose between languages

It’s possible to switch languages in Celery, and in fact on three levels. The language of the entire account can be put in English, but one particular employer in this account can be put on the Dutch. And within the same employer one employee can be put on Dutch and the other employee on English. Thus these workers from the same employer receive their pay slips in their own language and also the messages of Celery Messenger, for example to notify the employee that the pay slip is ready and stored online, is in the selected language.

Digital payent files

Celery also has the option (free of charge) of generating digital net wage payment files for RBC Bank and CMB Bank, with which files the net wages can be uploaded in online banking for very quick processing and payment.

Try Celery now for your Aruban payroll and create a free trial account!