Country-wide policy
The consolidated statute book stops in 2005, and the publisher says so on the front page
Suriname's laws are published by the National Assembly in four collections, and the boundary between them is a date. The first is Geldende teksten tot en met 2005, texts in force to 2005: the amendments were worked into the parent Acts in a project in 2005 to produce consolidated texts. The second and third are the Acts passed after 2005 and the amendments made after 2005, published as facsimiles of the Staatsblad, one instrument at a time. The index page states in terms that the new Acts and amendments have not since been incorporated into the consolidated text. That is a cut-off stated by the publisher rather than inferred from an edition's name, and it is unusually honest: most revised editions in this comparison say nothing about their own staleness. The practical consequence is that reading a consolidated Surinamese Act is only half the work. The other half is the list of post-2005 amendments, where the Income Tax Act alone has ten entries.
Topics it changes
- Visiting as a tourist
- Residency on passive income
- Residency through work
- Residency through investment
- Residency through ancestry
- Residency through marriage
- Residency under a regional treaty
- Becoming a citizen
- When you become a tax resident
- Opening a bank account
- Bringing your belongings
At a glance
- Consolidation cut-off
- 2005
- Where later changes live
- Two separate collections, as Staatsblad facsimiles
- Amendments to the Income Tax Act after 2005
- Ten entries in the publisher's own list
Entries rather than Acts: the list names some instruments twice, once by year and once by date.
- Instruments published in the four collections
- About five hundred
What the cut-off does and does not mean
Everything published in the first collection shows the law as the 2005 project left it. Nothing in that collection has been touched since, whatever has happened to the Act in Parliament. The Income Tax Act is the extreme case: its consolidated text carries amendments to S.B. 2003 no. 30, prints a rate table in a currency withdrawn in 2004, and still contains a bridging levy that expired on 1 January 2004, while the publisher's own list of later amendments carries ten entries against it. The work permit Act is a milder one: its consolidation is accurate except for the fee, the refusal grounds and the penalty, all of which a single Act of December 2022 replaced. Reading only the consolidation would have produced a confident, sourced and wrong answer in both cases.
What the law says
«Alle wijzigingen zijn verwerkt in de moederwetten. Dit is gedaan in een projekt in 2005. De nieuwe wetten en wetswijzigingen zijn daarna niet opgenomen in de geldende tekst.»Our translation - not official
All amendments have been worked into the parent laws. This was done in a project in 2005. The new laws and amendments to laws have not since been included in the text in force.
This sentence is the cut-off for every text in the first collection. It is the publisher's own statement and not an inference from the collection's title.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The National Assembly's legislation portal, and the only public collection of Surinamese law we found. Four collections, divided by one date. `Geldende teksten t/m 2005` holds consolidated texts: amendments were worked into the parent Acts in a project in 2005. `Wetten na 2005`, `Wijzigingen na 2005` and `Overeenkomsten/verdragen` hold the Acts, amending Acts and treaty-approval Acts published since, each as a facsimile of the page of the Staatsblad van de Republiek Suriname in which it was promulgated. Together about five hundred instruments. It also publishes `Naturalisatie wetten`, because in Suriname naturalisation is granted by an Act of Parliament.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The consolidation stops in 2005 and the portal says so on its own index page: "De nieuwe wetten en wetswijzigingen zijn daarna niet opgenomen in de geldende tekst." So a text from the first collection shows the law as the 2005 project left it and nothing more - the Income Tax Act's consolidated text carries amendments only to S.B. 2003 no. 30, prints its rate table in a currency withdrawn in 2004, and has ten later amending entries in the portal's own list. Every money figure in that collection is in Surinamese guilders. Instruments in the other three collections are as enacted and carry no cut-off, but they are scans with no text layer, so they are readings of a picture. The collection carries Acts, amendments, treaties, naturalisation Acts and budgets, and does NOT carry staatsbesluiten, ministeriële beschikkingen or resoluties - which is where much of Surinamese immigration practice lives, so the absence of a measure here is never evidence that it was not made. It also does not always carry the parent Act: the Rijwet 1971 and the Wet Tarief van Invoerrechten 1996 appear only through instruments amending them, and the 1989 Act amending the Rijwet has a page with no document attached.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«a. Inkomstenbelasting als bedoeld in de Wet inkomstenbelasting
1922 (G.B. 1921 no. 112, zoals laatstelijk gewijzigd bij S.B. 2022
no. 150);»Our translation - not official
(a) Income tax as referred to in the Income Tax Act 1922 (G.B. 1921 no. 112, as last amended by S.B. 2022 no. 150);
An Act of February 2023 naming the last amendment to a statute whose published consolidation carries amendments only to 2003. It is the clearest single demonstration of the size of the gap.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The National Assembly's legislation portal, and the only public collection of Surinamese law we found. Four collections, divided by one date. `Geldende teksten t/m 2005` holds consolidated texts: amendments were worked into the parent Acts in a project in 2005. `Wetten na 2005`, `Wijzigingen na 2005` and `Overeenkomsten/verdragen` hold the Acts, amending Acts and treaty-approval Acts published since, each as a facsimile of the page of the Staatsblad van de Republiek Suriname in which it was promulgated. Together about five hundred instruments. It also publishes `Naturalisatie wetten`, because in Suriname naturalisation is granted by an Act of Parliament.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The consolidation stops in 2005 and the portal says so on its own index page: "De nieuwe wetten en wetswijzigingen zijn daarna niet opgenomen in de geldende tekst." So a text from the first collection shows the law as the 2005 project left it and nothing more - the Income Tax Act's consolidated text carries amendments only to S.B. 2003 no. 30, prints its rate table in a currency withdrawn in 2004, and has ten later amending entries in the portal's own list. Every money figure in that collection is in Surinamese guilders. Instruments in the other three collections are as enacted and carry no cut-off, but they are scans with no text layer, so they are readings of a picture. The collection carries Acts, amendments, treaties, naturalisation Acts and budgets, and does NOT carry staatsbesluiten, ministeriële beschikkingen or resoluties - which is where much of Surinamese immigration practice lives, so the absence of a measure here is never evidence that it was not made. It also does not always carry the parent Act: the Rijwet 1971 and the Wet Tarief van Invoerrechten 1996 appear only through instruments amending them, and the 1989 Act amending the Rijwet has a page with no document attached.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Het algemene tarief van de werkvergunningen werd alzo omgezet van Sf. 75.000 naar SRD 75 en inmiddels is dit zwaar achterhaald door de macro-economische ontwikkelingen.»Our translation - not official
The general rate for work permits was thus converted from Sf. 75,000 to SRD 75 and has meanwhile been thoroughly overtaken by macro-economic developments.
This instrument is published only as an image. The wording above was read off that picture and checked by eye, so it did not pass the machine verbatim check the other quotations passed. Treat it as accurate but re-read the scan before relying on it.
Practical notes
A Surinamese Act published after 2005 carries no cut-off at all: it is the Staatsblad as issued, and it is current until something amends it. The distinction matters for how a date should be read on any citation here.
The National Assembly's collections are the parliament's, not a law revision commission's. They carry Acts, amendments, treaties, naturalisation Acts and budgets. State decrees, ministerial instructions and resolutions - which is where a great deal of Surinamese immigration practice lives - are not in them, and we found no public collection that is.