The Aruban foreign exchange commission on the act of paying you

A payment leaving Aruba for an account in Australia is charged by the Government of Aruba before any bank fee is added. The Centrale Bank van Aruba states the rule plainly on its own foreign exchange commission page: under article 2 of the State Ordinance on the Foreign Exchange Commission, residents must pay the Government 1.3 per cent on their payments to abroad and to non-resident accounts at the commercial banks. The bank levies and collects it on the Government's behalf.

Key Takeaways

• The commission is 1.3 per cent of the value of the payment in Aruban florins, and it is a government levy rather than a bank charge.
• The currency of the payment makes no difference, and neither does the reason for it.
• Banks, two named money transfer companies and all notary offices are appointed to collect it.
• Separately, a resident natural person's capital transactions abroad run under a general licence capped at six hundred thousand florins a calendar year.
• The exemptions are a fixed statutory list, not a discretion the sender can argue into.

What the levy attaches to

On the bank's account, the charging article is written by reference to the act of paying rather than to the type of money or the destination. Its own list of what falls inside article 2 begins with payments by residents, denominated in the Aruban florin or in any foreign currency, to abroad. It gives examples: the purchase of foreign currency, the purchase of goods, services rendered, professional fees, principal and interest on loans, advances, and dividend payments.

The second limb is the one that catches ordinary family arrangements. Deposits or transfers by residents to non-resident accounts held at the local commercial banks are inside the charge too, and the bank names two cases: student accounts of students living abroad, and pension accounts of pensioners living abroad. Somebody in Australia being supported from Aruba is in exactly that pattern.

Asked whether currency matters, the bank answers no, and explains why: article 2 reaches all payments from residents to abroad or to non-resident accounts at the local commercial banks, so the denomination is irrelevant. The arithmetic runs on the florin value of the payment, converted at the official selling rates of the foreign currencies to the public, with 1.3 per cent applied to that.

One provision works the other way. The bank's account of article 8 is that a non-resident who makes a payment abroad using domestic currency is considered a resident and must pay the commission, unless they prove the florins were acquired by converting foreign currency. It is paying abroad in florins that brings a non-resident inside the charge, not holding them.

Who collects it, and why the channel does not matter

The Ordinance appoints collectors rather than leaving it to whoever happens to move the money. The bank publishes the list of institutions appointed under article 4, paragraph 2 to collect on its behalf, and it covers three groups.

The bank also collects directly from residents through declaration forms and assessment notices. So the levy is not a banking charge that a different provider might not apply. It follows the payment through whichever appointed channel carries it, and the direct-assessment route closes the gap where none does.

For a recipient in Australia the practical consequence is a small arithmetic one that is easy to misread. Where a sum arrives short of what the sender says they sent, the statutory commission is one of the deductions it may have met, alongside whatever the sending institution charges and anything taken in the correspondent chain. Only the commission is fixed by law and knowable in advance.

The licence ceiling on capital moving out

The commission sits alongside a permission regime rather than replacing it, and the two are easy to conflate because the same bank runs both.

For capital transactions the bank says it has issued a general licence rather than requiring an application each time. Under the Decree concerning foreign exchange transactions 24/K.1, on the bank's account of it, a resident natural person may execute foreign capital transactions up to six hundred thousand Aruban florins per calendar year, or the equivalent in foreign currency, and a resident company up to one and a half million. Those figures are the boundary of the general permission: beyond them the transaction needs its own licence.

Which direction the ceiling faces is the part worth holding on to. The general licences the bank has issued since 2024 relieve money arriving in Aruba; the 24/K.1 ceiling is the one that governs a resident's capital moving out. Payments of profit and dividend have their own step again: on the bank's account, a resident needs a profit and dividend declaration to pay one out or to receive one.

The exemptions are a list, not a discretion

Exemptions exist and they are enumerated. The bank's summary of article 11 is that only the Minister of Finance, after consulting it, may exempt institutions or groups of persons, and that this is done by State Decree. The decree it publishes covers eight cases:

• The State and the public institutions.
• Limited liability companies whose shares are held wholly or mostly by the State.
• Savings funds, pension funds and life insurance companies, for transactions whose sole purpose is investing abroad.
• The airline designated by State Decree as national carrier.
• Airlines covered by an agreement between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the United States.
• Commercial banks, for payments to their own account and for their investment and financing activity.
• Hotels and casinos, for United States dollar withdrawals in reasonable proportion to their daily dollar deposits.
• Repayments on student loans transferred to the non-resident florin account of the Dutch education executive agency.

Free zone companies sit under a separate route. They may request an exemption confined to payments abroad specifically related to their free zone activities, in practice the import of goods for re-export and the provision of services, by written application to the bank enclosing their licence. Everything else they pay abroad, dividends and legal fees among them, stays inside article 2.

One pattern runs across the whole list: nothing on it is a personal or family payment. On the bank's published decree, an ordinary transfer from a person in Aruba to a person in Australia has no exemption available to it at any size.

Anything to do with how the amount is treated at the Australian end is a separate question this guide does not reach, and the guide to finding an accountant covers how to check that an adviser approached about it is registered.

Where to look next

• Receiving money from Aruba - the live Aruban florin to Australian dollar rate page for this corridor.
• Receiving money in Aruba - the corridor page for the other direction, which sets out how a payment reaching Aruba is licensed and cleared.
• How international transfers work - the sequence a payment moves through once the Aruban end is settled.
• Understanding transfer fees - what it costs to move a one-off sum, and the margin inside a rate.
• How to read a currency pair - which side of a quote is being bought, which matters when a levy is worked out on a converted value.

Sources

• Foreign exchange commission, Centrale Bank van Aruba - the bank's responsibility for the levy and collection of the commission on behalf of the Government of Aruba; article 2 of the State Ordinance on the Foreign Exchange Commission requiring residents to pay 1.3 per cent on payments to abroad and to non-resident accounts at the commercial banks; collection through appointed financial institutions and directly through declaration forms and assessment notices; the list of institutions appointed under article 4, paragraph 2, naming the five commercial banks, the two money transfer companies and all notary offices; and the State Decree exemptions covering the State and public institutions, State-held companies, savings funds, pension funds and life insurers investing abroad, the national carrier, airlines under the Netherlands-United States agreement, commercial banks for their own account, hotels and casinos for proportionate dollar withdrawals, and student loan repayments to the Dutch education executive agency.
• Frequently asked questions on the foreign exchange commission, Centrale Bank van Aruba - the enumeration of payments inside article 2, including the purchase of foreign currency, goods, services rendered, professional fees, principal and interest, advances and dividends, and the second limb covering deposits and transfers to non-resident accounts at local banks with student and pension accounts named; article 8 treating a non-resident paying abroad in domestic currency as a resident unless conversion is proved; the calculation at 1.3 per cent of the florin counter value using official selling rates to the public; the answer that the currency is not relevant; article 11 confining exemption to the Minister of Finance by State Decree after consulting the bank; and the free zone application route and its limits.
• Foreign exchange transactions, Centrale Bank van Aruba - the bank's position as central foreign exchange bank regulating payment transactions with abroad under the State Ordinance Foreign Exchange Transactions; the general foreign exchange licence issued under the Decree concerning foreign exchange transactions 24/K.1, permitting a resident natural person up to six hundred thousand Aruban florins of foreign capital transactions per calendar year and a company up to one and a half million; that the general licences dated 1 January 2024 and 1 June 2025 relieve incoming transfers, which is the direction this guide contrasts against and whose detail belongs to the corridor page rather than here; and the profit and dividend declaration required under the decree on current payments and receipts abroad.

General information about Aruba's foreign exchange commission and its licensing of capital transactions. Whether a particular payment is chargeable or exempt is a question for the Centrale Bank van Aruba, and how Australia treats the amount is one for a registered tax agent. Not financial advice, not tax advice, and not a recommendation of any product or institution. Reviewed by the Tradergy editorial team, September 2026.