The first thing the Inquiring Iguana saw when he landed home Saturday at Blue Tang, a page three story in the Virgin Islands Daily News that the federal court has finally given the government the green light to resume collecting property taxes.
The Court had prohibited the government from collecting taxes for the past five years. It also refused to accept property values of a territory-wide reassessment in 2009 in part because of challenges by property owners that the tax system was unfair and unconstitutional.
Well, now the Court now says the VI tax appeal process is much improved and therefore the government can resume collecting taxes.
Villa owners, who have not had to pay any taxes for several years, were issued bills for 2006 last year, at valuations from 1998. Acordiong to the Virgin Islands Daily News report of the court tax story, property owners can expect a bill for 2007 to be issued next month. The bill for 2008 will come this summer. Both will be based on the old assessment of 1998.
Bills for 2009 and 2010 will be issued next year; 2009's will be at the 1998 valuation while the 2010 bills will be based on the the last reassessment and valuations which upset many property owners, especially St. Johnians.
Read the full Daily News story here
The St. John Source also has a story, but says "There is presently no timetable in place for the issuance of the 2009 or 2010 bills." Read it here.
I wonder how many villa owners have actually put those back taxes aside. Maybe a local realtor might have an idea, who knows.
This is just a fair execution of taxes. As citizens and owners, we need to pay taxes. These taxes are the blood of the economy wherein a lot of projects can be made. Having the timeline, this is just a moment that we have to face. This will enable us to have better services. Thanks a lot for sharing this article. More power.
There’s no way the 2009 reassessment will stand. Besides being absurd on its face when first reported property values have dropped significantly since then. I would imagine there will be an overload of owners demanding a new appraisal by locals rather than an imported group.
Hey Curtis “taxes are the blood of the economy”? Who was your eco teacher Karl Marx?
Nobody has put the back taxes aside, since nobody knew what they would be. Problems on the horizon. The law also requires a revaluation for assessment purposes every 5 years, but the valuations are supposed to be “adjusted” to market annually under any common sense ad valorem property tax scheme. Expect more of the same. St. John is viewed as a cash cow, while valuations under the recent reval actually seem to have dropped on St. Thomas, shifting burden to St. John. Keep fighting.
After several visits and bypassing Ocean Grill, we went last time and ended up going twice more. Highly recommended.