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HomeNewsLocal newsIRB Holding Workshop on New Fee for Timeshare Owners

IRB Holding Workshop on New Fee for Timeshare Owners

IRB Director Marvin Pickering (Source file photo)
IRB Director Marvin Pickering (Source file photo)

With a new impact fee for timeshares going into effect, the Bureau of Internal Revenue is holding a workshop for owners.

The workshop will begin at 10 a.m. Friday, May 5, at IRB offices on St. Thomas and St. Croix, IRB Director Marvin Pickering said in a news release.

The environmental/infrastructure impact fee will be $25 per day of occupancy by the owner/user in the timeshare unit.

The new fee will be collected by the timeshare plan manager and must be transmitted and paid within 30 days following the last day of the month concerned. The fee will be reported using Form 722EI. In addition, the bureau has created a worksheet for the timeshare plan managers to produce upon inspection by the bureau. The returns and the worksheets are available at the bureau’s offices on all three islands and on the bureau’s website at www.vibir.gov..

The fees were part of a package of tax and fee increases. Tobacco, alcohol and sodas were also affected. It also put a $360 floor on how low exemptions can take property tax bills.

The measures are intended to both help the government raise funds to keep government agencies open amid ongoing budget shortfalls and to reassure markets that have downgraded V.I. debt and are not lending to the territory. All three major ratings agencies downgraded the territory’s bonds to “speculative” status, with at least one specifically mentioning concern that Legislature may not have the stomach to increase taxes.

The business community vigorously opposed the tax increases, with some arguing they would send business to other islands.

Taxpayers with questions about the new taxes can contact Joanna Meyers-Rhymer, deputy director of Operations, at 340-715-1040, extension 2241.

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8 COMMENTS

  1. An extra $175.00 per owner/per week increase in fees is an unfair burden that timeshare owners should not have to bear. The National Timeshare Owners Association will stand with leaders in USVI tourism to support a challenge in the courts to overturn this unfair taxation. In our opinion, the “Sin Tax” will have a detrimental affect on vacation ownership and vacation rentals of timeshares on the islands, making USVI much less affordable and competitive than neighboring destinations.

  2. I agree.
    $25 per day is excessive considering you’re paying 12.5% room tax, gross receipts taxes and income tax from which we derive nothing for our tax dollars including tax refunds, as well as enduring high costs of living, lousy utility and other services, crappy, pothole riddled, ill-lit, mostly unpainted roads that are trash strewn.
    Say goodbye to tourism and many residents, soon to follow.

  3. I have been coming to STT since I was a young Marine in 1966. I love St. Thomas and have returned about 40 times….I brought my young bride here on our honeymoon in ’74. We are now on a fixed income in retirement…. Several months ago We booked in our 3 weeks at Bluebeards BC…..and recently found that we will be penalized $525 in addition to the taxes we already pay….. We all know island living is not cheap. We have found ourselves eating in more frequently in recent years. Next year I fear the money we pay to the mismanaged government will DIRECTLY come out of the pockets of local restaurants, businesses, boat tour companies etc….We will be taking lots of pictures next year, because we fear it will be our last vacation to St. Thomas……. and that concept saddens us greatly…. Elections do have consequences!!!!!!

  4. This tax will significantly reduce our available to spend money when we’re in St. Thomas. We’ve been going to St. Thomas since 2016 and supported excursion companies, restaurants, local artists, jewelry stores, clothing stores, etc. This year we will reduce our spend by the $350 usury tax being levied by a government without the foresight to understand what this will mean to local businesses, and ultimately tourism in general. We’re spending 2 weeks in St. Thomas next year, but may have to look at alternatives in the future. We don’t have to use our timeshare for STT, it’s sad, but we may be looking at going to some other resorts … luckily we can exchange for St. Martin or Puerto Rico.

  5. This tax will significantly reduce our available to spend money when we’re in St. Thomas. We’ve been going to St. Thomas since 2006 and supported excursion companies, restaurants, local artists, jewelry stores, clothing stores, etc. This year we will reduce our spend by the $350 usury tax being levied by a government without the foresight to understand what this will mean to local businesses, and ultimately tourism in general. We’re spending 2 weeks in St. Thomas next year, but may have to look at alternatives in the future. We don’t have to use our timeshare for STT, it’s sad, but we may be looking at going to some other resorts … luckily we can exchange for St. Martin or Puerto Rico.

  6. Each year we bring several friends to St. Thomas to enjoy the wonderful weather, people, restaurants, and shops. Because of the sin tax we will be trading our STT timeshare points to another destination. To pay $25 a day as well as an energy surcharge leaves us wondering how the USVI government has mismanaged funds for so long. I have been trying to pay $400 in taxes that has been returned numerous times!! I refuse to bear the burden of their corruption. My fingers are crossed that they reconsider.

  7. We just returned from a St. Croix timeshare exchange. I was charged $95 for an “energy fee” and then charged $25/night (after I returned) for the new timeshare tax. Clearly the government is being very short-sighted. This will just cause tourists to go elsewhere to spend their vacation time and money or, at the very least, reduce the amount spent on other activities on the island. It may not happen initially when people are still unaware of the fees, but over the long term it will have a deleterious effect. Like so many travelers, we are the type of couple that would simply choose to travel to another island in the future. We have never time-shared in a location that cost as much as this (in addition to our exchange fee and regular maintenance fees). Hopefully, the government will see the error in their ways before it is too late and tourism suffers. Until it is repealed, we will find another island to visit.

  8. does the IRB ever look into companies that have lost their EDC beneficiary status to recoup the tax money that was waived These companies are not paying excise tax on goods brought in and it seems like there’s a lot of tax money left out there that should be payed and monies need to be collected when companies such as Paradise Point a big company has lost its EDC beneficiary status they should be paying taxes to the IRB just like every other business who isn’t an EDC beneficiary Paradise point lost their status as a beneficiary of the EDC prior toJuly of 2017. That seems like a large sum of money which should be paid in excise and business tax

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