Property Tax Information for St John US Virgin Islands

Update on VI property tax: March 11, 2008

Governor's letter and line-item vetoed bill (link)

Latest tax calculation model - this calculates at "new rates". (link)

Update on VI property tax: February 5, 2008

Taxation: On Feb. 5th, the Governor introduced amended property tax rate legislation – the most significant difference is only issuing one tax bill in 2008 (instead of the planned two bills). However the other provisions remain the same, and we still do not have the revaluation information necessary to understand the impact on St. John. The Governor has called the Legislature into Special Session Thursday, February 6th, to urge them to move quickly on the legislation – but nothing has really changed since the Legislature avoided passing the bill two weeks ago (vote 7-7, with one abstaining).Here is the Governor's latest tax bill to be discussed by Legislature in Special Session, Thurs, Feb 7th Tax bill.

REVALUATION: Barring software glitches, the corrections to the valuations for St. John and the other islands, should appear on the property tax website this coming Monday. Thereafter, there will be updates on Mondays, when data changes. HOWEVER – the 2006 sales value adjustments will NOT be part of this data release, so we still will not know the actual 2006 valuations for taxation of our properties.The Tax Assessors Office did recently provide information on the 2006 sales figures and intended adjustments to the Court’s Special Master for comment and review. What should you do if the update is released and it doesn’t appear the correct changes were made for your property? Call the Tax Assessor’s Office on St. Thomas and inquire. Also please email CBCC so we can keep track. (The data collectors apparently are still working on St. John to make corrections and updates. It is on-going.)

Update on VI property tax: January 15, 2008

The VI Legislature Committee of the Whole is meeting to discuss property tax legislation on Friday, January 18th at 9:30 am, on St. Thomas at the Legislature bldg. CBCC has asked to testify. Here is a copy of the tax bill (Tax Bill). Anyone is welcome to attend. We will report back to you on the hearing.

Also - here is a listing of 2007 St. John property sales for your information (property sales).

The corrections and updating of the 2006 property assessments on St. John continues. We were told by the Tax Assessor's office on Jan. 4th that the work continues and the information on the website will be updated shortly....Stay tuned.

Update on VI property tax: November 19th

Revaluation:

1.	The revaluation process on St John is ongoing. If you have not previously requested a review of your property, it is not too late. Go ahead and phone for a review. (See information below.)
2.	The promised update of the computer records and inclusion of 2006 values has not occurred yet. The new values will be the “final values.” Stay tuned.
3.	We remain very concerned that the process itself remains flawed and will be watching closely.

Taxation:

1.	The governor has presented a property tax bill to the VI Senate. Tax Bill We are trying to get a copy that integrates the current law, for easier reading.
2.	There is a “circuit breaker” clause that provides some limited relief for taxpayers whose values increase dramatically. See how it would impact your taxes here: Tax-example . If you don't have an .xls program try www.google.docs. Then write us and the Governor about its impact for you.
3.	Current plans are for the property tax to be collected twice before Sept 30th, 2008 ( to match the government budget outlays) – so there will be double the impact of the new tax rate, in one year.

PROPERTY TAX REVALUATION PROCESS

The Virgin Islands is under a federal court-ordered property tax revaluation, to bring all property valuations in the Virgin Islands to their accurate market value, for a given year, currently January 2006. This process is being supervised by the Court, and all property owners are invited and encouraged by the VI Tax Assessors office to participate in correcting errors in the draft revaluations that are being circulated now.

Have you checked your revaluation value? – If not, see CHECKING YOUR INFORMATION.

Resources: www.vipropertyrevaluation.com

Doing comparative property analysis: comparative property analysis

CBCC letter to the Lt. Governor Sept. 13th: Click Here

Contacts for sending your taxation policy letters: Click Here

Comparative Property Sales: Coral Bay Sales 2004 to 2007, all St John sales: www.islandiavi.com or some of the other local realtor sites.

ACCURACY OF YOUR VALUATION: Is this the market value of your property in January 2006? That is what the number is supposed to represent. If not, call NOW (CHECKING YOUR INFORMATION) and ask questions and ask to be put on the list for revaluation.

As of September 26th, revised information on characteristics should be available on the website, including updated data collector visit information and date of inspection, where completed. If you requested it, and yours does not show as of this date, call and request again, just to be sure...You may also be able to get information answered or give them information over the phone or by going to the St. John office at the Battery.

DO NOT DELAY: MANY valuations on St. John are too high, or done “wrong” – the errors can be fixed easily now IF property owners point out the errors to the property valuation office. (If you wait, you may have to go through a much more complicated legal process to get your valuation corrected. Now it is relatively easy – since they are working on the DRAFT values.)

TAXES: So how much tax will I pay? Don’t start calculating… Nobody knows yet. Yes, taxes will go up. They have NOT since about 1998.
No one knows yet what the new tax rate and exemptions will be, because the study making recommendations to the government is still under review. Stay tuned to this site for updated information.

Click on the documents for more information. This page will change regularly, as more information comes in.