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Governor Kenneth Mapp recently signed five bills into law, among them key elements of the revised Revenue Enhancement and Economic Recovery Act, widely known as the sin tax bill. The new laws increase taxes on alcoholic beverages, sugary carbonated beverages, cigarettes, and timeshare unit owners. During his press conference, the governor said that the sin tax bill will produce an additional $8 million in tax revenue between May 1 and September 30.
The new tax imposes an environmental/infrastructure impact fee levied at $25 per day of occupancy by the owner/user in the timeshare unit. The new fee will be collected by the resort and must be transmitted and paid within 30 days following the last day of the month concerned. For a weekly timeshare interval, this single tax adds another $175 in fees to an already overburdened ownership base.
Timeshares that will be impacted by this include:
Bluebeard's Beach Club
Bluebeard's Castle
Divi Carina Bay
Elysian Beach Resort
Hotel on the Cay
Magens Point
Margaritaville Vacation Club by Wyndham at St Thomas
Marriott Frenchman's Cove
Sapphire Beach Resort
Ritz Carlton- St Thomas
The new sin taxes are intended to raise funds to keep government agencies open amid ongoing budget shortfalls, and also to reassure markets that have downgraded the government's debt rating and are no longer lending to the territory. It is interesting to note, however, that the island's governor vetoed parts of the tax bill which sought to impose additional austerity measures on the Executive Branch of government.
Those vetoed provisions would have:
– Prohibited the use of nonessential government vehicles after the end of the work day;
– Mandated a 30 percent reduction in vehicle use;
– Required government cell phones be returned within 30 days;
– Mandated that agencies are to coordinate with entities that have teleconferencing to meet by teleconference instead of paying for members to travel between islands;
– Prohibited government officials from staying overnight in hotels on holidays;
– Limited government fuel use to 10 gallons every two days and mandate users of vehicles to maintain fuel logs and turn them over to Property and Procurement for compilation.
The new tax imposes an environmental/infrastructure impact fee levied at $25 per day of occupancy by the owner/user in the timeshare unit. The new fee will be collected by the resort and must be transmitted and paid within 30 days following the last day of the month concerned. For a weekly timeshare interval, this single tax adds another $175 in fees to an already overburdened ownership base.
Timeshares that will be impacted by this include:
Bluebeard's Beach Club
Bluebeard's Castle
Divi Carina Bay
Elysian Beach Resort
Hotel on the Cay
Magens Point
Margaritaville Vacation Club by Wyndham at St Thomas
Marriott Frenchman's Cove
Sapphire Beach Resort
Ritz Carlton- St Thomas
The new sin taxes are intended to raise funds to keep government agencies open amid ongoing budget shortfalls, and also to reassure markets that have downgraded the government's debt rating and are no longer lending to the territory. It is interesting to note, however, that the island's governor vetoed parts of the tax bill which sought to impose additional austerity measures on the Executive Branch of government.
Those vetoed provisions would have:
– Prohibited the use of nonessential government vehicles after the end of the work day;
– Mandated a 30 percent reduction in vehicle use;
– Required government cell phones be returned within 30 days;
– Mandated that agencies are to coordinate with entities that have teleconferencing to meet by teleconference instead of paying for members to travel between islands;
– Prohibited government officials from staying overnight in hotels on holidays;
– Limited government fuel use to 10 gallons every two days and mandate users of vehicles to maintain fuel logs and turn them over to Property and Procurement for compilation.
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