By Susan Mann
Caribbean Net News St Thomas-St John Correspondent
Email: susan@caribbeannetnews.com

ST HOMAS, USVI: The US House of Representatives voted Wednesday afternoon to restore full statute of limitations protection for all residents of the Virgin Islands who file their tax returns exclusively with the Virgin Islands Bureau of Internal Revenue.

The House Ways and Means Committee Chairman, Charles Rangel, was the chief sponsor of this bill. The House vote on H.R. 3056 was 232-173. The bill also includes a provision to ban the use of private debt collectors to collect delinquent taxes owed to the IRS.

Governor John deJongh said, “The need for Congressional action became critical when the IRS ruled last year that statute of limitations protections did not begin to run for Virgin Islanders whose residency status was questioned unless they filed an income tax return with the IRS.”

Without passage of this legislation, the IRS could assert complete unlimited authority to audit Virgin Islands taxpayers, and assess back taxes and penalties, for tax years that would otherwise be considered closed.

The governor added, “This is a matter of fundamental fairness and simple justice.”

DeJongh termed Wednesday’s action a major milestone in his administration’s effort to correct by legislation a regulatory injustice, and to address needed changes to the 2004 Jobs Act.

“Shortly after my inauguration, I met with Representative Rangel and other Congressional leaders to plan a legislative approach to fixing these regulatory errors. Representative Rangel understood the importance of this legislation and the fundamental inequity of denying Virgin Islanders the same legal protections enjoyed by all other Americans.”

DeJongh said his administration has made passage of this legislation a major priority “so we are grateful to our good friend, Representative Rangel for his tireless efforts in defense of the citizenship rights of Virgin Islanders.”

The Governor also thanked Delegate to Congress Donna Christensen for her active support for the major Administration priority.

“Delegate Christensen has been an indispensable part of our overall strategy to deal with this issue, “ and,” During the past several months, I have been busy educating key Democratic and Republican Senators about the statute of limitations issue, the Virgin Islands economy and the importance of our EDC program to job creation. I have been meeting with key Senators and am confident that our statute of limitations amendment will also receive a fair hearing in the US Senate,” deJongh said.

The next step for the bill is passage by the US Senate and a Presidential signature. If the bill moves forward as expected, it will certainly go a long way toward resolving the highly publicized concerns of the plethora of new businesses which sprang up over the last four years through out the territory as a result of EDC program.

The associated tax benefit regulations were a continual sticking point for Delegate Christensen throughout her campaign for re-election.