Aug. 31, 2005 – V.I. homeowners should soon receive their property tax bills in the mail.
After a two-month delay, Tax Assessor Roy Martin announced that his office had begun the process of mailing out the residential property tax bills Wednesday – the day that the payments were originally due. According to V.I. law, property tax bills are due Aug. 31.
In a release issued Wednesday, Martin said the bills, which were supposed to have been sent out in June, were delayed due to a technical problem at the Finance Department.
"Since we are under a district court mandate to reevaluate all real property in the Virgin Islands, we had to purchase new computer software that was not compatible with the computer program at the Department of Finance," Martin stated in the release. "The Department of Finance was unable to accept payment for property taxes, so we decided not to issue any residential property tax bills until the problem was fixed."
A new due date for paying the property taxes has not yet been set, however.
"The Commissioner of Finance will have to petition the governor to issue an executive order stipulating the new due date," Martin said. He could not verify Wednesday afternoon, whether this had been done and whether residents would be given the same two-month period after notification to pay their tax bills.
Martin said while his office is undergoing a complete revaluation of all properties in the Virgin Islands, the bills being sent out are still set at the 1998 level and would not reflect any changes in value even though the property was reassessed.
Property tax bills for the reassessed commercial properties will be sent out at a later date, Martin said.
For more information, contact the Office of the Tax Assessor at 773-6459 on St. Croix, at 776-8505 on St. Thomas, and 776-6737 on St. John.
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