Small business Owner and taxes

I have been thinking of doing the same thing, I have been to this island a few times and love it. What business are you in

Hello Jason,

You might want to do some "homework" contact some of the following...

Business Lincensing - http://www.dlca.gov.vi/index.htm
Tax incentives - http://www.usvieda.org/index.html

Here some info from the Chamber:
A domestic corporation, which is organized under the laws of the United States Virgin Islands, pays income taxes on its worldwide income to the USVI treasury (not to the US Internal Revenue Service), taking a foreign tax credit where applicable. A foreign corporation, defined as any corporation organized outside the United States Virgin Islands, pays USVI income taxes only on its USVI source income or on income effectively connected with a USVI trade or business.

With certain exceptions, the USVI uses the US Internal Revenue Code as its tax code. A 10 percent surtax applies to corporations, so corporate taxes amount to 110 percent of what they would be under the Internal Revenue Code. In general, this means that the effective maximum tax rate is 38.5% (35% + 3.5%) for a corporation engaged in a USVI business and 11% (10% + 1%) for a corporation with passive income.

Now for some good news. Corporations qualifying for USVI Industrial Development Commission (IDC) benefits may pay substantially less in taxes. For example, IDC beneficiaries receive up to an 89% exemption from local corporation income tax payments (after taking the surtax into accounts), and their USVI resident stockholders receive up to a 90% exemption from income taxes paid on the company's dividends

Taxes for businesses as seen on EDC web site: Income Taxes, Excise Taxes, Dividends, Gross Receipts, Property Taxes, Custom's Duties. For more details you might contact:
Virgin Islands Bureau of Internal Revenue
9601 Estate Thomas
Charlotte Amalie
St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands 00802
The telephone number is (340) 774-5865.
The fax number is (340) 714-9345.

Employers/employee have to pay social security, medicare... and income tax is removed from pay check and employees file income tax just the same like in the US.

You also might contact an accountant and lawyer to help make sure you are doing everything by the books.

--Islander

Perfect. A thorough response.

I have been reading about some of that info. I will be contacting the EDC shortly. We were thinking of hiring a local PR firm to help with the application process.

Thank you for the great response.

Jason