(a) For purposes of this section only—
(1) “Hotel” means every building or other structure or group of structures, including apartments, condominiums, timeshare developments and residences, kept, used, maintained, rented, leased, advertised or held out to the public to be a place where sleeping accommodations are furnished by the day, week, month or season, for pay, to guests, whether with or without meals;
(2) “Hotelkeeper or innkeeper” means any person, firm, corporation, partnership, association or enterprise administering a hotel as defined in paragraph (1) above, for a profit, and includes the owner, lessor or concessionaire as well as their agents and employees;
(3) “Guest” means an individual who has registered in a hotel and to whom a room has been assigned and also an individual who has rented or leased an apartment, condominium, timeshare or residence for a day, week, month or season, provided that the period of time of the rental or lease is less than 90 days. As used in this section, “guest” includes an individual occupying sleeping accommodations at a timeshare development based on his participation in an exchange program as defined in paragraph (4) of this subsection or based on any other similar arrangement, but the term does not include an individual occupying sleeping accommodations at the timeshare development based on his owning an interest at that timeshare development. This paragraph may not be construed as exempting from the hotel tax any individual occupying sleeping accommodations at a timeshare development on the basis of an ownership interest in a timeshare development located outside the Virgin Islands.
(4) “Exchange program” means any method, arrangement, or procedure for voluntary exchange of the right to use and occupy accommodations among owners of interests in timeshare developments.
(b)
(1) Every guest of a hotel as defined above shall pay to the Government of the United States Virgin Islands a tax to be collected and remitted to the Government by the hotelkeeper or innkeeper at the rate of 12.5 percent of the gross room rate or rental. For the purposes of this section, “gross room rate or rental” shall include the room rate plus any additional charges, such as an energy surcharge or a maintenance fee.
(2) The Environmental/Infrastructure Impact Fee is established and applicable to timeshares, for purposes of this section, the term, “Environmental/Infrastructure Impact Fee” means the new occupancy lodging fee that is levied on timeshare owners/users by the Virgin Islands Government per night of occupancy described in paragraph (3).
(3) The Environmental/Infrastructure Impact Fee must be assessed, collected, managed, and dispersed in the following manner:
(A) Each timeshare unit is assessed an Environmental/Infrastructure Impact Fee of $25.00 per day of occupancy.
(B) The timeshare plan manager is responsible for collecting the Environmental/Infrastructure Impact Fee, filing the tax returns and paying the fee, plus any applicable interest or penalties, as required by this section, to the V.I. Bureau of Internal Revenue. The timeshare association is responsible for any and all assessments or liens.
(C) The timeshare plan manager shall prepare and maintain the Environmental/Infrastructure Impact Fee worksheet and shall produce it upon request by the V.I. Bureau of Internal Revenue or the Internal Revenue Service.
(D) Revenues collected pursuant to this paragraph must be allocated as follows:
(i) 15% of the Environmental/Infrastructure Impact Fee revenue collected must be allocated to the V.I. Tourism Advertising Revolving Fund;
(ii) For the remainder of fiscal year 2017 and for fiscal years 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, 85% of the Environmental/Infrastructure Impact Fee revenue collected must be allocated to the General Fund. Commencing in fiscal year 2018 and in fiscal year 2019, up to $4,000,000 of such amount deposited into the General Fund during each such fiscal year must be appropriated to and divided equally between the Roy Lester Schneider Medical Center and Juan Luis Hospital and Medical Center at the direction of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.
(iii) For fiscal years 2022 and 2023, 40% of the Environmental/Infrastructure Impact Fee revenue collected pursuant to this paragraph must be deposited into the General Fund, and 45% to a contingency reserve account established below (the “VIESA Contingency Reserve Account”), until such contingent obligation described therein is satisfied.
(I) There is established the VIESA Contingency Reserve Account for the purpose of funding a negotiated settlement by and among the Government of the Virgin Islands, the collective bargaining units of the Virgin Islands, including, but not limited to, the United States Paper and Forestry Rubber Manufacturing Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union AFL-CIO-CLC, and non-unionized Government employees, all in connection with United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in the matter of United Steel Paper and Forestry Rubber Manufacturing Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union AFL-CIO-CLC v. Government of the Virgin Islands; Governor of the Virgin Islands; Angel Dawson, Jr., Finance Commissioner; Debra Gottlieb, Director of Management and Budget, App. No. 14-4357; and St. Croix Federation AFT Local 1826, Rosa Soto-Thomas v. Governor of the Virgin Islands; V.I. Commissioner of Finance, Angel Dawson, Jr.; Director of VIOMB, Debra Gottlieb; 29th Legislature of the Virgin Islands; Virgin Islands Department of Education; Government of the Virgin Islands, App. No. 14-4358 (the “VIESA Case”), in a principal amount not to exceed the final negotiated settlement amount. Further, amounts on deposit in the VIESA Contingency Reserve Account are hereby appropriated as such amounts are collected and deposited therein, for payment of such negotiated settlement.
(II) The Government of the Virgin Islands shall satisfy the contingent liability in connection with settlement of the VIESA Case solely from amounts deposited in the VIESA Contingency Reserve Account, including interest earned thereon.
iv. For fiscal years 2024 and thereafter, 85% of the Environmental/Infrastructure Impact Fee revenue collected must be allocated to the General Fund.
(E) [Reserved.]
(F) The Bureau of Economic Research, in collaboration with the Post Audit Division, shall conduct a study on the impact of timeshare activities and components in the Virgin Islands within two years of implementation.
(c) The hotelkeeper or innkeeper, or other responsible party, shall indicate the amount of the tax as a separate item on the statement or charges given each hotel guest or other payors and shall be jointly liable with the owner or operator of the hotel for making such reports and payments at such intervals as the Director of the Bureau of Internal Revenue shall require.
(d) The provisions of Title 33, section 45, Virgin Islands Code (penalty for failure to file, report, or pay tax; arbitrary assessments; and waiver of penalties), section 48 (taxpayer's records) and section 53(a) (penalties) are equally applicable to this section.
(e) The Director of Internal Revenue shall cover all payments made pursuant to this section as provided in this section:
(1) At the beginning of each fiscal year, the funds collected under subsection (b)(1) must be deposited into the Tourism Advertising Revolving Fund established pursuant to section 3072 of this title; except that
(A) Not less than $1,000,000 must be deposited into the Agriculture Revolving Fund established pursuant to section 3018 of this title no later than June 30 of each year. The funds remain available until expended.
(B) Not less than $1,000,000 must be used for the development and promotion of sports tourism. The funds remain available until expended.
(C) Not less than $500,000 must be transferred to the Department of Education for inter-scholastic competitions of Virgin Islands public high school athletes in games on St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. John, the British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The funds remain available until expended.
(D) Not less than $500,000 must be used by the Department of Sports, Parks and Recreation for recreation and sports activity programs. The funds remain available until expended.
(2) At the beginning of each fiscal year, the funds collected under subsection (b)(2) must be deposited into the Tourism Advertising Revolving Fund established under section 3072 of this title for the following purposes:
(1) 25% for advertising the Virgin Islands;
(2) 25% for exclusively advertising the island of St. John;
(3) 25% for exclusively advertising the island of St. Croix;
(4) 25% for exclusively advertising the marine industry of the Virgin Islands.
(f) Returns and payments of a hotelkeeper or innkeeper shall be due within thirty (30) calendar days following the last day of the calendar month concerned.
(g) The Director of Internal Revenue shall assign two employees to investigate and collect room taxes from hotel and inn keepers of residences, kept, used, maintained, rented, leased, advertised or held out to the public to be a place where sleeping accommodations are furnished by the day, week, month or season, for pay.
(h) Any hotel keeper or innkeeper who willfully fails or refuses to comply with this section, or who submits a fraudulent report to the Bureau of Internal Revenue is subject to a fine not to exceed $10,000 for each violation and imprisoned for a period not to exceed 30 days, or both the fine and the imprisonment.