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DOI turns over $4.4M to USVI
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Department of the Interior will be forwarding $4.45 million this week to U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Albert Bryan Jr., representing an adjustment for rum excise tax payments for fiscal year 2019.
Certified by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, this amount represents an adjustment owed to the USVI government based on actual certified rum excise tax collections and the remaining amount owed to the USVI after an initial advance payment for the 2019 fiscal year.
Under the Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands (48 USC 1541), any excise tax collected on USVI-manufactured rum imported into the United States is transferred to or “covered-over” to the USVI. Each year, the USVI government submits an advance estimate of rum excise taxes for a “cover-over” payment to be made in or around September of each fiscal year. Adjustments are calculated based upon the difference between amounts advanced from rum excise taxes derived from the USVI and amounts collected by the federal government each fiscal year. The Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs makes the “cover-over” payments to the USVI government on behalf of the federal government.
An initial advance payment of $251.75 million for fiscal year 2019 was paid in September 2018. The total and actual amount certified for 2019 rum excise taxes collected for the U.S. Virgin Islands comes to $256,216,642— this week’s payment of $4,466,642 makes up the difference. (PR)
