A St. Thomas tax firm with a St. Thomas office

What a St. Thomas accountant is still for

VIBIR’s St. Thomas office is at 6115 Estate Smith Bay, Suite 225, and gross receipts payments by check go there rather than to the Christiansted address that serves St. Croix. Most of that has moved online: returns with tax due are filed and paid through VIBIR’s e-filing portal, and income tax has had its own portal, VI Quick File, since February 2025.

What is left is everything around the filing: a notice, a signature on an engagement, books that need looking at with the owner in the room. For a St. Thomas client those happen face to face, because we are both here.

Rodd Goldman, CPA, CFE, has more than 30 years of financial and tax experience and has lived and practiced in the territory for five years. Stephanie McKinnerney has worked in the territory since 2016, began her accounting career in 1997, and advises individuals and businesses on Virgin Islands tax compliance and individual income tax. Rodd sees clients in person on all three islands, and Stephanie serves clients across all three.

What we file from St. Thomas

• Monthly gross receipts tax returns on Form 720 V.I., and the annual Form 720-B for smaller filers
• Territorial income tax returns, with Form 8689 where a return is filed on both sides
• Bookkeeping the returns can stand on
• EDC and Research and Technology Park filings, including the monthly return at a 100% exemption

Where St. Thomas businesses meet the gross receipts tax

Retail and the cruise trade

There is no gross receipts exemption for duty free or tourist retail; the duty free benefit is a customs and excise matter. A shop selling to cruise passengers pays the full 5% unless it holds an EDC or Research and Technology Park grant.

Restaurants and bars

33 V.I.C. § 43(b) allows no deduction for the cost of goods sold, materials, labor, royalties, taxes, interest, or “any other expenses whatsoever.” A thin margin still means a full gross receipts bill.

Charter and marine

The statute names rentals and fees in the base, so charter income is taxed like sales. Gear, parts and provisions brought in for the business carry excise on Form 721 V.I., at invoice value plus a 5% markup.

Contractors and professional services

A progress draw is a receipt, reported gross with nothing backed out for subcontractors or materials, so the cash or accrual box on Form 720 is a real decision and should match the income tax return.

The monthly gross receipts return

Gross receipts tax runs at 5%, and the monthly return is due by the 30th of the following month. It is filed in a month with no receipts and by a business that is fully exempt. A late return runs a penalty of 5% of the tax due for each month, capped at 25%, plus interest at 1% a month.

The $9,000 monthly exemption applies only when annual gross receipts are under $225,000, and it does not carry forward: take in $7,000 one month and $10,000 the next, and the second month is taxed on $1,000. A controlled group of related businesses shares one $9,000 pool, not one each.

Cross $225,000 during the year and the whole year becomes taxable retroactively, with prior months recomputed and amended on Form 720C. A seasonal business with a strong winter should run that forecast in September, not find out in December.

More detail is on our USVI gross receipts tax page.

Getting started on St. Thomas

Bring last year’s returns, this year’s books in whatever shape they are in, and the notices you have been avoiding. After an intro call the steps are the same whether you walk the documents in or send them from another island, which is how our St. Croix and St. John clients work.

• How an engagement runs→
• The full list of services→
• Contact the office→