Originally Posted By Darkbeer <a href="http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=29139" target="_blank">http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id =29139</a> >>Rep. Charles Rangel, a Democrat of New York, is holding up a nonpolitical legislative process as leverage to help the U.S. Virgin Islands reopen a tax loophole, Senate aides told The New York Sun yesterday. Senior staff on Capitol Hill familiar with tax legislation said that Mr. Rangel, the ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, which has oversight of taxation, has refused to participate in and sign on as a co-sponsor of "technical corrections" bills on the October 2004 American Jobs Creation Act. Technical corrections bills fix errors in the statutory language of legislation that prevent a bill from fulfilling Congress's intent in passing it. Committees with oversight of a bill usually pass the corrections in a bipartisan, bicameral way, and congressional staff described the process as mechanical and not typically politicized. Not so with the Jobs Act, which tightened a tax loophole tied to the Virgin Islands' Economic Development Commission program, which encourages investment in the USVI with tax breaks. The loophole had been abused by some of America's top money managers who lived primarily in the mainland United States but declared the USVI as their place of residence for tax purposes, sometimes dodging almost 90% of their federal income tax bills. The Jobs Act and subsequent action by the Treasury Department codified the residency requirements for the EDC's tax breaks at 183 days a year. The USVI is currently lobbying Congress to relax the restrictions, requiring that a USVI resident be present in the Islands an average of 122 days a year over three years. Representatives of the Islands have described Mr. Rangel as one of their most "vigorous" congressional advocates. Senate aides and tax analysts, however, expressed concern yesterday that Mr. Rangel's advocacy has violated unspoken codes of congressional collegiality and hindered important business on Capitol Hill.<<
