Whether the plain language of § 22 of the Revised Organic Act of 1954 vests exclusive jurisdiction over gross receipts taxes in the District Court of the Virgin Islands

QUESTION PRESENTED FOR REVIEW 48 U.S.C. § 1397 provides as follows. “The income-tax laws in force in the United States of America and those which may hereafter be enacted shall be held to be likewise in force in the Virgin Islands of the United States.” Congress limits the territorial legislature's power to vest jurisdiction in local courts to those “causes in the Virgin Islands over which any court established by the Constitution and laws of the United States does not have exclusive jurisdiction.” 48 U.S.C. § 1611(b). With specific regard to litigation regarding income tax crimes, 48 U.S.C. § 1612(a) provides that “(t]he District Court of the Virgin Islands shall have exclusive jurisdiction over all criminal and civil proceedings in the Virgin Islands with respect to the income tax laws applicable to the Virgin Islands, regardless of the degree of the offense or of the amount involved, except the ancillary laws relating to the income tax enacted by the legislature of the Virgin Islands.” This Court has declared repeatedly that the meaning of “income” is expansive, including all accession to wealth. See Helvering v. Bruun, 309 U.S. 461, 84 L. Ed. 864, 60 S. Ct. 631 (1940). “Income” for states and governmental entities, as settled by decisions of the Court, includes revenues obtained from gross receipts taxes. See, e.g., CSX Transp., Inc. v. Ala. Dep't of Revenue, 562 U.S. 277, 284-85, 131 S. Ct. 1101, 1106 (2011); Aloha Airlines v. Dir. Of Taxation, 464 U.S. 7 (1983). Despite these clear jurisdictional provisions and the expansive sense of income tax declared and settled by the decisions of this Court, the Virgin Islands Supreme Court concluded that “the territorial gross receipts tax does not constitute an ‘income tax law applicable to the Virgin Islands’ within the meaning of § 1612(a).” The question presented for this Court’s review is: Whether the plain language of § 22 of the Revised Organic Act of 1954 [48 U.S.C. § 1612(a)] establishing that “the District Court of the Virgin Islands shall have exclusive jurisdiction over all criminal ...proceedings in the Virgin Islands with respect to the income tax laws applicable to the Virgin Islands” also vests the same jurisdiction in the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands, a local court created by the local legislature, in the case of gross receipts taxes. 1