Which tax years did Jeffrey Epstein pay property taxes on Little Saint James and Great Saint James?

1. What the public record actually shows about ownership and taxes

Jeffrey Epstein owned Little Saint James from a 1998 purchase through his death in 2019 and acquired Great Saint James in 2016; reporting ties those holdings to aggressive use of U.S. Virgin Islands tax incentives and to later litigation in which the estate agreed to repay economic development benefits and other sums to the territory—coverage documents ownership and the legal settlement but do not provide a ledger of property‑tax payments by year ^{[1] [4] [3]}.

2. Where coverage documents tax incentives and settlements, not annual property‑tax receipts

Multiple investigative pieces explain that Epstein’s companies benefited from local economic development tax incentives and that the Virgin Islands pursued claims against the estate, culminating in settlements totaling roughly $105 million; these sources address incentives, alleged fraud and restitution, not a year‑by‑year municipal property‑tax payment history for the two islands ^{[2] [3] [5]}.

3. Why straightforward property‑tax records are often absent from news stories

News outlets and committee releases focus on ownership, valuation, alleged tax‑abuse schemes and criminal investigations rather than municipal tax‑roll detail; property‑tax payment records are typically held by territorial assessors or tax collectors and were not published in the cited reporting, so journalists instead report on purchases, incentives and litigation ^{[5] [1]}.

4. What investigators and senators have focused on instead

Federal and congressional scrutiny—illustrated by reporting on estate audits and Senate probes into Epstein’s financial dealings—has centered on large tax incentives, alleged tax planning services Epstein provided for others, and major payments (for example, estate tax prepayments and refunds), rather than granular island property‑tax calendars; that context explains why public articles emphasize incentives and settlements ^{[6] [5]}.

5. Where to look next if you need exact, year‑by‑year property‑tax data

For definitive payment years and amounts, public records in the U.S. Virgin Islands—property tax assessor files, the territorial recorder of deeds, or the tax collector’s office—would be the primary sources; the news sources in the record do not reproduce those municipal tax ledgers (available sources do not mention municipal tax‑rolls or year‑by‑year property‑tax payments).

6. Conflicting emphases in reporting — incentives vs. municipal taxes

Some coverage highlights Epstein’s use of tax havens and economic development programs (framing an agenda of large tax breaks), while other reportage focuses on the criminal and human‑rights aspects of his property use; both themes are present in the sources, but neither provides a line‑item of property‑tax payments for Little St. James or Great St. James ^{[5] [1] [3]}.

7. Limitations and recommended steps for verification

This analysis is limited to the supplied sources; they establish purchases (1998 for Little St. James; 2016 for Great St. James) and litigation over tax incentives and settlements (including the territorial settlement figure) but do not enumerate property‑tax payments by year. To answer your original question with documentary certainty, request or search the U.S. Virgin Islands property tax records and assessor archives or file a Freedom of Information request with the territory’s tax authority (available sources do not mention such municipal records) ^{[1] [3]}.

Sources: reporting on ownership and tax disputes in the supplied file set, including The New York Times on island sales and Epstein’s corporate incentives ^{[1] [2] [5] [3]}.