Puerto Rico Governor Signs Bill Requiring 2 Monthly Sales Tax Payments

Ramón Frias
July 24, 2017

This blog was last updated on March 11, 2019

The Governor of Puerto Rico has signed into law a bill (PC 1133) that changes the frequency of sales tax remittance. As reported earlier in this forum, the new rule requires most taxpayers to pay sales tax in the same month as it’s collected, in two monthly installments:

  • The first payment is required on the 15th – for sales that take place between the 1st and the 14th day of the month
  • The second payment is required on the last day of the month – for sales that take place between the 14^th^ and end-of-month.

The legislation also provides that taxpayers will be considered compliant if they pay at least 80% of the sales tax due during the relevant period OR if they pay 70% of the sales tax paid during the same month of the previous year.

The legislation does not clarify how local tax will be remitted under these new rules.

Under the new law, the filing rules do not change. The standard monthly tax return (Form SC 2915) remains due on the 20^th^ of the month.

Technically, the law carries a July 1 effective date but we fully expect that the Puerto Rico Department of Revenue to issue guidance explaining a compliance timeline. When that happens, Sovos will report it here.

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Author

Ramón Frias

Ramon is a Tax Counsel on the Regulatory Analysis team at Sovos. He is licensed to practice law in the Dominican Republic and is a member of the Dominican Bar Association. He has a Certificate Degree from Harvard University as well as a J.D. from the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo. Ramon has written a number of essays about tax administration and has won the first prize in the international essays contest sponsored by the Inter American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT). Prior to joining Sovos, Ramon worked for more than 10 years in the Department of Revenue of the Dominican Republic where he served as Deputy Director. He is proficient in French and Spanish.
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