The Puerto Rico Hacienda modified an announcement initially made via their Facebook page several days ago that substantially limits the suspension of their requirement to make bi-monthly pre-payments of sales tax. Specifically, Hacienda issued Administrative Determination 17-15 on October 2. The Determination indeed suspends the bi-weekly pre-payment of sales tax, but only for medium and small taxpayers. For qualifying taxpayers, the suspension will run from September 1, through November 30, 2017.
Under the Directive, “Big Taxpayers” are specifically excluded from the suspension. They are expected to continue to make tax payments as required under the law. According to the Tax Code of Puerto Rico, Big Taxpayers are defined as those entities doing business in Puerto Rico and during the previous year (2016) conducted $50m or more in total business. Entities such as commercial and private banks, brokerage firms, insurance companies and telecommunications providers are considered big taxpayers regardless of revenue.
