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| Forbes - Tax |
This Offshore Tax Shelter is not applicable to Puerto Rico's regular US citizens. We are subject to an onerous tax system which is higher than in any state of the Union, that is including state and federal taxes. In order to offer this tax haven, Puerto Rico a US Territory, is coded as a foreign country in the IRS as a result of the influence and lobbying power of those who do not want to pay taxes. This is a scam to the US treasury and thus the US taxpayer.
The US tax evasion in Puerto Rico's "off shore tax haven" results in a heavy burden to us, the more than 3 million US citizens, who reside here, since all efforts to attain statehood for almost 100 years, are ignored by the local politicians, local billionaires, and multinational corporations who use their lobbying power to evade paying taxes, become filthy rich and thwart all attempts by the citizens of Puerto Rico to attain the rights we deserve as US Citizens. This would eliminate their made to order tax free paradise.
Even though statehood won a government sponsored plebiscite in Nov 6, 2013, the one and only non voting member, Mr. Pedro Pierluisi, who represents the almost 4 million US citizens of Puerto Rico in the US Congress, ignores the results of the voting, since he is part of the "no taxes" scheme.
Therefore, Mr. Pierluisi, in order to protect this tax scam, which also benefits him, has not initiated any pro-statehood process in the US Congress . MJ
SPANISH:
Este “Off Shore Tax Shelter que ofrecera Puerto Rico no es aplicable a los
ciudadanos que vivimos en Puerto Rico. Nosotros estamos sujetos a un régimen
fiscal oneroso que es más alto que en cualquier otro estado de la Unión,
incluido los impuestos estatales y federales. Con el fin de ofrecer este
paraíso fiscal, Puerto Rico siendo un territorio de EE.UU., es codificado como un país
extranjero en el IRS (Negociado de Contribuciones Federal) como resultado del cabildeo, la influencia y el poder
de presión de un sector poderosisimo que no quiere pagar impuestos y cuyo resultado legal es
estafar al contribuyente y al gobierno de EE.UU.
La evasión de impuestos
de los EE.UU. en el "off shore de paraísos fiscales" resulta en una
pesada carga para nosotros, los más de 3 millones de ciudadanos Americanos que
residimos aquí en la isla, ya que todos los esfuerzos para alcanzar la
condición de Estado durante casi 100 años, han sido torpedeados por los
políticos locales, los multimillonarios locales y de otros estados, y las empresas multinacionales
que utilizan su poder de cabildeo aqui y en Washington para evadir el pago de impuestos.
Esto les ha permitido ser
inmensamente ricos y por lo tanto, frustran todos los intentos por parte de los
ciudadanos de Puerto Rico de alcanzar los derechos que merecemos como
ciudadanos Americanos. La Estadidad les eliminaría el paraíso libre de
impuestos.
No importa que la
Estadidad haya ganado el plebiscito patrocinado por el gobierno el 06 de
noviembre 2013. Aunque la estadidad ganó, nuestro único miembro en el Congreso
de los EEUU, (Electo por el Partido cuya razón de ser es la Estadidad) el Sr.
Pedro Pierluisi, quien representa a los casi 4 millones de ciudadanos
estadounidenses de Puerto Rico, hace caso omiso de los resultados de la votación,
ya que él es parte del contubernio del régimen de "no impuestos" a
los privilegiados.
Por eso Sr. Pierluisi no ha iniciado el proceso de la
estadidad en el Congreso de EE.UU. ---- para proteger este fraude fiscal.
EL PNP (Partido Nuevo Progresista) HA ENGAÑADO AL PUEBLO DESDE SU FUNDACION EN EL 1968. EL
PNP LE HA FALLADO AL PUEBLO ESTADISTA QUIENES LE HAN DADO EL VOTO CONFIANDO EN SUS PROMESAS FALSAS
DE LUCHAR POR EL LOGRO DE LA ESTADIDAD. Y POR ESO, ES QUE PUERTO RICO AUN NO ES UN ESTADO DE LA UNION. MJ
Puerto Rico Creates Tax Shelters in Appeal to the Rich
BY LYNNLEY BROWNING AND JULIE CRESWELL
March 25,2013
NY TIMES
Known for its white-sand beaches and killer rums, Puerto Rico hopes to stake a new claim: tax haven for the wealthy.
Since the beginning of the year, the island has gone on a campaign to promote tax incentives that took effect last year, marketing its beautiful beaches, private schools and bargain costs in an effort to lure well-heeled hedge fund managers and business executives to its shores.
So far, Puerto Rico’s pitch has attracted a handful of under-the-radar millionaires. Several American executives of mostly smaller financial firms say they have already relocated to the island, and Puerto Rican officials say another 40 persons, mostly from the United States, have applied.
The tax savings could add up to “at least in the six figures” each year, said Barry Breeman, an American who said he was moving to Puerto Rico with his wife. Mr. Breeman is the co-founder of the New York-based Caribbean Property Group, a real estate investment firm that has substantial holdings on the island.
Millionaires are nice, but Puerto Rican officials hope to reel in billionaires like John A. Paulson, the hedge fund manager who Bloomberg News reported earlier this month was weighing a move.
The attention prompted an unusual statement from Mr. Paulson, which declared that he was not relocating. (Still, Mr. Paulson, a 57-year-old New Yorker, had briefly considered a move, say two people with knowledge of his plans.)
If not Mr. Paulson, government officials and real estate brokers in Puerto Rico hope to sell other wealthy mainland Americans on what they hope will become the next Singapore or Ireland as a favored low-tax destination. Puerto Rico is closer and, compared with Ireland, decidedly warmer. And unlike in Switzerland or other havens, in Puerto Rico, Americans do not give up their citizenship.
“There’s nothing wrong with spending 183 days a year on a sailboat or yacht and working from here,” said Alberto Bacó Bagué, the secretary of economic development and commerce for the island, in a telephone interview. “We’re catching up to Ireland and Singapore — you can shelter income legally, and legally in a good way.”
Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States, but for tax purposes, it is treated differently. Most residents of Puerto Rico, with the exception of federal employees, already pay no federal income tax. A person needs to live 183 days a year on the island to become a legal resident.
The new tax breaks are a twist on the island’s tradition of using tax perks to bolster the economy. Puerto Rico’s per-capita income is around $15,200, half that of Mississippi, the poorest state in the nation. In 2006, a previous incentive exempting United States companies from paying taxes on profits from Puerto Rican manufacturing ended after Congress said that the incentive had bilked taxpayers.
The new tax breaks are a radical shift in that they focus on financial, legal and other services, not manufacturing. Puerto Rico slashed taxes on interest and dividends to zero from 33 percent, and it lowered taxes on capital gains, a major source of income for hedge fund managers, to zero to 10 percent.
The incentives work with existing United States breaks. While residents still have to file a federal tax return, they do not have to pay capital gains taxes of 15 percent on assets held before moving and sold after 10 years of island residency.
The new tax incentives “likely will be considered more broadly by some taxpayers as a new opportunity for income shifting and tax deferral,” said Michael Pfeifer, an international tax lawyer at the law firm Caplin Drysdale in Washington.
Mr. Bacó, the Puerto Rican economic development official, is planning a road show on the East Coast next month to woo financial and law firms as well as wealthy individuals to moving to Puerto Rico.
Because of its new aggressive tax breaks, Puerto Rico is a supercharged version of Florida, which does not tax individuals on ordinary income.
Recently, a business development group in Palm Beach, Fla., wined and dined 10 executives from the Northeast who had flown in for a two-day tour showcasing the state’s tax advantages, complete with golf outings, showings of oceanfront office space and a soiree aboard a yacht.
Florida has already landed one big fish: Edward S. Lampert of ESL Investments moved his headquarters from Greenwich, Conn., to near Miami last year.
The sales pitches by Florida and Puerto Rico tap into a growing resentment among affluent people who feel that they have been vilified by politicians or believe they have unfairly become targets for disproportionately higher taxes. In one highly publicized example, the actor Gérard Depardieu, angry over a plan by the French government to raise taxes to 75 percent for the wealthy, accepted a Russian passport from President Vladimir V. Putin. Russia has a flat tax rate of 13 percent.
But a move to Puerto Rico may be easier said than done. Privately, some lawyers and accountants in the United States express concern that individuals who move to the American island for its lower taxes might appear “unpatriotic” in a widening crackdown by authorities on offshore tax dodging through Switzerland, Israel and Singapore.
And while the island’s tax breaks are legal, some investors say they do not want their hedge fund managers straying too far from their mainland office.
“Citi Private Bank expects hedge fund principals to be in a primary office with their critical employees close by,” David Bailin, the global head of managed investments for the firm, wrote in an e-mail.
Puerto Rico has been battered by several years of recession. Its unemployment rate is more than 13 percent, well above the national rate, and its economy remains mired. In December, Moody’s Investors Services downgraded the island’s debt to one notch above junk status; and in a recent research note, Breckenridge Capital Advisors said the island was “flirting with insolvency.” The island has the weakest pension fund in America and by some estimates could run out of money as soon as 2014.
An influx of wealthy financiers would provide a much-needed lift to the economy.
Margaret Pena Juvelier is a real estate broker with Sotheby’s International Realty who left the Upper East Side last fall to open an office in San Juan. “We’re getting an average of 10 to 15 calls or e-mails a day from people who want to look at homes,” she said.
Ms. Juvelier often sends a black S.U.V. with a driver in a suit and tie to meet clients, some of whom fly in on private jets and pepper her with questions like “is there aWhole Foods here?” and “if I get really sick, do I have to be medevaced?”
Nicholas Prouty of the investment fund Valivian Advisors, who is moving to San Juan from Greenwich, Conn., said he wanted “the excitement of having new experiences coupled with the worry of the unknown.”
While the real estate broker Ana González Brunet declines to name names, saying “discretion to billionaires is important,” she said multiple individuals had recently looked at the 8,379-square-foot penthouse in the Acquamarina in the chic Condado neighborhood of San Juan. The $5 million condo has underground parking and a panoramic view of the ocean through floor-to-ceiling windows, and is near luxury boutiques like Cartier, Salvatore Ferragamo and Louis Vuitton.
“It’s like being in the best part of Manhattan,” Ms. González Brunet said.
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