I’ve heard about the new law, the Impulso a la Vivienda or Puerto Rico Housing Stimulus, that Governor Fortuño recently passed. Basically it sounds like they are trying to spur growth in the housing sector by encouraging more construction and more sales of existing houses. It seems the thinking is similar to the U.S. mainland use of the tax credits to spur more home buying.
I am not sure how much CRIM, sellos y estampillas (property taxes, seals and stamps) normally cost, but it sounds like with this program they will be waived for a period of 5 years if you buy a house between September 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011!
We’ve received conflicting information about property taxes in Puerto Rico and housing in general. It’s hard to find accurate information as every person we talk to has a different interpretation. Some people have even told us there is no property tax!? In any case, it sounds like good news for people like us who may buy a Puerto Rican house within this time period.
To read more about this new law check out this Caribbean Business article or this blog post.
Well I could be wrong but from what I heard there is no property tax in Puerto Rico only if:
1. You live more than half of the year in PR
2. Your house costs less than $250,000 and
3. You have less than 1.5 or 2 cuerdas (not sure exact amount)
Hi Cassie and Brition – You’ve been to our place..we have slightly under 2 acres and we pay $15 a year and 8 dollars a year for the special Hacienda temporary tax. It has to be your only house and you have to live in it (not sure about the 1/2 year thing – that involves residency issues to avoid filing in the US I think), and I think there is a dollar amount. In any case, for what you are looking for it is esentially nothing! In San Juan stuff costs more.
Oh, the stamps and stuff can be pricey. For us to put the house in your name when you pay off the loan is 2% of the cost of the house and lawyers fees which ends up being a secret several thousand dollars us mainlanders don’t expect to pay. Usually you pay the loan and it goes in your name and that is it. I think you pay this when you sell to another person (or maybe that person pays it). Stamps for everything! Archaic at best. (even laboratory results). Oh, and separate lines to get them too. Pay here, get stamps there – an all day event.
I agree with Chris, the last time we were there we went to “pay our taxes” and we were told that if we lived in the house 1/2 a year then we would be exempt, and our land is just a little over an acre…
Thanks Chris and Katrina,
So since we are planning on keeping our rentals here in Colorado, would that make a difference? I’ve heard that it only matters if you own more than one in Puerto Rico…but if it is anywhere, then that might affect us…although with this law that might make a difference. We would like a couple of cuerdas, but if it’s only $8 that would be fine 🙂
Sounds like the stamps and seals thing is pretty wild!
If you live here I think your property tax won’t be much but you may have to file US taxes because of generated income…not sure. When you are closer to getting here we can give you our tax guy’s number and check with our diving lawyer friend. We also have friend who live in PR half time and Seattle the other half with rentals in the US. They file US taxes …we can check to see what they do about stuff here.