US announces $450M to increase access to rooftop solar power in Puerto Rico

energy.gov

15 pointsMilnerRoute5 comments

Abolishing the Jones Act woud be far cheaper and more beneficial.

TIL where every penny in taxes I will ever pay will go.

A reminder: Puerto Rico is part of the United States, with US citizens who pay US taxes.

Actually, only a small percentage of Puerto Rico's pay US federal income tax. Income earned on the island is essentially exempt unless it's from working for the US government. Here's an IRS note on the topic:

https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc901

"If you're a bona fide resident of Puerto Rico during the entire tax year, you generally aren't required to file a U.S. federal income tax return..."

I'm having a hard time finding hard data, but the last number I could find, from 2010, showed the island paying $20 million total in individual federal income taxes, on a population of 3.7 million.

PR has been dealing with a shrinking GDP since 2004. In 2010 their per capita income was just over 2/3 of Mississippi's.

And the exemption is if you are getting money from anywhere stateside. US government obviously qualifies, but so do a lot of other cases.

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