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Comment by ben_pr | Hacker News Reader

I'm in Puerto Rico, moved here from the states two years ago.

There are a number of tax incentives for people wanting to start tech companies here. Google Puerto Rico Act 20.

Short version: "Act 20 offers a four (4)% corporate tax rate for Puerto Rican businesses providing services for exportation, 100% tax-exempt dividends from earnings and profits derived from the export services income of eligible businesses, and a 60% exemption on municipal taxes."

Eligible businesses include IT software development.

Besides the tax benefits there are a lot of other things to like here.

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>Besides the tax benefits there are a lot of other things to like here.

How does the tax work? It's part of US territory, so are you paying your income tax to the US as you usually would while earning in the US?

Or are you resident there and your earnings subject to taxes in PR? Aside from that, as a US citizen are you not still obliged to pay the IRS the taxes on a certain amount of earnings made outside the US?

Puerto Rico has a unique relationship with the U.S. when it comes to taxes. A Puerto Rico corporation can do business with a U.S. corp and not pay any U.S. taxes. The employees of the PR corp that are residents in PR only pay PR taxes not IRS taxes.

I posted my email address to another comment here. If you are interested send me an email and I will put you in contact with a tax accountant here and a few others that work on this.

> there are a lot of other things to like here

Can you list a few?

Some questions I have, if you don't mind: How do you like Rincón? Do you need a car if in SJ? How much is Spanish used over English? Are living costs cheaper? Thx

My favorite part of the Island is the southwest side. I just moved to Yauco last week after living in Palmas del Mar for 2+ years.

I can't say a lot about Rincon because I don't know but Mayaguez is the most American like city here with the highest rate of english speaking people I have seen.

Living costs on most everything is a little expensive here except for service related items (car repairs, appliance repairs, etc). Expect a 5 - 10% increase in living expenses.

You will need a car to get around unless you live in Palmas del Mar and then you will need a golf cart, there is a car rental on site if you need to go further than the onsite.

Things to like. 1. The weather 2. Simpler Life 3. Tropical Fruits/Nuts everywhere 4. Less regulations on things I care about (homeschooling) 5. Tax system that is not the IRS 6. More community minded people, probably more like the states in the 70/80s. 7. I have a personal swimming pool, tennis court, basketball court and decent sized house for less than the one I left in Atlanta.

How is the crime?

It's not too different than Atlanta, there are places to avoid and places that are OK. The west side of the island from Yauco around to the top center are going to be on par with most suburbs in Atlanta, San Juan and east are a more dicey. On the east side Palmas del Mar is very safe.

I've never had a problem here or felt in danger.

If you've got a minute, I'd be very interested in discussing a bit more in depth. {username}.co@gmail works.

I'm in Atlanta now, but have definitely been mulling PR over.

Heard the same thing about east vs west sides of the island.

Ben, I think you should write a blog post about your experience. Many of us would love to hear more about it, including me.

Ha, reminds me of a story of a front-end developer from my (mostly Poland-based) team who is working remotely from Brazil: https://netguru.co/blog/working-with-people-you-haven-t-seen

Puerto Rico is different in that it is a U.S. territory so a lot of concerns in the financial services world where I work are not relevant. My clients would never hire someone from a non U.S. state/territory to work on their critical IT systems.

The Timezone thing is also a really big deal too. PR is the same most of the year and just one hour off Nov-Mar. I do not ever see myself waking up at 5:00am for meetings.

I just traveled there for a vacation and fell in love. Any places to look for those wanting to find jobs in PR?

Best to find a job in the states that lets you work remotely. I have not had any problems with the internet here either DSL or cable.

For the most part of the year it is the same time as ET zone so it works out nicely for east coast jobs.

Can I just clarify - you work remotely for NY finance industry, at presumably near NY rates, paying 4% coproation tax and no tax on dividends from that income?

With tropical weather.

What's the schooling like?

That is how it works.

Public schools are a no go. There are some good private schools and a large number of homeschoolers. Don't know much about the colleges here but probably not good.

Puerto Rico is part of the united states, just not a state, which means no visa required, same currency, and etc.

Additional info on tax benefits: http://puertoricotaxincentives.com/act-20-export-services-ac...

Full disclosure: I was born, raised, and went to college in Puerto Rico and currently work in NYC.

I agree with most of what you said, except for the college part, which you admit you didn't know very well.

The public Colleges of Puerto Rico are actually great and very competitive with the rest of the colleges in the US, but with lower resources.

I studied computer engineering in UPRM in Mayaguez. While studying there I had internships with multiple fortune 500 companies which allowed me to pay for my own tuition as it was at the time $40 per credit. When I graduated I was hired in a fortune 500, many of which recruit heavily in PR, and was recently able to move to a startup with ease. Many of my alumni were hired in various companies both big (Microsoft, IBM, Lockheed Martin) and smaller startups. I only mention this because many of us were hired alongside many ivy league school students or from other larger universities with more resources, which may serve as a signal of how competitive the school is compared to others.

I would happily recommend anybody to study in any of the UPR campuses.

If you're a US citizen it's not so easy. You are taxed on your worldwide income no matter what. There is a deduction for living abroad on the first $100,800 (2015) of income or you can also take a credit for income taxes paid to another country. You also need to pay into SS and Medicare either in the US or in another country which we have a treaty with. Don't get me wrong, getting the first $101k @ 4% tax sounds pretty good! Just want to make it clear that US citizens will pay taxes to Uncle Sam no matter where you try and hide.

This is not completely accurate. I am not a tax attorney but go through this every year. First, you can take the foreign income exclusion only on income that has been taxed by the foreign country you reside in. Second, you can't exempt taxes on that $100k, but you can for anything above that; alternatively you can just exempt taxes for everything and not take the exclusion (works out if country's taxes > usa taxes, really, the exclusiom just works out for low tax countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, and Switzerland).

Also, the income has to be sourced in the foreign country, if it is sourced in say New York you can't magically tansfer those taxes to another country without incorporating there.

You do not have to pay payroll taxes. When living abroad, some treaties allow you to pay them instead of local ones, but without a treaty you just don't pay. Of course, good luck ever collecting on your chinese social retirement account.

Puerto Rico is not a foreign country so these rules you cited don't apply. If you are a bone-fide PR resident, you don't owe federal tax (FICA still applies). However Act 20 (and Act 22) are recent changes to try to bring more job creator-types to the island.

Most people do not realize that Puerto Rico is not a foreign country for U.S citizens and so while this may be good points for other situations it does not apply to Puerto Rico.

You are correct on the SS and medicare but the assumption is if you are the business owner the majority of your income will be dividends and not subject to SS or Medicare, so just the 4% tax applies.

clasificadosonline.com is the place locally to seek/post jobs. Use Chrome's translate if needed.

Totally unrelated, but I did a short contract about maths for a Ben who was based in Puerto Rico, was it you?

No it wasn't me. I do consultant work for financial services industry in the states, online banking, IVR/VRU, 3rd party service integration, etc.

Also, you don't have to deal with a disruptive timezone difference. Same story in Mexico, where I spent the winter and did a little remote work.

I would love to do the same someday. Where did you stay? Was it easy to find a reasonably priced, decent quality place?

I'm also in PR at the moment. I'd be great if you got in touch. Email in profile. :)

Hey ben, Would like to ask you a couple of questions from PR. Any email I can contact you at?

Try ben roadrunner io.

Add the @ and . in the above.

Domain for one of my future micro services frameworks projects.

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