Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel and today we're
talking moving to Puerto Rico to acts taxes with Rachel Ferris. Yeah,
(00:26):
that's right. Some families have lived on the same plot
of land for generations. There's something intriguing about that to me.
But the United States also has a history of moving
towards opportunity, the settling of the West, the gold Russian California,
returning veterans moving at higher rates. In the aftermath of
World War Two, and recently just COVID we saw an
uptick in people reconsidering their living situation. Hey, do I
(00:50):
like kind of where I'm living in the accommodations that
I'm in. Do I want to be in the middle
of a big city. But what if the next great
place to move to is an island in the Caribbean Sea,
not just because it's beautiful, but because it offers certain
tax perks that are unavailable anywhere else. It's not for everyone,
but I'm also kind of fascinated by the prospect. So
(01:11):
I've invited Rachel Ferris on the show. She's a CPA.
She's a tax strategist who helps individuals and business owners
think through the details of uprooting from the mainland to
settle in Puerto Rico, largely because of the massive tax
savings that can be had. So, Rachel, I'm excited to
discuss this with you today. Thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Awesome, thank you for having me. I'm super excited.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
So first question I ask everybody who comes on the
show is what do you like to sport? John, what's
your craft beer equivalent? Matt and I will buy expensive
beers and some people think it's ridiculous to spend twenty
five bucks on like a bottle of beer, But I'm like, no,
it's worth it. What's have for you?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I'm going to hop on the alcohol train here and
I'm gonna say nice cocktails. I love going to a
fancy bar in a new city and trying four to
five cocktails on that list and sharing it with whoever
i'm with that to night. It might be ridiculous to
spend twenty to thirty dollars on a cocktail, but for
something for me, I think it's worth it.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Okay, thirty bucks on one cocktail. Ex Tell me what
are these bars where they get that expensive? Because I
know they've gone up in price. It used to be
like ten or twelve bucks was reasonable, And now I
swear at a good cocktail bar, you're dropping fifteen to
twenty on a great one. Yeah, well, I mean thirty.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
I know it gets expensive. I was just in New
York the other weekend and I went out to this
bar called Double Chicken Please, and I think most of
the cocktails were at least in the mid twenties, and
after tip beer spending upwards of thirty dollars on every
single drink, So it's expensive but delicious. They had a
key lime pie cocktail that tasted exactly like a key
Lion pie. They had a Japanese cold soba noodle one
(02:42):
that tasted exactly like the Japanese called soaba noodles. It
was a very interesting take, and I was it was
worth it for me in every aspect of it.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
That sounds, I mean similar to kind of what's happened
in the craft beer scene, where you've got like all
these really interesting takes on beer where they're not even
trying to taste like beer anymore, right, pickle flavored beers
and stuff like that. I guess cocktails are going in
that same direction, which is fascinating. Let's talk about Puerto Rico,
and I want to start out the outset to say
(03:11):
that this peaked my curiosity, even though I don't think
I'm planning on moving to Puerto Rico anytime soon, and
I think there's probably a large chunk of listeners who
it doesn't make sense for, But still I think it's
just fascinating discussion and worth covering. And I've been hearing
more buzz about Puerto Rico as a tax haven. What
is with the growing the burgeoning interest in Puerto Rico
(03:33):
as a place to live and as a place to
potentially avoid taxes that the people might otherwise pay.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, one hundred percent. Well, I think the growing recent
interest recently has really been surrounded by the fact that
there's a lot of market volatility and there's a lot
of political instability, and so when you have things in
government happening like these tariffs, or you're not sure what
your profile is actually going to look like a couple
months down the road. A lot of people are now
considering tax planning as an aspect of financial planning. So
(04:00):
these benefits have been around since twenty twelve. With the
original X twenty and AC twenty two, they really started
again in around twenty nineteen where they revamped that law
and it created AC sixty, and so Act sixty is
what we currently have, where we have a zero percent
tax on capital gains, interest, and dividends and then a
four percent corporate income tax. There's a lot of other
incentives that come along with it. But in the past
(04:22):
few years, we've been seeing more people getting upset with
the rising tax rates and just discontent about living in
the US and not knowing what things are going to
look like for them a year from now, and so
they like signing contract with the government and being able
to be like, hey, that's what it's going to be
for the next ten years.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
You said rising tax rates. But interestingly enough, like tax
cuts and Job Act and then the one big beautiful
bill kind of cements lower tax rates for a decent
chunk of people. So when you say rising tax rates,
so what are you referring to?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Yeah, I'm referring to a lot of things with tariffs
as well. A lot of people that do move down
for the business side of things are manufacturers, and they're
worried about retaliation tariffs on the back end of things.
A lot of people, especially in high tax states, like
New York and California. It's not necessarily just federal. They're
worried when they see the debts growing in their actual state.
Right so you're looking at California that essentially their only
(05:13):
solution is to take out more money from the taxpayer's
hands to really be able to pay off that debt.
They're looking at the future and not just right now,
but five, ten, fifteen years from now. What is that
going to look like? And how can I basically secure
my own kind of tax Yes, haven right now to
make sure that we're doing things correctly in the long run.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
And we're talking about those high tax states. We're talking
about double digit state tax rates for the highest earners
in some of those super high tax states. So in
addition to potentially the owing at the highest end of
the federal federal tax bracket, that could be a substantial
tax buil that a lot of those people are looking
to avoid.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean in California, if you
are in the highest tax rate, you're probably paying over
fifty percent of your income every single year in taxes.
And so when you can really talk about, hey, I
can cut that down to four percent across a board
for my business. It's almost non negotiable for people that
really want to get that competitive edge for a few
years or just gain financial freedom by moving down for
around three years and then moving back to the US
(06:10):
after that. It's really a strategy that I'm seeing people
take advantage of in the midterm. Not necessarily that they're
planning to stay there for the rest of their lives,
but they're using it for a few years.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I do want to talk about that in just a bit.
I kind of the potentially part time nature of it. Oh,
do it for a season and then maybe you could
save on taxes, then you can get back to your
normal life in the US. I'm curious, so too, does
that mean you're not really getting calls from people in
states like Tennessee where there's not a state income tax
or are there still folks in those lower tax states
where it can make sense.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Oh, there's still folks in those lower tax states where
it makes sense. I mean, okay, I think again, it
depends on the actual income range that you're actually in
and what those savings actually matter to you, what you're
trying to actually save for, right, But I get most
people from actually zero percent tax states as well, or
really low income tax states. It's also a benefit because
you have the benefit of zero percent tax on capital gains,
(07:00):
interest and dividends. So even if you don't run a
business where you want to take advantage of that four
percent corporate income tax rate, there are plenty of benefits
that kind of trickle down to you. And again, if
you're in a high tax bracket, you're still needing to
pay federal taxes even if your state doesn't tax you.
And so because of that, a lot of people see
the benefit of moving.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Down because capital gains tax rates are favorable compared to
many of the income tax brackets. But fifteen percent it's
not as good as zero percent, right, So I get that,
and I want to dive into some of those details
in just a little bit too. But I'm curious as well,
like you worked for one of the big four accounting firms.
What got you into this niche because it is it's
(07:38):
very specific, like I'm going to help people move to
Puerto Rico to say on taxes, not just you know,
help people with their tax returns, or like what pushed
you in this direction specifically?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, I actually love getting this question. So I had
a very close family friend that relocated down to Puerto Rico.
They gave me a call a few years back and
we're like, hey, I've never heard of this. Is this legit?
Have you ever heard of it? And it had never
even crossed my mind before that there are these options
out there. I was like, yeah, I can give it
a crack. I'll kind of review some documents, see if
this is legit. See how I'm able to help you out.
(08:09):
Just do it pro bono.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Tax evation or it sounds like a scam on the surface,
right You're like, oh, I'm going to move to Puerto
Rico and never pay tax again.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Oh yeah, And I think that's a big misconception about it,
is that people don't understand why it really is allowed.
So I can kind of go into that right after this.
But essentially they moved down and they were like, wow,
you facilitated that process so cleanly for us. The stress
of moving, because there was so little information out there,
was really hard to get and so they started referring
me off to their friends. Start a word of mouth.
(08:37):
I developed a lot of personal relationships with lawyers, CPA's
left managers on the island and also in the mainland US,
and my practice has kind of just grown from there.
It was very happenstance.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
So what makes Puerto Rico special then, Like, yeah, why
is it kind of this exception to the rule that
the taxman is going to get his cut? Why are
their unique taxtules for me Americans moving to Puerto Rico
in the first place.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yeah. So, if you've ever heard of the phrase no
taxation without representation, this is a perfect example of that. Right, So,
Puerto Rico is a US territory, and so they are
technically part of the US. You can keep your US
citizenship and you have a US passport. Still, the difference
is is that they don't have voting representation in Congress
or Senate or anywhere in Washington, DC, and so the
(09:23):
US federal government is not able to institute taxes on
Puerto Rico as its own. So they're able to develop
their own tax system and so because of that, they
don't have to comply with federal tax rules, and so
they've developed this unique concentive code basically to incentivize people
to move down to help promote the Puerto Rican economy
and uplift it. As a lot of you probably know
(09:45):
there has been a lot of issues with you know,
economic development in Puerto Rico. You had Hurricane Maria hitting
in twenty twelve. You have all these things that have
happened that have really not allowed Puerto Rico to grow
in that same area. And when they brought in these
tax twenty and twenty twenty two and Acts sixty, basically
it helped uplift everything. They brought more entrepreneurship, more capital
(10:05):
of the island, brought more jobs to the island, and
it's really helping them uplift it from the ground up.
So it's been a huge transformation that the island has seen,
and a lot of people are very very pro Acts
sixty people coming down because of the fact that it's
opened up so many new opportunities for people actually located
on the island.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Because the people who are moving down have money and
they are incentivized to invest in the island. So it's
not just like, hey, let me pay no tax, but
there's also this sort of thing that goes alongside of
it to incentivize economic opportunity for the locals, right one
hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
I mean, you have to buy a property within your
first two years of moving down so that's helping with
the real estate development, right, it's helping with you know,
you got to your haircut, you have to go to
the dentist, you have to do all these things that
are helping build up that economy. If you are a
business that makes over three million dollars, you need to
hire one Puerto Rican and so it needs to be
a skilled worker and not just someone that cleans your house, right,
(10:58):
it needs to be someone that is actively involved with
day to day business operations. So you're really helping train
people and give them skilled work. So if you do
decide to leave the island after five years, you've actually
really contributed and now they can start their own business maybe,
or now that they've brought in enough money from their
dental practice, they can reach out, find new clients, do
(11:18):
extra marketing. It's really been quite a flourishing thing. And
they also have extra incentives if you invest in Puerto
Rican businesses. So let's say you keep your normal investment
profile that has I don't know, Tesla Coca Cola, whatever
it might be, if you invest in Puerto Rican businesses
in Puerto Rican local kind of companies or hedge funds
or private equity funds, you actually get additional benefits, so
(11:41):
it's encouraging you to invest in local things on the
island as well.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Okay, what's the differentwe in Puerto Rico and other low
cost or low tax destinations that other people might have
heard of, Like there's all the perpetual joke about the
bank account. The Cayman Islands or Singapore has been talked
about as a tax haven for Americans, So like what, Yeah,
what's the difference? What makes Puerto Rico superior?
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Yeah, so in most other places, United States citizens are
actually taxed on their worldwide income. And so if you're
going to the Cayman Islands, Singapore, Dubai, a lot of
the big tax savin names that I kind of hear
out there, you actually are supposed to be paying US
taxes on a good portion of that. And if you're
circumventing it to pay as little as possible, there's a
chance that you're not doing it fully legally, or you
(12:27):
have to renounce your citizenship. In Puerto Rico, since it's
a US territory, you can keep your US citizenship, so
you are a US citizen this entire time. You are
doing things the utmost legally that you possibly can. You
are not creating different holding companies and circumventing money here, here, here,
and here right. You are having a legitimate business that
(12:48):
is registered with the government. Everything is as transparent as possible.
There are added financial statements. You need to file an
annual report every single year. It is clear, transparent and legal,
and you can keep your US citizenship, which is the
biggest appeal that I see for people. Now. I hear
a lot of talk about other US territories. Really they
just don't have the same built up infrastructure that Puerto
Rico does in terms of living on the island, but
(13:10):
also in terms of the best tax program. Other places,
you know, US Virgin Islands or Guam or whatever, you
can move there and also you know, not kind of
avoid US federal taxes. The issue is that they just
don't have the same program that Puerto Rico does to
really motivate people to move down to the island.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
Okay, cost of living too, So let's say it costs
more to live in Puerto Rico, maybe it wouldn't be
worth it for the tax savings you might enjoy. And
I've seen kind of split opinions on this some people say, yeah,
it's cheaper to live in Puerto Rico, But then others
have said, well, but if you live in one of
the fancier neighborhoods where it feels like you have to
move to enjoy life like you might have back in
(13:49):
the States, then it's actually pretty expensive. So yeah, what
about those wealthier neighborhoods and what is the cost of
living like comparatively, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
The wealthier neighborhoods are definitely expensive. When you're talking about
big kind of gated resorts like Dorata result or Pamas
del Mar. There's any one coming up for Moncayo and Fajardo,
those can definitely get in the multimillion dollar range. And
the reality of that is is that there are very
few properties within those complexes. You get access to all
the resort amenity security twenty four to seven. You're surrounded
(14:20):
by all expats essentially, and a lot of people do
decide to take that route. But I also see people
that actually love living in Old San Juan, San Juan Condado,
a lot of areas where actual Puerto Ricans live, and
that cost of living is much less than the US,
and it's not necessarily at a lower standard. It just
means that you're not living in this resort community that
(14:41):
has seven different pools in a water park, in private beaches.
You probably need to go down to the public beach,
but you are in a nice apartment building, or you
have a nice home that is probably as nice, if
not nicer, than the house you may have in the
US for the same price. So it really really really depends. Honestly,
I personally spend a lot of mo time in the resorts,
and I really love it. But I actually spend a
(15:03):
lot of my free time with friends socially in Condado
and San Juan, and I feel like that's kind of
the exciting area where all the good food is and
you're not just trapped in kind of like an all
inclusive resort. What it seems like.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah, I think I'd get tired of that really quickly.
I did an all inclusive one time, and I was like,
get me out of here. It's it's really fun for
like two days, and then it gets like some of
those neighborhoods sound like a little ostentatious and not my jam.
So it's good to know that there are other kind
of places that you can move that don't cost quite
that much, and that could be a little more vibrant
and interesting. I'm curious too when people are asking you
about this potential move down to Puerto Rico, and are
(15:36):
they at all suggesting, well, what if I move to
just a really low cost of living country that more
Americans are choosing anyway, is that like a better option? So, like,
I visited Thailand and it was shocking how cheap it
was to live in Thailand. So even if I'm paying
tax on my income, boy, Thailand might be a better
option for me just as a geo arbitrage play, because
(15:58):
it's so much less expensive from a cost of living perspective.
So what's your take on some of those really cheap
places you can land in other parts of the world
versus kind of going all in on Puerto Rico.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's everyone's situation to their
own right. If you're a Thailand, you are halfway across
the world. If you're in Puerto Rico, you are just
usually one flight away, unless you're coming from the West coast.
They have a lot of direct flights down from kind
of the central part of the US and the East
coast much closer especially if you have family or friends
that you want to stay in contact with. In terms
of cost of living, yeah, it is definitely a lot
(16:34):
cheaper in Thailand than it is on the island of
Puerto Rico. The reality is, though, is that you're dealing
with a different set of issues. I mean, I went
to Thailand and I know you can't drink the water there.
You have to worry about food safety a bit more
Puerto Rico is the United States. Still, you do not
need to worry if you drink the tap water. You
do not need to worry if you're eating at a
restaurant that you're going to get food poisoning. So it's
much more similar to the style of life that we
(16:54):
are used to living in the US. They have huge
malls that have all the stores that you're looking for.
You know, you're not necessarily going to a country that
is still developing. I would say. The other big part
of that too is once again the taxes. You do
need to still pay tax on your worldwide income while
you're in Thailand. There are certain credits obviously that you
can credit against that, but the end of the day,
(17:15):
you're still having to deal with the complications of cross
border tax rules, whereas here in Puerto Rico, you have
the IRS that understands Puerto Rico situation a little bit more.
You have practitioners in Puerto Rico that are extremely familiar
with US rules, and so it's a much simpler process
to remain in compliance.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Talk to me about the tax benefits then drilled down
just a little bit, because you mentioned it right at
the very top, and how significant are the benefits and
how difficult are they to qualify for because there's definitely
some specifics that people need to be aware of. It's
not like you can have, you know, five million dollars
in your taxbile brokerage account, move down tomorrow, sell it all,
(17:54):
not pay capital gains tax, and move back the very
next day and just be like sweet, that was awesome.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah, definitely. So I'll talk a little bit about what
the actual benefits are first and then we can kind
of go into eligibility and compliance. So the benefits across
the board, there's actually a lot with under Act sixty,
but the most too popular decrees are the Individual Investor Decree,
which offers the zero percent tax on short and long
term capital gains, interest and dividends, that are sourced to
Puerto Rico. And then there's the Export Services Decree, which
(18:23):
is that four percent corporate income tax rate. So really
to qualify for both of these, it's just an application.
For the most part, you do need to meet three
main tests, which are the presence tests, the tax home test,
and the closer connection test. The presence test is kind
of the one hundred and eighty three days. There are
actually five ways to meet it, but I would say
the most common way to meet it is spending one
(18:43):
hundred and eighty three days in Puerto Rico. The tax
home test is, hey, where's your business actually located? So
you know, if I own a company in New York
and I am flying back and forth for business in
New York and I never create a business down in
Puerto Rico, you're not going to meet the tax home test.
And then the closer connection test is the most subjective
of the three, and this is really what I got
(19:03):
all the heart test, it's where does your heart actually lie?
Did you actually make an effort to move to Puerto Rico.
So a lot of the times it looks like moving
church and religious organizations, moving social organizations down to Puerto Rico.
If you have a wife and you are moving down
to Puerto Rico, your wife and your kids should come
with you. They should not remain in California. You should
(19:23):
move down to Puerto Rico and not be staying in
an airbnb or a hotel. You need to be staying
in a house that you're leasing or buying. There are
a lot of things that kind of come into this,
but the whole idea behind it is that you were
intentional with your move. You have actually moved to Puerto
Rico and left your previous day of residence, and so
those are kind of the best ways to comply with
bona fide residency rules.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
That makes sense because if Puerto Rico is going to
dish out those tax benefits, they want to make sure
that there's some buying right that you're going to stick
around for a little while, that you are actually going
to actively invest in, that you're not just there as
a tax dodge. Talk about how long people typically stay for.
Are people moving permanently because you've mentioned to your rule
(20:05):
that buying a house becomes a requirement, or are people
saying this is just a kind of a seasonal thing
for me, I'm going to stay here for a few years.
I'm going to kind of take advantage of some of
those tax breaks, and then I'm going to head back
to the mainland.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
I see a huge mix of both. I have clients
that want to stay for the rest of their lives
or want to stay for at least ten to fifteen years.
I also have clients that are like, hey, I don't
see this being longer than like a three to five
year thing, And I think both are okay. I will say,
while there isn't a specific rule about the number of
days or number of years you need to stay in
Puerto Rico, a lot of residency rules on the IRS
(20:40):
and Puerto Rico side of things revolve around a three
year rule. And so what I advise most of my
clients is that you stay for a minimum of three years.
And that is basically for purposes of an audit. It
looks like you actually moved. It makes it look like
you made an intentional effort to go down there to
spend time there. And I think even a bigger point
is not necessarily the of year as you spend down there,
(21:01):
but it's what you did with your life in the US, right.
So a lot of people love to keep their house
available for you. So you know, I'm from San Diego. Originally,
I actually had a client that is from San Diego.
They wanted to keep their house in San Diego so
they could go back and visit. I was like, Hey,
you don't need to sell your home, but you should
rent it out long term at arms link to someone
you don't know. When you come back to the US,
you should have to bring a suitcase. You should not
(21:23):
have a house that has the exact same fixings that
you would have in Puerto Rico. You need to make
it look like you've moved, especially in high tax states
where they really want to come after you. You have
to make it look like you've left that state permanently
and that you've established a life in Puerto Rico. And
that's where I see most people getting caught up.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Yeah, okay, what about additional expenses. So you're talking about
like plane tickets then right, traveling back and forth, but
you're also talking about if you have kids. I've just
seen some of the people who move down there and
the buckets and buckets and buckets of stuff they have
to transport, Like the travel day can be a nightmare.
But also, once you get down there, private school for
(22:00):
some most people they feel like that's a necessity. So
the cost of family of the family bears can be
significant with a big move like that.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah, no, definitely, and a lot of people do decide
to home school. There are a few private schools on
the island. I believe a couple of them actually have
connections with the Miami Private School District as well, so
there is kind of some type of continuity with education
with the United States. That being said, obviously is different
than if you were going to public school in California.
You're not going to be doing common core like they
(22:28):
do in California. It's going to be a new type
of education. I've heard a lot of people actually happy
with that level of it, especially at a private school.
But those that don't want to send their kids to
private school, I usually don't see people going to public school.
I oftentimes see that being a home school route or
some type of online school for their kids. I completely
understand it's really hard to uph your life with your children,
(22:49):
and I think when people always ask me, well, what
dollar amount do you need to move down, I think
it really depends if you're thirty something years old, and
you're big in crypto and you have investments, you might
be I want to move down at a different price
point than someone that has a family with kids, and
their kids are now in middle school. It's really hard
to pull them out. If your kids one or two
years old, they're not going to notice a huge difference
(23:11):
for a few years. But if they already have friends
in school, I personally wouldn't uproot my kid's life for
a certain amount of money unless this was going to
set them up for the rest of eternity. So I
get a lot of different opinions on that, a lot.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Of personal factors to consider, as well as tax implications.
So in speak, wish I want to dig in a
little bit more to the tax stuff. And then also
just kind of well, who does this make sense for?
Because you're right, like the stereotypical crypto bro who has
built up a significant amount of money in his or
her portfolio, Well, then it might make more sense for
(23:47):
them to avoid taxation and bite the bullet and move
down to Puerto Rico. But then for others, like a teacher,
like or something like that, maybe it doesn't make as
much sense. So we'll get some questions on that front
with Rachel. Right after this I we're back still talking
with Rachel Ferris talking about Puerto Rico. Is it the
(24:11):
island of your dreams? The perpetual Caribbean vacation where taxes
don't exist? The way sometimes richly you describe it sounds
a little heavenly. It's like this little slice of sand
and sun in, you know, down in the Caribbean, and
you don't have to pay taxes like it sounds too
(24:31):
good to be true. We were talking about that earlier,
But I guess can you talk more maybe about the
individual investors. I think some people are have a business
and they're like, oh, this would be a great way
for me to move down and avoid paying taxes on
my business income. But I'm guessing a lot of the
people who are listening would call or be more interested
in the individual investor side of things. So how does
(24:55):
that work? And how does that work too? For w
two employees. Let's say you could work from anyway. What's
the tax status look like if you live in Puerto
Rico but you work for a company back in the States.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Yeah, So let me touch on the individual investore first.
So essentially I'll give you a great example. Let's say
you've held Apple stock for ten years and you move
to Puerto Rico and you sell it a year after
you move, Well, you're going to mark down the value
of that Apple Stock anything that is publicly traded on
the day that you've moved down to Puerto Rico. The
ten years of appreciation before you move to Puerto Rico
(25:26):
will be taxed at US rates and your state tax rates.
The one year after you moved to Puerto Rico will
be taxed at Puerto Rico rates. And so if you're
expecting to move down, hey, I have all this money
in crypto, or I have this huge investment portfolio I
want to do a huge exit. Reality is you'll need
to spend more time in Puerto Rico and expect that
stock to go up a bit to make the move
worth it. You won't be able to capture those gains
(25:48):
that happened before you actually moved down to Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
But all the trading you do once you move down
to Puerto Rico. Let's say then you're talking about capital
gains tax free. But if you have portfolio and you
sell it when you're down there, sorry, you're still subject
to paying the United States Uncle Sam, it's fair share.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Yes, you have to pay their fair share again if
you hold that Apple stock for another ten years. Once again,
the ten years after you move that is going to
be Puerto Rico tax. The ten years beforehand is going
to be US tax. What I see a lot of
the times with kind of situations like this is that people,
when they expect their stock to go up there expect
an investment to kind of do well in the next
few years, they want to get down to Puerto Rico
(26:28):
sooner to be able to capture that actual gain. I
think the big thing to note is that when you're
actually trading, so let's say you're spending that one hundred
and eighty three days in Puerto Rico, you need to
commence trades while you are physically located in Puerto Rico yourself.
So just because you're a resident for that year doesn't
mean I could be on vacation in New York and
the decide I'm going to stell my Apple stock. You
need to sell it while you're physically located in Puerto
(26:50):
Rico to ensure that everything is actually captured as a
Puerto Rican gain. I don't want New York to have
any type of claim because you clicked a button on
your computer. You should be commencing every timee bit trade
while you are physically located in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Okay, so what about then income working from AFAR or Yeah,
so if I can work from anywhere and I can
move down to Puerto Rico, how does that impact just
a paycheck I get from an employer.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Yeah, so for a regular W two employee, generally this
doesn't work. But I found a lot of different ways
that W two employees have been able to make this work.
And so one of those options is having your employee
actually allow you to work out of Puerto Rico and
have a Puerto Rico entity. So if they're willing to
say all the work you're doing is entirely out of
Puerto Rico, you can actually qualify for these benefits. A
(27:38):
second option I see is becoming a contractor. So I
actually have probably about twenty percent of my clients they
worked with big employers back in the US and reached
out to them to say, hey, I'm thinking of moving
to Puerto Rico. They weren't open to creating an entity
in Puerto Rico. Well, what they said is, hey, you
can be a contractor create your own single member LLC,
and we will pay you that salary basically as a contractor,
(28:01):
and then you can take advantage of that four percent
corporate income tax. And it's a lot more common than
you think for employers to be okay with this. Actually,
I would say most people that reach out to me
about it have around a seventy percent success rate on
employers being okay with one version or another. The third
option is a difficult to hire or a difficult recruit
to employ a decree. So if you are someone in
(28:23):
a skilled position and you want to move down to
Puerto Rico, your company can actually open up a position
in Puerto Rico and say, hey, we can't really recruit
for this type of position in Puerto Rico. They don't
have the skilled labor for it. We want to recruit
someone from the US to move down, and then you
can get hired. Under that decree. The first one hundred
thousand dollars of the salary that you get for that
(28:44):
year will be taxed at normal Puerto Rican rates. You
will not have to pay federal tax on that. Everything
after the one hundred thousand dollars is zero percent tax.
So it is a really great benefit for people that
are in highly skilled positions. I often think this works
for software engineers or people that have something very tangible.
This isn't great if let's say you are a plumber
(29:05):
and you want to move down to Puerto Rico. The
idea behind export services is that you're exporting service is
off the island, So you're not providing services to people
located on the island of Puerto Rico. You're providing it
to people in the US. You're providing it to people internationally.
And so if you need to be physically like a
dentist with your hands in someone's mouth, this isn't going
to work for you. But if you're a lawyer, a
(29:26):
software engineer, any of the things where you can work
with people other places, virtually it works very well.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
As we've seen recently in the state's tax law. Subject
to change, to debate, to political party influence, so and
so you can't really necessarily rely on even even hosting
the show we're talking about, well, future tax rates could change,
and so what do you do in the event, Like
there's a lot of there's a lot of stuff that's
(29:52):
not completely knowable. So what's your take on the durability
of these laws? And you know whether or not people
should to uproot their lives to try to take advantage
of a tax break that could sunset at some point.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Yeah, that's a great question. And when you actually get
the decree, you sign a contract with the government for
ten to fifteen years, depending on your type of decree.
So you have that guaranteed rate for ten to fifteen years.
Versus in the United States, you don't sign a contract
with the government every single year telling you what your
tax rate is going to be next year, five years
from now, ten years from now. This is a guaranteed
(30:25):
set rate.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
In fact, we'll be debating the new tax rates again
in twenty twenty nine because of.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Sunsets, exactly. And so here you have a guaranteed contract
with the government. And the great thing about this contract
is if they end up offering a better incentive, you
can switch to the better incentive. Now, if they make
it worse, it's not necessarily grandfathered in where you have
to go back to the worst program. You get to
keep the best benefit that they offer. And so if
they start offering a program where Hey, that four percent
(30:52):
corporate income tax rate is chopped down to two percent.
You can upgrade your decree to the two percent. Now.
If they tell you, hey, next year, we're switching that
to a ten percent corporate tax rate, you're stuck with
that four percent, luckily for the next ten to fifteen years,
depending on your decree. And so it's a really great
way to tax plan because there isn't necessarily volatility with it.
It is set in the stone. A big concern I
(31:13):
do see, though, is that this program for Acts sixty
isn't necessarily extended indefinitely right now. It is until twenty
fifty five, I believe, so for most people in their
lifespan right now, very reasonable. Before this, it was supposed
to sunset in twenty thirty five, I believe, But they
had so much success from this they've extended another twenty years.
(31:35):
So I don't think this is a conversation we need
to really worry about at this point in time. If
we get closer to twenty forty, twenty fifty five somewhere
around there and they still haven't renewed it again, that's
another thing we can bring up. But for most people
that's not going to be an issue.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
We've got some fire officionados in our audience who they
love the idea of front loading the pain, investing large
percentages of their salary so that they don't have to work.
They at least the work optional life, right, So once
they reach their mid forties or maybe even earlier for
some people who are really getting after it, they can
just like completely decide whether or not they want to
(32:09):
continue working for money. And how do you think that
the fire crowd and Puerto Rico tax benefits overlap?
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Oh, they're gonna love this. And actually a lot of
people come down with that exact same mentality. They want
to achieve financial freedom at an earlier age. And what
better way to do it. By securing those tax gains
back to yourself. You're not having to pay the government.
You're able to either get financial freedom, retire earlier, or
get a competitive edge on your business. I see most people,
(32:37):
especially younger people, going down to Puerto Rico and being like,
I'm going to stay there for five years. This is
how much money I'm saving when I go back to
the US. If I want to explore a new business venture, great,
If not, I am just going to coast the rest
of my life and I will ever have to worry
about a dollar, especially when you're thinking about big tech
people in San Francisco or big finance guys that are
day traders in New York. Right, this is a perfect
(32:59):
way to capture that within a few years of your
life and quote unquote sacrifice to really be able to
optimize your financial future. Now, I don't think is as
much as a sacrifice as fire is, where it's like, hey,
you're going to cut your costs and you're just investing everything.
You're gonna live kind of measly so you can live
bigger later on. The quality of life in portorioes great.
You are probably going to live a higher quality of
(33:19):
life than you did in the US. You are living
in a beautiful island that has great weather most of
the year. Like I think for most people, they don't
see it as a sacrifice necessarily. It's almost an upgrade.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
I feel like when Portorigo gets discussed, the crypto thing
gets thrown in there. Frequently. There's a decent population of
crypto enthusiasts and investors. Can the tax savings, Like you know,
we're fine with people owning a small amount of cryptocurrency,
bitcoin in particular, but typically we talk about index funds like, hey,
index funds are the tried and true, boring path to
building wealth. So that's a great way that people that
(33:52):
we talk about investing in a way a lot of
our audience goes about investing. So are the savings or
the tax saving the same for people who investing cryptocurrency
and index funds or well, yeah, how would you chop
that up?
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Same thing. They are all basically like available for trades,
stocks or securities. Essentially, crypto especially works well, stocks work well,
index funds work well. It gets a little more complicated
when you're talking about something that is off the market.
So if I'm investing in my friend's company, that's a
little bit hard to value, and so that generally comes
(34:26):
with a valuation study. But for anything where you can
get an active dollar amount on it, totally fine. The
only thing I will say to be a little concerned
about is if you were going the hedge fund route,
and I think that's a lot less popular unless you
are quite high net worth. But the idea of hedge
fund manager is they are actually initiating the trades for you,
and so because of that, that tends to be sourced
to where they are located and not sourced to where
(34:48):
you are located. But I've never had clients have issues
with index funds, and a lot of people end up
using the extra money to explore new types of investments.
So I have a lot of people that are doing
box spreads now right. So they liked index fund they
like the security, the low risk, right, and they found
that box spreads were a really great option to also
get a very low risk investment with sometimes a higher
return and get that source back to Puerto Rico. There
(35:10):
are some really great financial advisors in Puerto Rico as
well that can assist you with that. There are people
that literally only specialize in helping getting all your investments
Puerto Rico sourced. And so those are great conversations that
you can kind of have with one of those people
if you do decide to move down.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
So when the rubber meets the road, when you're talking
to people, what sort of thresholds do they need to
meet to make it makes sense to even consider this.
So obviously there's a lot of personal factors to talk about,
kids and schools and community all that stuff. Like, there's
a lot of reasons I'm not moving to Puerto Rico,
even after talking to you. But I could see it
for certain people in other phases of their lives and
(35:48):
who have other goals and you know, other tax situations
that they're dealing with, saying oh, yeah, I think this,
I should at least consider this. What sort of questions
would you ask them to help them to side whether
or not this made sense? And like, is there a
way even maybe to look backwards at how much tax
you've paid in recent years and say, oh, I think
(36:10):
I think you you make sense for you or actually
you're not really in the ballpark, you're not paying enough
tax where this sort of movement makes sense.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Yeah. So I don't love to give a dollar amount
for people, because ten thousand dollars means something different to
me than it might mean to you. Right, And so
I have people that move down making maybe two hundred
thousand dollars a year and they're like, Wow, these tax
savings mean so much to me. I have people that
I talk to that make twenty million dollars a year
that are like, Nope, not worth it to me. So
I don't love to give a dollar amount for that.
(36:38):
But what I will say. The question I always ask
is are you actually willing to move for at least
three years of your life? I get a lot of questions, Hey,
can I just VPN down? Oh? Can my wife and
kids stay back there? Oh? I want to maintain my
life in the US, and I want to go back
all the time and spend weekends in Puerto Rico. The
reality is is that you do need to move for
three years of your life. And if that is not
(36:58):
something that you'd even be willing to consider, then I
don't think this is the program for you. In terms
of who else this would fit for. I mean investors, entrepreneurs,
people that have a side hustle even right, people that
are w two workers that think that their employer will
be flexible. There are a lot of different ways that
you can kind of look at this. I don't think
there's a one size fit all model. Besides the fact
(37:21):
that everyone that moves down is actually willing to move
and commit to a life down there for usually about
three years.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Okay, a few more questions for you about Puerto Rico,
what it's like to live there, and kind of some
of those trade offs that people are going to experience
if they do say, yeah, I want to pay less
in tax, so I'm going to make this jump. We'll
get to a few more questions with Rachel right after this.
Right we're back from the break, still talking with Rachel
(37:50):
Ferris about acting your tax bill by moving, by leaving
where you live and all that you love to go
someplace for and a new Just kidding, I'm sure Puerto
Rico is I'm curious what is the XPAP population of
Puerto Rico now, Rachel, because like, are people going to
feel like they're running in similar circles with Mainlanders or
is it like what's the cultural shock of moving to
(38:13):
the island of Puerto Rico these days?
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It
is different in some ways. You can find community as
a fully English speaking people that feel like you're at home.
I know, I spend a good chunk of my year
down there, and when I go down there, besides the
nice speeches in the warm weather, I find that most
people I'm interacting with are very similar to the people
I'd be interacting with back in California. That being said,
when I leave those axpac communities it is predominantly Spanish
(38:37):
speaking and I'm not saying you need to learn to
speak Spanish. You can get by with English. Most people
know English. But again, it is a little bit of
a culture change where you're seeing menus in Spanish, you're
having to deal with, you know, getting your driver's license,
and you're having to deal with setting up utilities, and
sometimes they don't speak English, or sometimes the repair guide
doesn't speak English. Right. I found that most people don't
(38:57):
have huge issues with that. There are are very good
xpat communities that can refer you off to the best people.
So rather than finding some random handyman on Yelp, you
can talk to your neighbor and they're like, oh, we
use this guy all the time. He's super reliable, he's
easy to communicate with, boom, super easy. I would say
the big thing that I do notice for people though,
is one sometimes the quality of service is a little different.
(39:21):
So especially you know, girls like to get their nails done,
they get to like to get their hair done, might
get like to get their hair dyed. A lot of
people actually end up still going back to the US
for things like that just because they're used to kind
of a certain level of service. That being said, things
like dental and healthcare. It's decent down there. If you're
going to get a big surgery, I would say go
(39:41):
to the United States. Don't get the surgery done in
Puerto Rico. But if you're doing regular kind of screenings
and you just have your primary care doctor in Puerto Rico,
completely fine. Most of the people are actually trained in
the US and then they move down to Puerto Rico,
so you're getting a pretty high level of service. I
think the other big thing to mention is the electricity
grid that is always, always always in the news. Reality
(40:05):
is is that if you were coming down as an expat,
hopefully you have a certain amount of money to get
a place with a generator, you usually don't have any issues.
I personally have never had an issue with electricity at
my place. My building has a generator and it just
snaps on like that. The lights will go off for
like a half a second, and I've never had a
problem with it. I do know people that decide to
(40:25):
live in areas where maybe it's not the higher quality
of living. And I'm not talking about like the nice
areas of San Juan and Condato. I'm talking like they're
living Ring Cone by the beach in a little shack
because they want to serve all the time. Those people
tend to deal with those electricity issues a little.
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Bit more, okay. And hurricanes, that's another issue that you
deal with when you live in Puerto Rico. How big
of a problem is that, because I would think that'd
be that could be a little little frightening to live
there during a hurricane season.
Speaker 2 (40:52):
Yeah. So here's my hot tip, because I since I've
been living there, I actually have never experienced a legitimate hurricane.
Obviously a hurricane back in twenty twelve that just wiped
things out. My tip is what I do is if
I hear a little musing about a hurricane coming, I
book a refundable flight for every single day that week,
so Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday onwards. And if I don't
(41:13):
feel like I need to leave, refund the flight, Refund
the flight, refund the flight. If I do feel like
I need to leave, boom, I have a flight already
ready for me. There are some great airports in Puerto Rico,
very easy to get off island, and so that's what
I really suggest for most people. Again, if you're not
living right on the beach, you shouldn't have an issue
if you're living in a bigger building. My building is concrete,
nice new I have never worried about flooding or windows
(41:36):
being broken or things like that. Necessarily, if you're gonna
stand alone home shack right on the beach, yeah you
probably do have something to worry about. But a lot
of people end up traveling during that time, or if
they do need to stay on island, they do the
flight trick. Like I just mentioned, hurricane season is generally
through kind of late summer early fall, and so it's
kind of the perfect time to escape the heat of
(41:56):
Puerto Rico and go see family back in the US,
or go to Europe and travel for a bit, or
check out another place for the summer and enjoy your time.
A lot of people don't even live there during hurricane season,
so it's not something you need to worry about.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
You mentioned the hospitality of the locals. But I've seen
too that there has been some pushback. Like I was
in Hawaii recently and I saw these signs up, these
like anti resort building signs. So even in you know,
the actual like United States, a state in the United States,
there are people who are against some of the forms
(42:29):
of tourism that happen, and they don't They don't want
to see maybe their precious local resources used by people
they don't perceive as locals. So I have seen some
of that pushback. What does that look like, what sort
of frustrations exist? And then how do people that you
have helped move down there deal with that?
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Yeah, that's a really great question. Yeah, there obviously are
people that are discontent with it. I will say it's
less on the government side and sometimes more on the
actual people living their side. We don't see pro tests
or things like that. Within the communities. It's a lot
of times more discontent towards the actual politicians that have
put it in place, not necessarily against the foreigners who
(43:10):
are spending their money. Most people actually like the fact that,
you know, people are spending money in the economy. What
they don't like is that real estate prices are going
up in some of those more expat areas, and it's
pricing some people out, and that's really unfortunate. What I found, though,
is that the way that the government has kind of
circumvented this is that they actually require as part of
(43:30):
your decree to give ten thousand dollars every single year
to a Puerto Rican charity, and so that's really helped
kind of rebrand the idea of what ac sexety really
looks like. You're helping out local people. Five thousand dollars
of that actually needs to go to eradicating child poverty,
and so you're helping uplift the population in a lot
of wayte possible. They sometimes require people as part of
(43:51):
the decree to go to career fairs or to speak
on different boards, different appearances every single year to really
engage with the local community. Obviously there are still people
that never leave their little resort community, but as a whole,
I think especially in the areas with a lot of expats. Yes,
people are discontent with the housing prices and that there
are some unfair parts about sixty, but a lot of
(44:12):
people are very happy about the income coming in. And
one thing that the government actually did to make things
a little bit more equal is that they're now allowing
Puerto Rican residents that are local not necessarily ACT sixty participants,
to also take advantage of some of those tax rules,
so that four percent corporate income tax will now be
allowed to be applied for by local Puerto Ricans as well. Beforehand,
(44:32):
it was just reserved for expats and people moving down.
So they're trying to even the playing field a little
bit more now that they've gotten that money coming in.
So I think people are starting to look up at
least on a lot of those attitudes. And overall, I
mean it's brought multi hundreds of millions of dollars essentially
into the Puerto Rican economy that a lot of the
areas have improved multifold, especially in Dorado and the popular areas.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
No, it makes sense. It makes sense as u as
an island. Who's that's trying to, you know, incentivize investment
and revitalization that bring people down even with those tax
benefits that they offer. That's the incentive, and then hopefully
those people stick around and they are doing good in
the community. I'm curious, what would you say to somebody
(45:18):
who's been listening and they're skeptical or they're like, it's
interesting and it's cool, but it sounds like maybe it's
for people with like yacht sort of money, or like
it's it's not for people like me. What would you
say to those people?
Speaker 2 (45:34):
I think Act Sexety is a great example of understanding
the rules of the game. This used to be something
that was only accessible to the ultra high net worth
that were able to get this information, and slowly and
slowly it's starting to open up to more people. I
think that if you want to secure financial freedom for yourself,
this is a great opportunity. You don't need to be
making tens millions and hundreds of millions of dollars to
(45:56):
take advantage of this. In reality, your decree will get approved,
and even if you're only saving a couple tens of
thousands of dollars a year, if that's worth it to
you for a few years of your life, it's pretty
easy to get down there. I would suggest reaching out
to professionals like myself. A lot of us offer free
consultations where we can talk you through what eligibility looks like.
We can go through your previous tax returns and say, hey,
(46:18):
this is the amount you would have saved in the
last five years if you actually moved down. It'll give
you a really great picture for it. And most people
just want to inform people about the benefits of Puerto Rico,
So reach out to any of the professionals hear about
it and In reality, what you should understand is, yeah,
a lot of the clients I do have are multimillionaires.
I actually have a client right now that makes zero dollars.
They're starting a new business. So there is a huge
(46:41):
spectra of people moving down. It's just more about the
attitude behind moving So don't be afraid if you're making
one hundred, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year.
If it's worth it to you, it's worth it to you,
and it's easy to file through the process. Compliance is
a little bit trickier, but if you are a one
man operation you're just dealing with investments, you're going to
be pretty simple. It gets more complicated in the fees
(47:01):
get a lot heavier when you have multinational organizations and
international entities and trusts in the States you're dealing with.
If you're just Joshmo out of Ohio and you want
to move down and you just have a lot of
investments and you want to check it out, it's going
to be a pretty easy process for you, and I
wouldn't be overly concerned about qualifying your eligibility.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
Okay, Rachel, this has been an enlightening conversation. Thank you
so much work. Can listeners find out more about you
if they're curious?
Speaker 2 (47:28):
Yeah, definitely. So. I have an online education course at
maximizewell dot com. It walks you through just the basics
of what Act sixty compliance look like, how to file
the application, how to look at compliance even after you apply.
There's a free kind of little preview on there as
well that you can look through. Alternatively, if you want
to talk to me, my website is Rachel ferriscpa dot com.
(47:49):
I offer free consultations to anyone who's looking to move down.
You can read some of the articles on my website
get a better picture for what Act sixty looks like,
or you can just book a call with me and
I'd be happy to talk you through everything.
Speaker 1 (48:01):
Awesome, Thank you, Rachel, appreciate it, of course, Thanks joll okay.
So that was a fun conversation, and interestingly, it's one
I debated a lot before inviting Rachel on the show
because I was like, I don't know this is what
this seems like one of those tax dodging strategies for
multimillionaires sorts of sorts of things, and I know that
(48:22):
the How To Money audience wants to be multimillionaire someday,
But we're mostly normal people, right, offering advice for normal
folks to be able to make progress with their personal
finances on the margins and eventually achieve financial independence at
vastly earlier rates than most people. But I think Rachel
made a good point in there, and probably my big
(48:42):
takeaway is that, yeah, it's really hard to set a
guideline and say that a person needs to have a
ten million dollar net worth or a one hundred thousand
dollars salary. Well, that's not going to be enough saving.
So so much of it depends on what your value've
you ten thousand dollars and the trade off of moving
elsewhere for years in order to realize tax savings. And
(49:06):
so I thought this was actually one of the things
that this highlighted for me this conversation was just the
fact that when you look for tax savings or when
you have an idea of this is what Rachel address
kind of at the very in there of how the
game works, it helps you wrap your mind around a
little more and maybe you find tax savings in places
(49:28):
that you didn't otherwise assume. So even even on the
mainland United States. Right, there are tax benefits such as
real estate professional status. If you are a real estate
investor and you know more of your time is spent
doing real estate than it is doing your day job,
there are significant tax benefits you can receive, or there
are opportunity zones for real estate investors. I mean, there's
(49:50):
all sorts of different tax benefits that incentivize us to
do different things. And this is just a really real
big one, right, like big tax benefits for a big
move in order to attract investment to an island that
was under capitalized and that didn't have the sort of
(50:12):
capital that it needed to get built up in Prive.
And so I just I thought this was interesting. And
my guess is that the vast majority of you aren't
buying playing tickets and moving tomorrow. But I hope you
found it at least enlightening and it got you thinking
about what am I paying in taxes? And are there
interesting ways that I can save that I hadn't thought about?
(50:35):
And I don't know, maybe for a small handful of you,
you might say, actually, I didn't realize that I could
save so dang much and run my business from Puerto
Rico and pay a heck of a lot less in
tax or be an investor in Puerto Rico and save
a lot. And maybe that piqued you're interested enough to
look into it a little bit further. But definitely an
(50:59):
interesting conversation. And while I'll be staying put, keeping my
kids in their schools and staying close to friends and family,
you might have other priorities. All Right, that's going to
do it for this episode. I hope to see you
back here on Friday for our Friday Flights, where we
cover the news stories from this week and how they
pertain to your personal finances. Until next time, Best Friend Out,