Puerto Rico sees $8.96 billion in gross revenues for fiscal year 2015

By Caroline Salls

Pittsburgh, July 24 – Puerto Rico treasury secretary Juan Zaragoza Gomez announced Friday that gross revenues totaled $8,961,000,000 in fiscal year 2015, a $76 million decrease compared to fiscal year 2014, according to a news release.

The treasury secretary said the fact that fiscal year 2015 revenues were below estimates is a reflection of Puerto Rico’s difficult fiscal and economic situation, which directly affects the government’s liquidity.

However, Zarazoga Gomez said that, even during this difficult economic situation, taxpayers have paid around $500 million in temporary tax measures, which will not be recurring during fiscal year 2016.

Permanent revenue sources that are expected to compensate the temporary tax measures include changes introduced to Puerto Rico’s sales and use tax (SUT), and changes will be introduced to the tax administration in order to strengthen tax compliance and fiscal oversight.

Zaragoza Gomez said collections were $604 million below estimates in 2015 as a result of the elimination of a gross receipts tax in December 2014, a reduction of the motor vehicle excise tax, the fact that Congress did not pass a tax-extender increasing the reimbursement of the excise tax on off-shore shipments of rum and economic factors.

Zaragoza Gomez also said some legislative measures that generated revenues for Puerto Rico’s general fund were approved in fiscal year 2015. These laws granted temporary periods to make pre-payments at preferential rates on transactions such as Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), retirement plans, annuity contracts and other capital assets.

In addition, another law allowed the pre-payment of taxes on corporate dividends for future distributions of accrued benefits and profits at a reduced rate of 5% or 8% and authorized the use of tax amnesty to pay tax debts.

According to the release, the combined results of these laws produced $467.6 million in total revenues for the general fund, or 5.2% of general fund net revenue.

Zaragoza Gomez said another revenue-enhancing measure was an amnesty on traffic fines, which represented $18.8 million in revenues for the general fund.

In June, 5.5% SUT revenue totaled $115.6 million, which represented an 8.4% year-over-year increase, according to the release. In fiscal year 2015, 6% SUT revenue totaled $1,417,000,000, including $669.5 million that was transferred for debt service, $118 million that was deposited into a Municipal Administration Fund and $3.2 million that was transferred to the Film, Arts, Sciences and Industry Development Corp.

After these adjustments, Zaragoza Gomez said the general fund received $626.3 million, a $31 million year-over-year increase.

The treasury secretary said one of Puerto Rico’s main revenue drivers is its foreign corporation excise tax. Collections in this category in fiscal year 2015 amounted to $1,942,900,000, exceeding last year’s collections by $40.7 million.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.