For today’s entry, I’m exploring what’s going on with mainland Americans on the island. I’m curious on what mainland Americans are thinking regarding the tax break made available to mainland Americans considering how ethically questionable its existence is.

Let’s talk a bit about the tax break. The tax break is currently Act 60. This act turns Puerto Rico into a tax haven for wealthy mainland Americans. The act requires that the individual live on PR for 6 months out of the year and to donate a total of $10,000 to two Puerto Rican non-profit organizations, one of them must be dedicated to targeting childhood poverty and the other can be of the individual’s choice. Individuals getting the tax break receive exemptions from federal and local taxes, capital gains tax, and taxes on passive income regardless of investment in local economy or in if they were able to generate employment. These exemptions are available only to mainland-born Americans arriving post-Maria, not for mainland Americans residing in PR prior to the event or to Puerto Ricans born in PR. Once again, disaster capitalism forced upon Puerto Ricans. While the mandatory donation to Puerto Rican non-profits sounds like a positive in relation to this, I will add, organizations must meet requirements in order to be able to count as an organization that’s valid for the tax exemption requirements. After many links provided by local organizations and government pages failing to actually provide the list of organizations valid for this donation, I finally found a link leading to CECFL (Comisión Especial Conjunta de Fondos Legislativos Para Impacto Comunitario). I was able to access the list of valid non-profits and it wasn’t what I expected. Many orgs were very large institutions like Puerto Rico’s anti-drug org, Alianza Para Un Puerto Rico Sin Drogas or organizations also found in mainland USA like the YMCA and the Boy Scouts. Other types of organizations included were large sports organizations and organizations that aid in transplants, like cornea transplants, and things like the Violin Suzuki Association of PR. All of these were listed under organizations targeting childhood poverty. While all of these are without a doubt very important organizations, I have to stress how large they are and it makes me wonder what exactly are the requirements they must meet in order to be considered for the list for possible donations and are these requirements achievable for smaller organizations. I have not been able to find a list of requirements for the orgs yet. The existence of this exemption carries with it a “trickle-down” logic, but there has yet to be any positive impacts reported.

I had a conversation with a pastor who moved in from the mainland and he spoke about what he’s noticed about mainland Americans. He notes he sees a distinction between those who lived through Hurricane Maria and those who came after primarily because of the tax break. He says that those who were residing in PR during hurricane Maria tend to speak Spanish (and are adamant about people learning the language upon arrival), care about the conservation of PR’s environment, and don’t view the responses of either the federal or local government in times of disaster as good. He stated he at times notices a sense of pride in their living through Hurricane Maria translating into them believing they “understand Puerto Rican struggle” and many of them consider themselves Puerto Rican at this point. In regards to the new comers, he states that he’s noticed many of them don’t particularly care about learning the language, there seems to be an expectancy that people speak English, they tend to pin the traumatic events of Hurricane Maria solely on the local government, and they show clear support for the actions of the Trump administration during Hurricane Maria’s aftermath; he also notes that many of them are upfront about them being here for the tax break. Regardless of which of the two described groups the mainland Americans are coming from, he pointed out that upon meeting each other, one of the first questions they ask each other tends to be “Were you here for the hurricane?”

There was a particular event that the pastor told me about that got my attention. He was a beneficiary of the donation requirement and he was questioned if he could count towards this donation by the person who was donating. There’s a part of me that can’t help but think that his fluency in English and his mainland origins contributed to him being considered to fulfill this requirement. Keeping that in mind, for the non-profit of the individual’s choice, how many of these are going to non-profits somehow linked to the mainland, rather than non-profits whose origins are purely Puerto Rican, headed by primarily Spanish speakers?