Puerto Rico · Tax regime

Act 22-2012 Individual Investors Act

Closed Last verified July 2026

Closed to new applicants — superseded by Act 60-2019, which consolidated Puerto Rico's incentives into a single code from 1 January 2020 and doubled the annual donation from USD 5,000 to USD 10,000. Existing Act 22 decrees remain valid on their original terms and, under Act 38-2026, may be renegotiated to adopt the new 4%/2055 regime.

This programme is closed. We keep the page up because agents still advertise it and clients still ask. Nothing below is available to new applicants.

We list it because 'Act 22' is still the name most clients and many promoters use, and because the IRS enforcement campaign is formally titled the Puerto Rico Act 22 Campaign. If a client says they have 'an Act 22 decree', they hold a legacy grant with its own terms and its own election rights under Act 38-2026 — that is a live planning question, not a historical footnote.

Qualifying routes

$5k
Individual Investors Act decree (historic)

Original annual donation was USD 5,000; Act 60-2019 raised it to USD 10,000 for new decrees.

The facts

Qualifying figure
$5k
Total landed cost
n/a — closed to new applicants
Physical presence
Same IRC §937 bona fide residence tests as Act 60
Family
n/a
Permanent residency
n/a
Citizenship
n/a
Language test
n/a
Dual citizenship
Permitted
Requirements
n/a — closed
What can go wrong
  • The IRS Puerto Rico Act 22 Campaign was added on 29 January 2021 in response to 'abusive tax avoidance, noncompliance, and fraud committed by decree holders' and remained one of 46 active LB&I campaigns as of July 2025. Legacy Act 22 holders are the most examined population in this file.
  • Legacy decrees are NOT automatically extended to 2055. They run on their existing terms through 31 December 2035 unless renegotiated or revoked.
  • GAO found 5,852 resident-investor decrees were granted between 2012 and 2024, with beneficiaries averaging roughly USD 900,000 of AGI before relocating; post-relocation average federal tax paid fell 46%. That aggregate profile is why the enforcement attention exists.
Sources (3)

Before you commit capital to this

Tell us your citizenship, your tax exposure and where your family wants to be in ten years. If this route is wrong for you, we will say so.

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