How to apply for Act 60 in Puerto Rico
Most “how to apply” guides describe one checklist. There is no single Act 60 checklist, because Act 60 is a consolidated incentives code covering different programs with different requirements.
Step 1 — Start with the right path
“Act 60” is not one universal benefit and not one universal checklist. The two paths people usually mean have different applicants, different evidence, and different ongoing obligations. Pick the one closest to your situation to see what changes.
Investor path The applicant is the individual. The review centres on the person: relocation and bona fide residency facts, prior Puerto Rico residency, and the records behind investment income and gains, including basis and acquisition dates.
Export services path The applicant is the business. The review centres on the operation: what service is provided, that it is provided from Puerto Rico to clients outside Puerto Rico, where the work is physically performed, the entity itself, and its Puerto Rico presence and employment facts.
Both paths These are separate requests with separate requirements. Running them together raises sequencing questions — which is filed first, what the personal residency facts do to the business facts, and how an existing mainland entity is handled. Bring the sequencing question to counsel before either request is prepared.
The short version: the investor path is about a person and personal investment facts. The export services path is about a business selling services from Puerto Rico to clients elsewhere. If you have both a personal move and an operating business, both may be in scope and they are still separate requests. Which path fits your facts is a determination for a licensed Puerto Rico professional.
How are you paid today?
This changes which documents matter and which questions your professional will ask first. It does not change your answer on the application by itself.
With W-2 income, the questions that come first are where services are physically performed, how the employer treats the arrangement, and how the income is sourced. Those are separate from the decree request itself.
With 1099 income, the questions that come first are whether an entity exists or is needed, where the work is performed, where clients are located, and whether income is concentrated in one client. Entity structuring is regulated work for counsel and a CPA.
With an existing entity, the questions that come first are the entity's jurisdiction, whether a mainland entity stays, moves, or is replaced, plus payroll, nexus, and sourcing. An existing Delaware or state LLC does not carry over automatically.
With several income sources, the file has to separate them before anyone can review it: which income is personal, which is the business, where each one is performed, and which records exist for each. That separation is the work to do first.
Step 2 — Before an application
The application is the last step, not the first. Most files stall on facts that were never gathered.
Relocation feasibility
Housing, family, schooling, healthcare, and how much of the year you can realistically be in Puerto Rico.
Income and asset inventory
What you hold, when you acquired it, what it cost, and where each income stream comes from.
Pre-move vs post-move facts
Appreciation that happened before the move is treated differently from appreciation after. Establishing the line needs records, not memory.
Entities, employment, clients
Existing entities and their jurisdictions, employment arrangements, client locations, and where work is physically performed.
Prior Puerto Rico residency
A prior-residency condition applies to the new investor path, and the window depends on the application date. See the current-law checkpoint below.
Your advisor map
Who owns which decision: Puerto Rico counsel, a CPA, a mainland CPA, a financial advisor, and what remains unassigned.
Step 3 — Build the document file
Every list below is typical, not exhaustive. Requirements are set by DDEC, vary by path and by facts, and change. Verify current DDEC requirements for your specific request before relying on any list, including this one.
Common to both paths
- Identity documents and any background-check items requested for the request type.
- Residency and housing plan: lease or purchase records, utilities, and the intended move timeline.
- Travel and presence records supporting the days you have been and expect to be in Puerto Rico.
- Tax history and prior filings a professional needs in order to review your position.
Investor path adds
- Asset and holdings records: acquisition dates, cost basis evidence, transfers, and custodial or exchange statements.
- Documentation of pre-move value for anything acquired before relocation.
- Records supporting the prior-residency condition for the applicable window.
Export services path adds
- Entity formation and good-standing records for the entity that will hold the decree.
- Description of the service provided and evidence that it is provided to clients outside Puerto Rico.
- Client contracts or invoices showing client location and where the work is performed.
- Operations facts: Puerto Rico premises, employment or payroll plans, and how the business runs locally.
Map your crypto basis records → · Check your presence records →
Step 4 — Submit the incentive request
Puerto Rico incentive requests are submitted to DDEC through the DDEC Incentives Portal, where an applicant creates an account. Government fees apply and vary by request type; verify the current fee against the official schedule at the time you file rather than against any article, including this one.
The DDEC Incentives Portal is the government route for submitting incentive requests. incentives.ddec.pr.gov
Controls: account creation and submission of the incentive request. Last verified 2026-07-30.
Form 480.20 is not the Act 60 application. Some guides describe a Puerto Rico Treasury form as the decree application. Form 480.20 is a corporate income-tax return form. The decree request is a separate submission made through the DDEC Incentives Portal. If a source names a Hacienda return form as the application, treat that source with caution.
Step 5 — Professional review and open questions
You can create a DDEC portal account and submit a request yourself. That is a different question from whether you have the conclusions the request depends on. Regulated conclusions, professional certifications, and filings made in a professional capacity belong to licensed Puerto Rico professionals. Puerto Rico also maintains a registry of certified professionals who may issue pre-eligibility and compliance certificates that expedite incentive procedures.
Registro de Profesionales Certificados, Administración de Servicios Generales. asg.pr.gov/servicios/rpc
Controls: which registered attorneys and CPAs may issue certificates used in incentive procedures. Last verified 2026-07-30.
Puerto Rico attorney
Legal conclusions, decree strategy, entity and structuring questions, professional filings, and agency communications made in a professional capacity.
CPA (PR and mainland)
Tax positions, sourcing and basis conclusions, return preparation across both jurisdictions, and the certifications within their scope.
Financial advisor
Investment, liquidity, and timing trade-offs that sit outside the tax and legal conclusions.
Act 60 Sprint
Organizing the file: evidence, records, missing-document maps, deadline tracking, and a clean handoff. No legal, tax, residency, sourcing, basis, or approval determinations.
DDEC
Receives, reviews, and decides the incentive request, and sets the decree terms.
IRS
Federal filing status and obligations, including the presence, tax home, and closer connection analysis behind bona fide residency.
Step 6 — What happens after submission
- Requests for additional information. A request that arrives with gaps generates follow-up, and follow-up is where most of the calendar goes. This is the practical argument for building the document file first.
- Review. Processing time varies by request type and by workload. No article can quote you a reliable timeline, and this page will not invent one.
- Decree terms. If granted, the decree carries its own terms and conditions. Read them, because they define the obligations you are agreeing to keep.
Step 7 — What happens after approval
Approval is the start of an ongoing obligation, not the end of the process. Residency and sourcing facts continue to matter every year, and a decree carries recurring duties that may include:
- The annual report and its filing deadline.
- The required annual charitable contribution and evidence of it.
- Tax filings in Puerto Rico and, depending on your income and status, in the United States. Federal and Puerto Rico obligations are fact-specific — there is no single return that every decree holder files.
- Records supporting residency, presence, and sourcing for each year.
- Business substance obligations on the export services path, including any employment terms in the decree.
- Any condition written specifically into your decree.
Late or incomplete annual reporting is enforced. Puerto Rico has publicly fined decree holders for compliance failures. Treat the annual obligations as part of the cost of the decree, not as paperwork.
Current-law checkpoint
Act 60 rules are being amended, and some of the most-repeated numbers online are out of date. Under current law, and subject to change:
DDEC Informative Bulletin No. 2026-004. DDEC Informative Bulletin 2026-004 (PDF)
Controls: which prior-residency window applies, based on when the application is filed. Last verified 2026-07-30.
IRS instructions for Form 8898 describe the presence test, tax home test, and closer connection test, with more than one way to satisfy presence and special rules in the year of a move. irs.gov/instructions/i8898
Controls: the federal residency analysis. 183 days is the best-known presence benchmark, not a complete residency determination. Last verified 2026-07-30.
Figures and windows above are current-law references, not a tax projection, and may change. A licensed Puerto Rico professional applies them to your facts.
Claims from forums that need an official source
Community threads are excellent for finding the real questions and unreliable as the answer. These specific claims circulate widely and were not supported by the official sources reviewed for this page:
- A flat “ten-year prior residency ban.” The window depends on the application date — see the checkpoint above.
- A specific minimum capital figure or required Puerto Rico investment percentage stated as a universal rule.
- “183 days and you are a resident.” Presence is one of three tests.
- “Every decree holder files the same U.S. return every year.” Federal obligations depend on income and status.
- A named Hacienda return form described as the decree application.
Use forum claims to build your question list. Confirm every answer against an official source or a licensed professional.
What it actually costs
Cost arguments usually collapse because two people are comparing different things. Separate five buckets before comparing any quote:
1. Government
DDEC application or transaction fees for the request type.
2. Annual decree obligations
Recurring government obligations tied to holding the decree.
3. Required donation
The annual charitable contribution required of decree holders.
4. Provider fees
Application preparation, readiness, and file-organization work.
5. Ongoing professional work
US and Puerto Rico tax preparation, entity returns, bookkeeping, payroll, legal, and advisory work, every year.
A five-figure annual tax-preparation quote and a few-hundred-dollar mainland return are rarely the same scope. Before comparing prices, ask which returns, entities, schedules, jurisdictions, and records are included. See the full cost breakdown →
Moving well, not just moving
Puerto Rico is a place people live, not a tax structure. Files that hold up tend to belong to people whose lives actually moved: real housing, real presence, local hiring where the business facts support it, and a plan for language, payroll, infrastructure, and family realities. The required donation is a floor, not a community strategy. Genuine residency is a legal and practical question before it is a matter of optics.
Related pages
- What is Act 60
- How much does Act 60 cost
- Do I need a lawyer for Act 60
- Act 60 lawyer fees
- Puerto Rico 183-day counter
- Act 60 annual report checklist
- Crypto basis evidence mapper
Act 60 application FAQ
Can I apply before I move?
Application timing and move timing are two different facts, and each controls something different. The application date affects which version of the rules is applied to the request; the move date drives the residency and sourcing analysis. Confirm the sequencing for your situation with a licensed Puerto Rico professional.
Can a 1099 contractor use Act 60?
How you are paid, where the work is physically performed, where your clients are, and whether an entity exists are all facts a professional reviews. There is no single answer that covers every 1099 contractor, and Act 60 Sprint does not make that determination.
Do I need a Puerto Rico LLC?
The export services path applies to a business; the investor path applies to a person. Whether an entity is needed, and where it should exist, is entity and tax structuring work for counsel and a CPA.
What if I have only one client?
Client concentration affects how an arrangement is characterised, and it is a question your professional will raise early. Bring the contracts, not a summary of them.
Can I keep a mainland W-2 job?
Employment arrangement, where services are performed, and income sourcing are separate questions from the decree. Bring the actual employment facts rather than a general rule.
Can I move an existing Delaware LLC?
An existing mainland entity raises domestication, nexus, payroll, and sourcing questions that sit outside the application itself. That is regulated structuring work for an attorney and a CPA.
What does a CPA cost each year?
Compare scope before price. A quote may include a federal individual return, a Puerto Rico individual return, an exempt business or entity return, bookkeeping, payroll, the annual decree report, and audit support. A simple mainland return with none of that is a different product.
Is 183 days enough?
No. 183 days is the best-known presence benchmark, not a complete residency determination. IRS guidance describes presence, tax home, and closer connection, with special rules in the year of a move.
Can someone born in or previously resident in Puerto Rico apply?
A prior-residency condition applies to the new investor path, and the window depends on the application date — see the current-law checkpoint above. A licensed professional applies the correct window to your dates.
Is Form 480.20 the Act 60 application?
No. Form 480.20 is a Puerto Rico corporate income-tax return form, not the decree application. Incentive requests go through the DDEC Incentives Portal.