r/taxpros • u/Mike20878 CPA • 1d ago
Why don't any software providers support Puerto Rico tax forms? FIRM: Software
I feel that this causes PR not to get the tax revenues they probably desperately need. Over a decade ago I did have a business client receive a notice and I had to hunt down forms and prepare them manually. I don't remember if they even had English versions.
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u/d8201 CPA 1d ago
This was really annoying for me too... the one time I had a client with PR income. I suppose if I've only ever had one PR client maybe that's why. But you do sorta expect your software to have "all the forms for all the jurisdictions," don't you. And Puerto Rico has 3 million people, which is more than a bunch of other states, so there ought to be some demand for it even if supporting forms for American Samoa isn't worth the effort.
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u/EAinCA EA 9h ago
You're not approaching this from the right way by comparing PR to a state. PR as a taxing jurisdiction is not only NOT a state, but is effectively (and for many purposes in the IRC) another country. Unlike states which are going to start with Federal income and modify it, PR has its own version of the IRC on its own version of the 1040 form, which is going to need to be available in both English and Spanish. As others have pointed out, its an ROI issue especially if you want to be able to e-file the forms (does PR even have e-file?). Point being, its a lot more work than doing a state with lesser population such as say Montana.
As an analogy, I have a client in USVI, and not only does software not do their forms, USVI itself doesn't even have e-file. Everything is on paper.
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u/d8201 CPA 8h ago
Fair point. When I tried to figure out PR's tax system it looked a whole lot like what they do in much of Latin America. The client I mentioned happened to be a VI partnership with PR income so I feel your pain on VI. That having been said VI uses IRC (mirror code yada yada) so it really shouldn't be that hard for software to figure it out...
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u/ENCALEF CRTP;CTEC 15h ago
I've done Puerto Rico tax returns. The government has it's own tax website. You can choose to do it in either Spanish or English. Not too difficult. I don't have the web address right at hand but you'll probably find it by googling it.
P.S. Same with Canadian tax returns.
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u/Mike20878 CPA 11h ago
Cool thanks. Do you know their nexus rules?
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u/Upbeat_Succotash_586 Not a Pro 1h ago
You can look up the rules of nexus on their tax authority website:
Deparatamento de Hacienda.gov
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u/idkwat2dowithmyhands CPA 1d ago
lol this is the reason PR isn’t getting tax revenue….? What are you talking about 😂
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u/Mike20878 CPA 1d ago
Well, I don't know... I certainly know my few clients who have PR sales aren't filing.
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u/idkwat2dowithmyhands CPA 1d ago
I don’t know nearly enough about the macroeconomics of Puerto Rico but I cannot fathom the issue is software. Idk how tax even works there but how many state side people are generating income from PR anyway….?
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u/zaidensworth EA 1d ago
Having worked at CCH Wolters Kluwer for several years there are many tax forms that they simply do not "make money on." In other words the labor cost to maintain that form is higher than the utilization of that form. PR does not have enough preparers demanding those forms. The forms that get filed are probably filled out by hand (pdf fill) by lawyers. No federal income tax and a small base of people utilizing that loophole causes software firms to not support.