2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THIRTEEN - Taxation and Finance (§§ 1 — 33423) › Subtitle 17 - Internal Revenue Code of 2011 (§§ 30001 — 33423) › PART VII - Administrative Provisions, Procedures, Interests, Penalties, and Additions to Taxes (§§ 33001 — 33423) › Chapter 1066 - Procedures for Demand for Payment, Attachment, and Sale of Taxpayer’s Property (§§ 33261 — 33280) › § 33263 - Sale of personal property to pay taxes; exemptions

(a) The sale of personal property for the payment of any assessed debt, fines, interest, surcharges, and penalties shall be conducted at public auction, and if such property can be portioned or segmented, only the amount or part of such attachable personal properties that is strictly necessary for the payment of all assessed debts, fines, interest, surcharges, penalties, and costs shall be sold. An amount of property whose appraised value is sufficient to cover, with the adjudication price at a third auction, the probable amount of assessed debts and their interest, surcharges, fines, penalties, and costs at such third auction, shall be deemed to meet the preceding condition.
(b) The Secretary, before starting the sale at public auction of the personal property, shall proceed to appraise the same.
(c) The sale of personal property shall be conducted at public auction, to be carried out not before thirty (30) days nor after sixty (60) days from having attached the property, fixing as a minimum adjudication rate for the first auction, one hundred percent (100%) of the amount of the appraisal thus conducted by the Secretary.
(d) If the first auction does not produce any bids or adjudications, the second auction to be held shall be at a minimum rate of seventy-five percent (75%) of the appraisal value fixed by the Secretary on such personal property.
(e) If such second auction does not produce any bids or adjudications and the holding of a third or subsequent auction is necessary, for such third or subsequent auction, the minimum rate shall be fifty percent (50%) of the ad hoc appraisal value fixed by the Secretary on such personal property.
(f) If any of these auctions does not produce any bids or adjudications, the Government of Puerto Rico, through the Secretary’s representative present at the auction, may adjudicate such attached personal property to itself at the minimum assessment rate corresponding to the auction in which the property is to be adjudicated.
(g) When the personal property at auction is adjudicated to a third party, and when such property is adjudicated to the Government of Puerto Rico, the proceeds of the sale of such property shall be destined to the payment of the tax debt. In the event of an adjudication of property to the Government of Puerto Rico, the Secretary shall issue and give the taxpayer a credit note for a sum equal to the difference between the adjudication price and the tax debt to be collected, which credit note shall be sufficient to cancel in the future an equal amount of tax debt from the same taxpayer. In the event that the property is adjudicated to a third party, the surplus, if any, shall be given by the Secretary to the taxpayer.
(h) If the amount obtained from the auction is not sufficient to pay the tax debt in full, the Secretary may collect from such delinquent taxpayer the amount of taxes and levies, together with any unpaid fines, interest, surcharges, and penalties, as soon as he/she acquires knowledge that such delinquent taxpayer is in possession or is the owner of attachable personal and real property, in which case, the proceedings for demand for payment and collection of the difference, as established in this Code, shall be pursued against him/her.
(i) The following personal property shall be exempt from sale to pay taxes in full: mechanic and artisan instruments and utensils operated only by hand; cattle; and domestic furniture. Personal property related to § 1130 of Title 32 shall also be exempt from attachment. The unsold portion of said property shall be left at the site of the auction at the owner’s risk.
History —Jan. 31, 2011, No. 1, § 6060.03, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2011.