2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THIRTEEN - Taxation and Finance (§§ 1 — 33423) › Subtitle 3 - Property Taxes (§§ 401 — 701-701-41) › Chapter 55 - Attachment, Sale, and Redemption of Property (§§ 501 — 522) › § 502 - Attachment and sale of property of debtor

If any person fails or refuses to pay his taxes within the period prescribed in § 330 of the Political Code or within the period established by any tax-levying law, the collector shall proceed to collect the delinquent taxes by attachment and sale of the property of said debtor, as provided hereinafter.
Any debtor whose personal property has been attached for the collection of taxes may resort to the Court of First Instance within the term fixed in the notice of attachment and obtain the dissolution of the attachment posted unless the Secretary of the Treasury, at the hearing set by the Court for that purpose, can show sufficient legal grounds to carry out the attachment.
If there is no real property or real property rights belonging to the debtor on which to levy the preventive attachment to secure payment of the tax, the Secretary of the Treasury shall require any person holding any property, property rights, credits or money payable to the taxpayer, excluding salaries, on any account, including salaries or bank deposits belonging or payable to the taxpayer, not exempt from attachment, to withhold from such property or rights the amounts that the Secretary of the Treasury notifies him of for the purpose of covering the tax debt pending payment.
The notice and demand made by the Secretary of the Treasury to the person who has possession of the property or any obligation to pay the taxpayer any amount of money on any account, excluding salaries, shall constitute a preferred lien on such property or rights which the depositary shall be bound to withhold until the debt is paid to the Secretary of the Treasury. Any depositary who disposes of or permits the disposal of such property or rights shall be bound to pay the amount of the value of the property. He shall also be bound to pay a special penalty amounting to fifty percent (50%) of the tax owed. The amount of this penalty shall not be credited against the tax debt. The person who withholds such personal property, rights or real property shall not incur any obligation toward the taxpayer provided he acts under an order of the Secretary of the Treasury to such effects.
Notwithstanding the previous provisions, the Secretary of the Treasury may postpone the sale of real property subject to such procedure because of tax indebtness of a taxpayer of advanced age or suffering from some terminal illness or one that permanently disables him, who presents a medical certificate to certify it and the following circumstances occur:
(a) The property is the only real property and permanent dwelling of the taxpayer, and
(b) the taxpayer does not have sufficient properties or income available for the full payment of the tax debt nor is it possible for him to avail himself of a payment plan.
This provision will not apply to the heirs nor to the taxpayer once the illness or condition under which the sale of the property was postponed ceases.
The term established by § 2469 of Title 30, for the cancellation of the recording of the attachment for tax reasons shall be stayed until the death of the taxpayer or until the condition that merited the postponing of the sale of the real property ceases.
The Secretary of the Treasury shall adopt the rules and regulations needed to postpone the collection of the sale of the real property of the debtor in the cases provided in by the preceding paragraph of this section, including the definition of the term “advanced age” and the criteria to determine that a taxpayer does not have sufficient property or income for the full payment or a payment plan, according to the experience of the Department, and the procedures and terms to request and decree the postponing of the sale of a property for the conditions established above.
History —Political Code of 1902, § 335; June 14, 1957, No. 56, p. 125, § 2; May 27, 1976, No. 55, p. 152, § 3; May 6, 1988, No. 25, p. 107, § 1, eff. 60 days after May 6, 1988.