2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THIRTEEN - Taxation and Finance (§§ 1 — 33423) › Subtitle 15 - Puerto Rico Industrial Incentives Generally (§§ 10001 — 10855) › PART II - Tax Incentives Act of 1998 (§§ 10101 — 10117) › Chapter 905 - Tax Incentives Act of 1998 (§§ 10101 — 10117) › § 10115 - Special accounts and funds

(a) Special account of the Industrial Tax Exemption Office. — The fees, charges and penalties prescribed in § 10112(e) of this title, and subsections (d) and (f) of § 10113 of this title, shall be covered into a special account created for such purpose in the Department of the Treasury in order to defray the regular operating expenses of the Tax Exemption Office. Before using the resources deposited in the special account, the Tax Exemption Office shall submit a yearly budget of expenses chargeable to said funds for the approval of the Office of Management and Budget of the Government of Puerto Rico. The resources of the special account set aside to defray the regular operating expenses of the Tax Exemption Office may be completed with appropriations from the General Fund of the Government of Puerto Rico.
(b) Special account of the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions. — Fifty percent (50%) of the fines that the Tax Exemption Office collects from the unfiled reports of the exempted businesses shall be deposited by request of the Commissioner into the special account of the Commissioner at the Department of the Treasury.
(c) Special Economic Development Fund. — The Secretary of the Treasury shall establish a special fund denominated as the “Special Economic Development Fund,” into which shall be annually covered five percent (5%) of the income tax paid by businesses exempted under this part. Also to be covered into this special fund shall be the special surtax levied on exempted businesses under the “Tax Incentives Act of 1987”, §§ 10038—10052 of this title, which shall no longer be covered into the special fund created under said Tax Incentives Act of 1987. The moneys of the Special Fund established herein shall be used exclusively for the following purposes:
(1) To provide special incentives for scientific and technical research and for the development of new products and industrial processes, which may be carried out, among other means, directly or through agreements with government agencies or with public or private universities, or with any natural or juridical persons with knowledge and experience; and to support the programs covered by the Excellence in Public Teaching Fund of Puerto Rico and the Annual Awards for Excellence Program for the Members of the Puerto Rico Police Corps, as well as for the Industrial Incentives Program administered by the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company in support of its industrial promotion efforts.
(2) To provide for the development and implementation of special programs leading to counteract the problems facing those persons or families that because of chronic unemployment or for any other reason, have suffered economic deprivation or have been dispossessed and for whose rehabilitation, government action beyond the traditional services of the Executive Branch is required to integrate them [into] the mainstream of modern socioeconomic development.
(3) To provide special incentives for the establishment in Puerto Rico of industries of strategic importance to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, including the investment of capital risk funds that promote this type of industry.
(4) To provide special incentives for the acquisition of exempted businesses by their management.
(5) To provide special incentives for the establishment of programs to share the risks to which small businesses are prone.
The Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company shall have the necessary and sufficient discretion to use the moneys of the special fund, provided said use leads to the achievement of the purposes provided above.
The Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company shall establish the criteria to be used for the disbursement of the moneys of the Special Economic Development Fund through regulations.
History —Dec. 2, 1997, No. 135, § 16; Aug. 17, 2001, No. 111, § 1.