Individual eligibility requirements under Act 60-2019 are as follows:
Resident of Puerto Rico during the tax year being claimed.
Employed by an Institution of Higher Education during the tax year being claimed.
Held a PI or Co-PI role in an eligible project during the tax year being claimed.
Definitions:
PI (Principal Investigator): person that has authority over the project and is responsible for reporting to the sponsor.
Co-PI (Co-Principal Investigator): a role that has equal responsibility and authority as the lead PI.
Co-I (Co-Investigator): an individual that makes significant contributions, but does not have overall responsibility and authority for the project. They are NOT considered PD/PIs and will not be considered for the incentive. (PRSTRT)
A Co-PI must provide adequate evidence of their role in the project to the PRSTRT. This evidence could include
The Notice of Grant Award identifying the individual and their role in the project
A sponsor-controlled website for the grant award, identifying the individual and their role in the project.
If neither option is available, a letter from the sponsor's program officer identifying the individual and their role in the project.
Project eligibility requirements under Act 60-2019 are as follows:
The purpose of the project is research, training, capacity development or workforce development. Research is defined as "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis and designed to increase the stock of knowledge in a particular science field." (PRSTRT).
Project funds are awarded through a competitive process.
Awardees were selected through an open competition in the scientific community. This also includes grants from restricted funds for underserved minorities.
The selection process utilized a peer-review model similar to that of NSF or NIH.
The award involves a contractual agreement between the Academic Institution and the sponsor. This includes prime awards (provided directly to UPRM from a sponsor), and subawards / subcontracts from a pass-through entity to UPRM.
The sponsor is a federal agency, non-governmental organization, or private entity (foundation or industry entity) that promotes competitive scientific investigation.
For further information on this topic, please visit the Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trusts's webpage on Act 60 applications.
The first step for requesting a tax incentive is completing a researcher and project eligibility pre-qualification through an online form. This pre-qualification process is intended to protect researchers' time by letting them know whether a project is probably ineligible before they begin compiling the required project and payroll documents.
Please remember that eligibility is determined on a per person, per project basis. This means you should complete the form once for every project you will request a tax exemption for.
After providing some basic information about the project, you will be asked to answer 10 threshold questions, and to certify the answers are correct to the best of your knowledge. Should your answers not meet the eligibility requirements of the law, the PRSTRT and DDEC, the form will take you to a page indicating so.
In the final section, you will be asked to provide some basic information about the applicant and the sponsor.
After submitting the form, you will receive a pre-qualification number via email. This number will be used to link your file upload form to the information you just provided.
The following checklist will let applicants verify they can provide all the necessary information at this point of the process. When you are ready to begin, click on the form link below.