Am I required to make the charitable donation in the first year the decree is effective?

I have heard differing opinions

Donation requirement is on a case basis. There are Act 22’s that don’t have the donation requirement (by mistake in my opinion), there are Act 60s that state the donation requirement since inception/Kick in year, there are others that state that they have granted the first year exception. Read carefully yours.

It depends on your decree. Meaning you should probably make the donation in your first year. more info from PRelocate . . .

here’s a contradictory email from a DEDC lawyer to a member of the facebook group regarding needing to donate in your first year:

"After reviewing your file, and considering that you moved to Puerto Rico on December 31, 2017 and filed the Act 22 application on 2018 (June 25, 2018), the Grant became effective in 2018.

The effective date of an Act 22 is the year in which the Grantee is considered a bona fide resident of Puerto Rico, but never before the year in which the applicant filed the Act 22 application. The acceptance date of a grant is not a factor to determine its effective date.

In your case, you filed the Act 22 Application in 2018, and precisely, that was the year in which you became a bona fide resident of Puerto Rico (pursuant to the date of residency informed in the Grant’s acceptance). Thus, the Grant became effective in 2018. This means that you have to: (i) file Puerto Rico Tax Return for said year; (ii) file the 2018 Annual Report for the Grant (whether or not you claimed benefits under the Grant in 2018).

Regarding the $5,000 donations, since the Grant became effective in 2018, in order to comply with its requirements, you had to make the donation during said year. If you didn’t makeit, you will need to file an amendment to the Grant, asking permission to proceed with the 2018 donation, during the remaining of 2019 or during 2020."

Sounds like it’s a case-by-case issue. From someone’s act 60 full text (translated by google):

All Resident Investor Individuals beginning the second Tax Year after receiving their Decree, together with the annual reports, must include evidence of having made an annual contribution of at least ten thousand dollars ($10,000) to non-profit entities that operate in Puerto Rico. and are certified under Section 1101.01 of the Puerto Rico Internal Revenue Code, that is not controlled by the same person who owns the Decree or by their descendants or ascendants. Evidence of the annual contribution to nonprofit entities must be included as part of the annual report required by subsection (a) of Section 6020.10.

It is a case by case basis. Each individual need to be aware of theirs.