Recently we have seen a spike in stories about social media influencers and other wealthy Americans moving to Puerto Rico part time to try to “take advantage” of the tax benefits. Some, like Time magazine, have described the island as a “tax haven.” Yet what is being called a tax haven in Puerto Rico are simply local laws that are allowed under the U.S. Constitution to offer incentives in exchange for investing private capital in economic development activities. So why the big fuss?
Some on the left try to argue that Puerto Ricans will "suffer" and that the island will become a more segregated place between rich and poor because of these local incentives laws. But that’s actually just a big distraction because many of those same people are complicit in perpetuating the real inequality problem that Puerto Rico suffers, which started long before the existence of the so-called "tax haven," its status as an unincorporated territory of the U.S.
