Transition to SURI: Treasury’s New Tax Reporting Tool

On October 3, 2016, the Puerto Rico Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) issued a press release announcing that starting on October 31st the Internal Revenue Unified System (“SURI”) will be the only tool available for merchants to conduct the sales and use tax (“SUT”) transactions that are currently conducted through Treasury’s Merchant’s Integrated Portal (“PICO”).

SURI will be implemented in three phases. The first phase covers all SUT transactions and will commence on October 31st. The second phase will integrate taxes related to corporations, conduit entities, tax incentives, and excise taxes, and will commence in December 2017. The third phase, which includes income tax on individuals, and gift and estate taxes, will commence in December 2018.

As part of the transition process and conversion to SURI, the following websites, and their related access, will be shut down at the date and time shown:

• ivu.hacienda.gobierno.pr — October 27, 2016 at 4:00pm
• comerciantes.hacienda.pr.gov — October 28, 2016 at 3:45 pm (PICO)

Information stored in the above websites will not be available after shut down, so that merchants should copy and save relevant data prior to the scheduled dates and times.

In view of the upcoming launching of SURI, all merchants are required to update their Merchants’ Registration Certificate (“Certificate”) and register in SURI commencing on October 15, 2016 by accessing www.hacienda.pr.gov and clicking on the SURI option that will then be available. Merchants must be registered by November 20, 2016, which is the due date of the first SUT monthly return that will be filed through SURI. However, since PICO will not be available for use after October 28, 2016, merchants will have to complete their registration in SURI by October 31, 2016 to be able to report and pay the use tax on articles imported after October 30, 2016.

Once the conversion process has been completed (by the end of October 2016), merchants will receive an e-mail from Treasury providing notice that their registration in SURI has been processed, and that they may now access SURI and all of the features provided under the new system. The new Certificate should then be printed directly through SURI to replace the Certificates in use until that moment. Treasury will not mail the new Certificates to merchants.

Through SURI, merchants will conduct the following transactions:

Registration

• Updating merchant registration
• Requesting a new Certificate
• Amending merchant registration and locations
• Requesting cessation of operations of a merchant
• Requesting negative certification of merchant registration
• Confirming validity of a Certificate

Returns and Declarations

• Filing importation declarations and amendments
• Filing incidental declarations by individuals who are not merchants
• Filing monthly returns of importations and amendments
• Filing monthly SUT returns for prior and future periods
• Filing amendments to monthly SUT returns for prior and future periods
• Request SUT credits

Payments

• Process SUT payments
• Process SUT payments under payment plans
• Process payments through credit cards (Visa and Master Card)
• Process payment from the principal page without registering as a user
• Manage payment methods

Others

• Receive alerts
• Receive notifications sent
• Request an appeal with the Assistant Secretary of Administrative Appeals
• Provide confidential information on SUT collection through “SURI Confidencia”
• Assistance with transactions via tutorial videos
• User administration

For more information on the above you may access the following website containing information on SURI: http://www.hacienda.gobierno.pr/conoce-el-sistema-unificado-de-rentas-internas-suri.