Puerto Rico’s February general fund net revenues came in 13.1% above projections, but dropped 4% from February 2022, according to the Puerto Rico Treasury Department.
February 2023 net revenues were $870 million.
In the first eight months of the fiscal year — July to February — net revenues were up 17.2% compared to the Puerto Rico Oversight Board projections for the period and 3.4% compared to the same period a year earlier.
The tax categories with the biggest haul in February were the sales and use tax ($254.5 million), individual income taxes ($179.1 million), corporate income taxes ($138.9 million), and tax on non-residents ($97.9 million).
The categories in February that exceeded projections the most in dollar terms were corporate income taxes ($89.4 million), “other” taxes ($53.9 million), and taxes retained from non-residents ($52.7 million).
The only tax category in February that significantly came below the board projections was the Law 154 excise tax on foreign corporations, which was $124 million short.
In February the government transitioned from collecting the Law 154 excise tax to a new income tax on corporations and thus the former went down and the latter went up, the Treasury said. This partly explains the corporate tax and Law 154 performances.
The Treasury did not explain the non-resident tax and the “other” tax performances, which exceeded projections by 60% and 120% respectively.
In the first eight months of the fiscal year the categories that most exceeded projections in dollar terms were corporate income taxes, by $434.6 million or 31.9%, and individual income taxes, by $262.7 million or 19.2%.
Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority bondholders in recent months have cited the strong performance of the Puerto Rico central government’s collections compared to the board’s projections as evidence that the board’s PREPA revenue projections may be too pessimistic. The revenue figures also affect how Puerto Rico general obligation and Sales Tax Finance Corp. (COFINA) bondholders trade in the secondary market.
The most recent economic data on Puerto Rico was mixed but generally positive.