Duties, excise and IVU: three charges, two governments

The island's oldest question is why the same shipment gets taxed twice. The uncomfortable answer is that it is not twice, it is three separate charges, and only one of them is federal customs. A car shipped from Florida owes zero duty and still arrives with a tax bill, which is the cleanest illustration there is that no customs does not mean no tax.

The three charges, and who collects each

Two governments are involved and they do not talk to each other about your shipment. CBP collects duty on foreign goods. Hacienda, Puerto Rico's treasury, collects the use tax and, on a specific list of articles, a separate excise.

Most of the confusion online comes from writers who know one of the three and assume it is the whole picture.

What each charge is, and when it applies
Charge	Collected by	When it applies
Duties (aranceles)	CBP	Foreign-origin goods only. Zero on goods moving from the mainland.
IVU (sales and use tax)	Hacienda	Tangible personal property imported for use or consumption in Puerto Rico, from every origin, the mainland included.
Arbitrios (Subtitle C excise)	Hacienda	Only on a specific list of articles, separately from the IVU.

Duties: CBP, and foreign origin only

Customs duty attaches to importation into the customs territory. Puerto Rico is inside that territory, so goods travelling from a state to the island are not being imported and no duty attaches. That is not a concession or an exemption anyone granted, it is simply what the word means.

Goods arriving in San Juan from abroad are a different case entirely. They are imported into the United States at a US port, and every ordinary duty, special tariff and trade remedy applies exactly as it would at any mainland port.

IVU: 11.5 percent, on imports, from every origin

Hacienda's Determinación Administrativa 17-04 sets the combined rate: "la suma de los impuestos establecidos en estas tres secciones del Código resulta en un IVU total de once punto cinco por ciento (11.5%) que se divide en dos categorías: el IVU Estatal de diez punto cinco por ciento (10.5%) y el IVU Municipal de uno por ciento (1%)".

And on imports specifically: "efectivo el 1 de agosto de 2017, toda persona que importe una partida mueble tangible para uso o consumo en Puerto Rico deberá remitir al Departamento el IVU total de once punto cinco por ciento (11.5%) sobre dichas compras". Every person, every origin. Nothing in that sentence asks where the goods came from.

Resellers holding a current Certificado de Revendedor y Exención del IVU Municipal, Modelo SC 2963, are exempt from the municipal 1 percent only, and only on inventory imports. The 10.5 percent state portion is still owed. It is a real relief and it is smaller than most people expect it to be.

How the 11.5 percent is built
Component	Code section	Rate
State IVU, base	Sec. 4020.02	6%
State surtax	Sec. 4210.02	4.5%
State subtotal		10.5%
Municipal IVU	Sec. 6080.14	1%
Total		11.5%

Rates per Hacienda's Determinación Administrativa 17-04. That document is from 2017. It is Hacienda's own and the rate has not changed since, and we state it as current at the review date on this page rather than dress it up as a 2026 source.

Arbitrios: a separate excise, on a specific list

On top of the IVU, Puerto Rico levies a separate excise under Subtitle C of its tax code, on a defined list of articles rather than on everything that lands.

We are not going to print the list here. Lists and rates get revised, and a stale list on a web page is worse than no list, which is the exact problem this whole section of the site exists to fix. Tell us what your product is and we will tell you whether it is on it.

The car from Florida

Ship a car from Jacksonville to San Juan. It never leaves the US customs territory, so there is no entry and there is no duty, not one cent. It still arrives with a tax bill.

The IVU does not look at origin. It looks at use or consumption in Puerto Rico. This is what catches families sending a vehicle to relatives, people relocating to the island, and mainland sellers who quoted a customer a landed price built on the belief that domestic means free. No customs is not no tax, and the vehicle is where that lesson gets learned most expensively.

Where the money goes

48 USC 740: "The duties and taxes collected in Puerto Rico in pursuance of the provisions of this Act, less the cost of collecting the same, and the gross amount of all collections of duties and taxes in the United States upon articles of merchandise coming from Puerto Rico, shall be paid into the treasury of Puerto Rico to be expended as required by law for the government and benefit thereof".

Two details in that sentence are worth noticing. It is net of the cost of collection, not gross. And it runs in both directions: collections in Puerto Rico, and collections in the United States on merchandise coming from Puerto Rico. It is a piece of the island's fiscal architecture, not a customs formality, which is part of why the second gate is enforced as seriously as it is.

Rates and citations verified as of October 24, 2026.

FAQ

Why do I pay IVU on something shipped from Florida?

Because the IVU is a use tax, not a customs charge. Hacienda's DA 17-04 requires any person importing tangible personal property for use or consumption in Puerto Rico to remit the full 11.5 percent, and the rule does not ask about origin. The zero you are thinking of is the federal duty, which really is zero on mainland goods.

How much is the IVU in Puerto Rico?

11.5 percent total: 10.5 state plus 1 municipal, per Hacienda's Determinación Administrativa 17-04. The state 10.5 is a 6 percent base under Sec. 4020.02 plus a 4.5 percent surtax under Sec. 4210.02; the municipal 1 percent is Sec. 6080.14.

Are the arbitrios and the IVU the same thing?

No. The IVU is the sales and use tax and it reaches imports generally. The arbitrios are a separate Subtitle C excise on a specific list of articles. A shipment can owe one, both, or only the IVU, and which one is a question about your product.

Do resellers pay IVU on imports?

Yes, mostly. A reseller with a current Certificado de Revendedor y Exención del IVU Municipal, Modelo SC 2963, is exempt from the municipal 1 percent on inventory imports. The 10.5 percent state portion is still payable.

Does Puerto Rico charge customs duty?

CBP charges the ordinary US duties on foreign-origin goods entering through Puerto Rico, exactly as at any US port. There is no duty on goods moving from the mainland, because that is not an importation. Puerto Rico itself charges the IVU and, on listed articles, the arbitrios.

Tell us what the product is and where it starts

With the commodity and the origin we can tell you which of the three charges you are actually facing, whether your article is on the excise list, and what the landed number looks like before you quote it to a customer.

Puerto Rico