The SURI import declaration, and the return most people file late

The Declaración de Importación, Modelo SC 2970

Modelo SC 2970 is the current form, and Hacienda's requirement is broad: "El importador, en todos los casos, deberá someter una declaración detallada de toda la mercancía importada, independientemente de que la propiedad esté exenta o no de IVU. Esto aplica a todos los bienes importados, incluyendo aquellos introducidos a través del servicio postal, portador aéreo o mediante medios electrónicos."

Read that twice if you import exempt goods. Exempt from the tax is not exempt from the declaration. It reaches postal shipments, air carrier shipments and goods introduced electronically, which is wider than most importers assume.

It is filed only through SURI. Once the declaration is complete and the payment is made, the system generates the Autorización de Levante de Importaciones, Modelo SC 2015. That authorization is what actually frees the cargo on the island side.

The monthly return is the SC 2915, and it is due on the 20th

Modelo SC 2915 D was repealed. Effective with the October 2021 period it was folded into Modelo SC 2915, the Planilla Mensual de Impuesto sobre Ventas y Uso y sobre Importaciones. Hacienda's Boletín Informativo de Rentas Internas Núm. 21-08 of 26 October 2021: "efectivo para la planilla correspondiente al mes de octubre de 2021, cuya fecha de vencimiento es el lunes, 22 de noviembre de 2021, los comerciantes solo tendrán que radicar la Nueva Planilla Mensual de IVU, en lugar de la Planilla de Importaciones y la Planilla de IVU."

The due date moved with it. Same bulletin: "la nueva fecha de vencimiento de la Planilla de Importaciones es el vigésimo (20mo) día del mes siguiente al que ocurrió la transacción objeto del impuesto." The statutory basis is Ley 173-2020, Article 10, which amended Section 4041.02(b) of the Código de Rentas Internas.

So: one return instead of two, and the 20th instead of the 10th. Two filings collapsed into one is the kind of change nobody announces to you individually, and merchants keep filing on the old calendar because that is what their notes say.

The government page that still says the 10th

Hacienda's own Importadores page has not been updated in five years. It still refers to the "Planilla Mensual de Impuesto sobre Importaciones (Modelo SC 2915D) en o antes del décimo (10mo.) día del mes". Wrong form, wrong date, on a real government page. That is where the 10th you keep seeing comes from, and it is why the wrong answer is so persistent: everyone who repeats it can point at an official source.

We are not telling you to distrust Hacienda. We are telling you to check the date on what you are reading, which is the same discipline that catches CBP's own stale pages. The bulletin that changed the rule is BI RI 21-08 of 26 October 2021, and it is the document to hold. We will not send you to the stale page for confirmation of anything.

If you have been filing on the 10th, you have been early rather than late, which is the harmless version of this mistake. If you have been filing the SC 2915 D, that form no longer exists.

Bonded or not bonded: when the IVU is actually paid

A non-bonded merchant, in Hacienda's words, "debe pagar el IVU correspondiente al momento de radicar la Declaración de Importaciones electrónicamente". A bonded merchant "puede prorrogar el pago del IVU hasta el momento de radicación de su Planilla Mensual". That difference is cash flow, and on a steady import program it is a large number.

Becoming bonded is not automatic. It requires paying a fianza and authorization from the Director del Negociado de Impuesto al Consumo, and the application process is set out in Carta Circular de Rentas Internas 16-15-RI.

The limit is the part brokers get asked about and the part that surprises people. The deferral only reaches as far as the bond. DA 17-04: "Los Comerciantes Afianzados que no cuenten con la fianza suficiente para cubrir sus importaciones, incluyendo el IVU Municipal sobre sus importaciones para uso o consumo en Puerto Rico, estarán obligados a desembolsar el pago del IVU sobre todos los artículos declarados, previo a obtener el levante de la mercancía." An insufficient bond drops you straight back to paying at release, on everything declared, and nobody can talk you around that.

Hacienda's hold is independent of CBP

Nothing gives CBP a role in collecting the IVU. The two releases are separate systems answering to separate governments, and satisfying one does nothing for the other.

Which produces the situation that brings most people to this page: the entry is cleared, the carrier has the container, and the goods are not going anywhere, because the levante has not been issued. A broker who only works the federal half will tell you truthfully that customs is clear, and you will still be standing at the second gate.

When SURI will not take the declaration

SURI is the only channel. There is no paper fallback and no counter to walk it to, so a declaration the system will not accept is a shipment that does not move, and the clock on your storage keeps running.

What is worth checking first, in order: that every article on the shipment is declared including the exempt ones, that the payment actually posted rather than merely being entered, and, if you are bonded, that the bond has room left this month for what you are declaring. Beyond that, the answer is genuinely in your own declaration and account, and it takes about five minutes to find with someone looking at the same screen.