Chapter Three

Who Should Move — and Who Shouldn't

This chapter might be the most honest thing in the book. And honestly, it's the one most guides skip.

Because here's the truth: Act 60 is not for everyone. Puerto Rico is not for everyone. Dorado Beach is not for everyone. And the worst possible outcome — for you, for your family, and frankly for the community you'd be joining — is someone who moves here for the wrong reasons and spends three years miserable before leaving with a failed decree and a bad taste in their mouth.

So before we go any further, let's be honest about fit.

Who This Is Probably Right For

You have significant investment income — capital gains, dividends, or interest — and the tax savings are genuinely life-changing for your financial plan

You run a services-based business that can operate remotely or from Puerto Rico, and you're interested in the Export Services provisions of Act 60

You've actually spent meaningful time in Puerto Rico and genuinely love it — not just the resort, but the island

You're at a natural transition point: selling a business, retiring from a career, kids leaving for college, or simply ready for a chapter that looks different

You're comfortable with some level of infrastructure imperfection — power outages happen, government bureaucracy is real, and some of the mainland conveniences you take for granted simply don't exist here

You have (or are committed to building) genuine ties to Puerto Rico — this isn't a tax convenience stop, it's a place you're actually going to live

Who Should Think Very Carefully

Your entire professional or social life is deeply rooted on the mainland and you're not prepared for the relationship maintenance work that distance requires

Your children are in the middle of critical school years and the transition would be disruptive in ways that outweigh the financial benefits

You hate heat, humidity, and the occasional tropical storm (this is non-negotiable — Dorado is beautiful, but the Caribbean climate is real)

You're doing this purely for the tax break with no genuine intention to make Puerto Rico your actual home — the IRS knows this play and they're watching for it

Your business requires physical mainland presence, client proximity, or regulatory licensing that makes operating from Puerto Rico genuinely difficult

The IRS Question

Let's address the elephant in the room: the IRS is watching Act 60 very carefully.

Over the years, a number of high-profile cases involved people who took the Puerto Rico tax position — claiming to be residents, filing as such, taking the exemptions — while spending the vast majority of their time on the mainland. Crypto traders. Hedge fund managers. People who bought a condo in Dorado Beach, spent Christmas there, and called it a year.

The IRS does not find this amusing. They have pursued these cases aggressively, and the penalties for non-compliance are severe: back taxes, interest, and penalties that can dwarf the original tax savings.

This is not said to scare you. It's said to make something clear: Act 60 requires genuine residency. Not paperwork residency. Not technical residency. Real residency — spending your actual life in Puerto Rico, building actual ties to the community, having the island actually be your home.

If that's not what you want, Act 60 is not for you. If it is — if you genuinely want to live here, and the tax benefits are an extraordinary bonus — then Act 60 is one of the most powerful financial tools available to any American taxpayer.

The people who thrive here didn't move for the tax break. They moved because they wanted this life. The tax break is what makes the decision obvious.