P.R. Laws tit. 13, § 32452
(a) No tax shall be collected on distilled spirits and alcoholic beverages:
(1) Lost while in a bonded warehouse:
(A) Due to filtration or absorption in the containers or by evaporation and other natural causes; or
(B) because they were withdrawn, if the owner of the spirits or alcoholic beverages shows to the satisfaction of the Secretary that the withdrawal occurred without connivance, collusion, fraud, fault, or negligence on his/her part, or
(C) because they were destroyed with the prior authorization of the Secretary because the distilled spirits or alcoholic beverages were unfit for human consumption or for sale.
(2) Lost in any cistern or storage room of a distillery, in rectification, bottling and canning, or bonded deposit sections, in processing rooms, fermentation and aging tanks, or factories under the control of the government, for the following reasons:
(A) Natural or inevitable causes, or
(B) as a result of fire or force majeure.
(b) To be entitled to this exemption, the distiller, rectifier, or manufacturer must prove to the satisfaction of the Secretary that there was no intent, fraud, connivance, collusion, fault, or negligence on their part.
(c) The distiller, rectifier, manufacturer, or owner of the alcoholic beverages or distilled spirits shall not be liable for the payment of excise taxes on lost distilled spirits or alcoholic beverages because of a culpable or negligent act carried out by his/her employees in those cases in which the distiller, rectifier, manufacturer, or owner of the product can prove that he/she took prudent and reasonable measures to prevent the occurrence of said loss, and when the treasury will not suffer any damage because the lost product was replaced by another on which the appropriate taxes shall be paid.
(d) The distiller, rectifier, manufacturer, or owner of the alcoholic beverages or distilled spirits shall establish by sworn statement that he/she has not received any compensation by virtue of insurance that covers the amount or any portion of the taxes that have been imposed on the alcoholic beverages or distilled spirits that were lost.
History —Jan. 31, 2011, No. 1, § 5023.12, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2011; Sept. 19, 2014, No. 159, § 10.