P.R. Laws tit. 21, § 5061
All tangible personal and real property not expressly exempt from payment of taxes shall be appraised as taxable. For tax-appraisal purposes, the land, subsoil, structures, objects, machinery, and devices attached to the building or the land in any way which indicates permanency without taking into consideration whether the owner of the object or machinery is the owner of the structure, or if the owner of the building or other object resting on the land is the owner of the land, and without considering other aspects such as the intention of the parties in contracts which affect said property or other aspects which are not objective conditions of the property itself in the manner in which the same is attached to the building or the land and which help in the objective classification of the property itself as personal or real property.
Personal property shall include said machinery, containers, instruments or devices not adhered to the building or the land in a way which indicates permanence; grazing cattle, money, whether in the possession of the owner or another person or deposited in some institution; bond, shares, credit certificates in non-incorporated syndicates or association; copyrights, trade marks, franchises, concessions, and all other matters and things susceptible to being private property, not included in the meaning of the phrase “real property”, although that shall not include credits in checking accounts, savings accounts, fixed rate deposits, notes or other personal credits.
For the purposes of tax assessments, the telephone switchboards, telephone devices, personal property acquired through lease contracts which are essentially equal to sales contracts of any person who operates or provides any telecommunication services in Puerto Rico shall be deemed to be personal property, and the external plant used for line telecommunication and personal telecommunication services, including, but not limited to the poles, aerial and underground telecommunication lines, towers, antennas and the central offices used for line telecommunication services and personal telecommunication and the public telephones owned by any person who operates or provides any telecommunication service in Puerto Rico shall be deemed to be real property. The rights of way owned by a person engaged in telecommunication services shall not be deemed to be real property for the purposes of this part and therefore, shall be exempted from the payment of the taxes levied by this part.
History —Aug. 30, 1991, No. 83, § 3.11; June 24, 1998, No. 95, § 4.