Your Amazon, Temu and SHEIN cart is paying up: Puerto Rico's digital-platform sales tax soars to $191.7 million

Every time a boricua hits "checkout" on Amazon, Temu or SHEIN, Puerto Rico's Treasury Department takes its cut. And that cut is no longer small change: the sales tax (IVU) determined by digital platforms with no physical store in Puerto Rico reached $191.7 million in fiscal year 2026, a 159.7% jump from $73.8 million in fiscal 2021 ¹. The figures, from the Economic Affairs Office of the Unified Internal Revenue System (SURI) as of July 31, 2026, confirm what anyone can see in the post office lines: online shopping stopped being the exception and became a line item in household budgets ¹.

The backstory is a rule many consumers don't even know exists. Since 2021, any platform operating as a "marketplace facilitator" — the legal term for sites like Amazon, Temu, SHEIN or eBay that process third-party sales — has been required to collect and remit the IVU in Puerto Rico, whether or not it has a physical presence on the island ¹. Treasury formalized the process through Internal Revenue Circular Letter No. 20-40, which set up marketplace facilitator registration in SURI and the mechanism so sellers operating through them don't collect the tax twice ³. In practice, that killed the old advantage of buying online "tax-free": the combined 11.5% rate — 10.5% state and 1% municipal — applies on the screen the same as at the register ².

The numbers

The curve is dramatic. The number of marketplace facilitators with reported sales climbed from 96 in fiscal 2021 to 295 in 2026, a 207.3% increase ¹. Sales reported by these companies grew 169.3%, from $662.2 million to $1,783.4 million ¹. The peak year was fiscal 2024, when reported sales rose 37.5% and determined IVU rose 39.7% ¹. By 2026 things leveled off: sales inched up just 1.5% and IVU 0.5%, a sign Puerto Rico's digital market is maturing ¹.

On the consumer side, the Puerto Rico Digital Trends Study 2026 estimates 1.2 million Puerto Ricans shop online, and six in ten have products delivered to their homes or by mail ¹. The favorites: Amazon, Temu, SHEIN, eBay, Facebook Marketplace and Walmart ¹. The share of consumers island-wide buying online rose from 10% to 18%, though the habit remains concentrated in the metro area ¹. And this isn't just a young person's game: shoppers 55 and older generated 24% of the island's online purchases, about $234 million in spending ⁴.

What it means for you

First, that 11.5% you see at checkout is not something the platform made up: it is the same IVU you pay at the corner store, and the platform is legally required to collect it and send it to Treasury ¹². Second, the 1% municipal portion means part of your Temu haul ends up in your town's coffers ². Third, if you run a side business selling on Facebook Marketplace, Amazon or eBay, you have tax obligations too: Treasury already has visibility into $1,783.4 million in digital sales, and the regulatory net closed five years ago ¹³. The era of selling online under the table is running out.

How to do it / Checklist

1. Check the digital receipt on your next purchase: the tax line should reflect 11.5% (10.5% state plus 1% municipal) on taxable items ².
2. If you sell as a business through a digital platform, register as a merchant in SURI (suri.hacienda.pr.gov) and get your Merchant Registration Certificate, Model SC 2918 ³.
3. If you sell through a registered marketplace facilitator, request the IVU collection relief in SURI so the tax isn't charged twice: the platform withholds it for you ³.
4. As a merchant, file your monthly IVU return in SURI even if the platform remits the tax; the facilitator reports transactions from registered and unregistered sellers separately ³.
5. Questions about your case: call Treasury at (787) 622-0123 or check the official IVU page at hacienda.pr.gov ².

What's next

The 2026 flattening — sales up barely 1.5% — suggests the capture boom has hit its plateau: the big platforms are already registered and remitting ¹. What remains to be seen is the trickle of mid-sized platforms still joining the registry, which went from 96 to 295 in five years and shows no sign of stopping ¹. Economists at Estudios Técnicos expect the migration to digital channels to keep pulling foot traffic from physical stores without replacing them entirely, with all the pressure that implies for local retailers competing against the infinite catalog ¹. For Treasury, meanwhile, every digital cart is guaranteed revenue.

Sources

1. El Vocero — Compras en plataformas digitales impulsan la recaudación del IVU — https://www.elvocero.com/economia/compras-en-plataformas-digitales-impulsan-la-recaudaci-n-del-ivu/article_f0d434b3-625b-470c-8ae8-38b71bb3a1e9.html
2. Departamento de Hacienda — Impuesto sobre Ventas y Uso (IVU) — https://hacienda.pr.gov/impuesto-sobre-ventas-y-uso-ivu
3. Departamento de Hacienda — Carta Circular de Rentas Internas Núm. 20-40 — https://hacienda.pr.gov/publicaciones/carta-circular-de-rentas-internas-num-20-40-cc-ri-20-40
4. News is my Business — Study: Puerto Rico's 55+ consumers drive 24% of online sales — https://newsismybusiness.com/study-puerto-ricos-55-consumers-drive-24-of-online-sales/