Crypto Rico

I am visiting Puerto Rico this month. My primary reason for visiting is to scout the island as my potential new home and tax shelter.

Puerto Rico is the only place in the entire world that a US citizen can live and be free from capital gains tax. Puerto Rico is a US territory so Puerto Ricans are US citizens. However, they can’t vote in national elections. No taxation without representation so….if you are a PR citizen you pay no cap gains. Nomad Capitalist has a long and slightly negative assessment of the pros/cons of moving to PR for this tax shelter.

They call Puerto Rico the Island of Enchantment. It’s beautiful here. Old San Juan is like living in Old Europe. The streets look like this:

The women look like this (PR has the third highest number of Miss Universe winners, incredible for small island):

It’s not all positive though. Some Puerto Ricans are upset that the US government has been dictating life on PR for decades not to mention the poor FEMA response after Hurricane Maria.

Due to the unique tax laws for Puerto Rican residents many US citizens have fled to PR. There is a very large crypto community here. A few years ago there was some publicity about Brock Pierce, EOS investor, creating a new Crypto based incubator / society. That seems to have died down but I can tell you in a few weeks here I have met more Crypto people in a small area than my travels through many large cities in different countries.

Boom bust shill Harry Dent and precious metals shill Peter Schiff live in Puerto Rico. In fact, I had the opportunity to speak one one for 20 minutes with Harry Dent at a recent crypto meetup here in San Juan. That kind of chance meeting seems unique to Puerto Rico.

I am looking at potential housing today.