What the Act charges for each transaction

It is Article 23.02 of Act 22-2000, the fee table the Legislative Assembly set by statute for everything paid at a CESCO or a collector’s office relating to vehicles: registrations, licences, exams, transfers, duplicates, plates and certificates.

It applies to every motor-vehicle owner and to anyone carrying out one of the transactions priced in the article. Veterans with a disability exempt from vehicle taxation under Section 3030.07 of Act 1-2011 pay no licence fees; but if they sell, transfer or otherwise dispose of a car on which no fees were paid, the corresponding year’s fee is imposed on that vehicle.

• Annual fees are paid in advance for the whole year, except that when less than six months remain to the next renewal only the remaining months are payable, counting fractions of a month as a full month (Article 23.01).Verified against the official source
• The service charge levied by the inspection station, the bank or any other place the Treasury Secretary designates shall not exceed five dollars (Article 23.01).Verified against the official source

Information pending verification.

1. 1

   Step 1: The car: forty-four dollars

   Subsection (a)(1) is the one almost everyone cares about: “For private or public cars, forty-four (44) dollars per year.” And it adds: “Citizens who apply and qualify for the Road Responsibility Incentive shall have a thirty per cent (30%) discount on the total payment of the base charge established here.” That incentive has its own conditions and we explain it in its own guide. Note: this is the licence-fee figure, not the marbete total, because the marbete also includes the compulsory insurance, which is not in this article.

2. 2

   Step 2: Motorcycles, school vans and buses

   A motorcycle permit is thirty-five dollars a year, subsection (9), and forty if equipped to carry merchandise, subsection (10); the motorcycle marbete renewal is eleven dollars a year, subsection (41). A vehicle for exclusive school transport pays seventy-seven a year, subsection (3). Buses have their own scale: a public-service bus of eleven to twenty-four passengers pays one dollar for the first registered vehicle and a hundred and ten for each additional one during the first five years of registration, dropping to eleven after the fifth; one of twenty-five passengers upward, public or private, pays a hundred and sixty-five; and a private-service one pays forty-four up to eighteen passengers including the driver, or a hundred and ten for nineteen to twenty-four.

3. 3

   Step 3: Trucks, tractors, trailers and cranes

   Subsection (7) scales tractors and tow tractors by weight: twenty-eight dollars up to one ton, forty-four up to two, seventy-two up to three, two hundred and forty up to four, three hundred and forty-five up to five, four hundred and fifty-five up to eight, five hundred and sixty-five up to ten and seven hundred and eighty-five above ten. Subsection (8) does the same for trailers and semi-trailers — twenty-eight up to two tons, seventy-two above, a hundred and eighty-three as mobile offices, eighteen as mobile homes and one dollar for those used by farmers, poultry farmers and cattle raisers with the Agriculture Secretary’s certification. Heavy vehicles run from eighty-three to a hundred and thirty-seven by service and capacity, plus forty dollars for each ton or fraction above six. And cranes, by gross weight, run from fifty-six to a hundred and thirty-eight, plus forty for each ton above eight point five.

4. 4

   Step 4: The paper transactions: transfer, duplicate, title

   Recording a transfer of ownership of a motor vehicle is fifteen dollars, subsection (19). A duplicate of any class of registration, licence or title is six, subsection (22). A duplicate marbete is three, subsection (32). Issuing a certificate of title is eleven, subsection (35). Issuing or replacing a lost, stolen or destroyed plate is eleven, subsection (43). And the “no-debt” certificate — the one proving the vehicle carries no charge, lien, tax, debt or pending administrative fine — is eleven, subsection (47), which also provides that its sale and issue may be made available electronically.

5. 5

   Step 5: Licences and exams

   Here is the difference that moves the most money. Renewing the driver’s licence within thirty days of expiry costs eleven dollars — subsection (27), which expressly includes requesting, on the web portal, an appointment to renew in person at a CESCO within that term. Renewing after thirty days costs thirty-five, subsection (26). That is twenty-four dollars for letting it slip. The chauffeur, driver, heavy-vehicle or motorcycle exam is fifteen, subsection (20), and six for retaking a failed one, subsection (21). The learner’s-permit exam or re-exam is eleven, subsection (25); the motorcycle-endorsement exam or re-exam, theory or practical, fifteen, subsection (40). A driver’s licence for someone who already holds one from a US state or territory or a foreign country is fifteen, subsection (23).

6. 6

   Step 6: The trades: gestores, instructors and dealers

   A gestor licence is fifty-five dollars a year, subsection (28); the gestor exam, thirty-five, subsection (29); and the ID card for an authorised gestoría agent, eleven a year, subsection (30). A driving-school instructor licence is a hundred, subsection (33), and its renewal fifty, subsection (34). A motor-vehicle sales dealer licence is a hundred and ten a year, subsection (24), and special dealer plates a hundred and ten, subsection (31).

7. 7

   Step 7: The two add-ons that apply to everything

   Two items do not replace others, they add to them. Subsection (46) says requesting a Driver’s Licence Certificate in any category, or the ID Card with the emblem evidencing REAL ID Act of 2005 compliance, costs seventeen dollars “additional to the costs mentioned in this Article for each transaction”. And subsection (45)(A) says renewing a category 3 driver’s licence online through the pr.gov portal costs eleven dollars “additional to the fees payable when renewing in person at a CESCO”. In addition, subsections (e) and (f) create a special additional charge of two dollars for the Centro Médico Trauma Centre and the rooms the Health Secretary authorises, applicable to the fees payable under the whole of Article 23.02, paid into a Special Deposit and to be deposited no later than the 15th of each month.

8. 8

   Step 8: ATVs, antiques and classics

   Two ends of the table. Registering an all-terrain vehicle is two hundred and seventy-five dollars a year, subsection (44) — the dearest of the personal-use items. At the other end, cars with special plates for antique, modified antique, classic and modified classic cars under Article 2.30 of the Act pay two dollars a year: it appears twice, in subsections (36) and (42).

9. 9

   Step 9: Veterans with a disability: zero

   Subsection (b) is short and categorical: “Veterans with a disability who are exempt from vehicle taxation under Section 3030.07 of Act 1-2011, as amended, the ‘Puerto Rico Internal Revenue Code of 2011’, shall not pay licence fees.” With one condition on sale: if the owner of a car on which no fees were paid under this subsection sells, transfers or otherwise disposes of it, the corresponding year’s fee is imposed on that vehicle. We did not read Section 3030.07, so we do not publish its requirements.

10. 10

    Step 10: The three-day provisional permit

    Subsection (c) solves a very concrete problem: the car’s permit has expired and it has to be moved for inspection or repair. “Any person who must move a motor vehicle from its location and whose permit has expired may do so by acquiring a provisional permit on payment of seventeen (17) dollars. That provisional permit shall be valid for three (3) days and may only be used to move the motor vehicle from its location to the inspection centre or mechanic’s workshop.” Seventeen dollars, three days, and only for that trip.

Article 23.01 says where you pay: at any internal-revenue collector’s office in any municipality, at the place the Treasury Secretary designates, at official inspection stations, at banks, or at the place the Secretary of Transportation and Public Works designates. For exam fees, licence duplicates, driver’s licence renewals, vehicle transfers and every other fee collection, payment vouchers, internal-revenue stamps or any other payment mechanism the Treasury Secretary establishes are used. The service charge at the place where you pay may not exceed five dollars.

• Believing the forty-four dollars is the whole marbete: it is the car’s licence fee, without the compulsory insurance, without the two-dollar Trauma Centre charge and without the service charge.
• Letting thirty days pass since the driver’s licence expired: within the term it is eleven dollars, after it thirty-five.
• Not knowing that requesting the portal appointment to renew in person within the term also falls under subsection (27)’s eleven dollars.
• Paying a service charge over five dollars at the inspection station, the bank or the designated place: Article 23.01 caps it there.
• Forgetting the REAL ID emblem adds seventeen dollars to each transaction, it does not replace them.
• Forgetting that renewing a category 3 licence online adds eleven dollars over what it would cost at the CESCO.
• Moving a vehicle with an expired permit without buying the seventeen-dollar provisional permit, good for three days and only for the trip to the inspection centre or workshop.
• Selling a car a veteran with a disability held exempt without allowing for the corresponding year’s fee being imposed on disposal.
• Confusing the duplicate marbete, which is three dollars, with the duplicate registration, licence or title, which is six.
• Assuming registering an ATV costs the same as a car: an all-terrain vehicle pays two hundred and seventy-five dollars a year.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Transportación y Obras Públicas (DTOP)

  DTOP

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov