A bill filed in Puerto Rico, PC 1476, would add a new section to Act 1-2011, the Internal Revenue Code, creating a refundable income tax credit of up to $5,000 a year for daytime care expenses. The credit would go to people who work formally and have legal guardianship or direct care of someone with a most significant disability, such as bedridden patients or those with severe-stage Alzheimer’s disease.
The measure is presented as a way to ease the economic crisis facing thousands of middle-class working families. It cites market studies showing that hiring a private in-home caregiver or nurse for a basic daytime shift costs more than $4,811 a month on average, above $57,000 a year, while a specialized day care center runs between $1,900 and $3,800 a month.
Those costs, the bill says, push thousands of salaried professionals out of the formal workforce or into the informal economy. To make the measure viable before the Oversight Board, the bill creates a Caregiver Tax Relief Fund, financed by the tax revenue brought to the surface when every caregiver or deductible day care center must be registered as a merchant in the Treasury Department’s Unified Internal Revenue System (SURI).
It also sets up a dual validation process requiring certification from a licensed physician and an official evaluation by the Office of the Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities (DPI).