Puerto Rico Transforms Retail Receipts Into Lottery Tickets

The commonwealth's Treasury Department is expanding a pilot program in an effort to get small retailers to collect sales tax.

February 09, 2011

PONCE, Puerto Rico - That store receipt could net you $1,000 or a new car with Puerto Rico??s new program that turns receipts into lottery tickets, the Lottery Post reports. The commonwealth??s Department of the Treasury began a pilot program in December in Ponce that transformed receipts into lottery tickets potentially worth between $100 and $1,000. The agency also will hold a monthly drawing with a car as the prize.

The program is the latest effort to ensure small retailers to collect the commonwealth??s 7 percent sales tax because of customer demand for receipts, which would discourage stores from recording cash sales without sales taxes.

However, initial results are not as robust as expected on this island where lotteries are well-liked. Thus far, eight winning numbers have been drawn but no one has claimed a prize.

"It??s a challenge," said Jose Carlos Colon de Jesus, a Treasury Department special assistant. "We have to change the mentality of the Puerto Rican so they demand their receipt."

The agency is shelling out around $16 million on the program, including promotion and prizes. But the department expects to gather $400 million in additional sales taxes over two years because of the program.

In 2010, Puerto Rico collected $1 billion in sales tax revenue, around 52 percent of what??s owed. Officials believe the lottery will up that percentage to 72 percent by 2014. The receipt lottery will expand throughout the island in July.

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