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UNDERSTANDING OUR TAXES

 

 

 

 

 

FROM:

 

Estate of Basilio Lopez Martin

 

Also known as:

 

Sucesión Basilio Lopez Martin (in Spanish)

Succession Basilio Lopez Martin

Succession of Basilio Lopez Martin

Estate Basilio Lopez Martin

 

 

The Administration of the Estate of Basilio Lopez Martin

 

Heirs & Grantees

 

TO:

 

PRESS

U.S. HOUSE

U.S. SENATE

U.S. SENATE Budget Committee

U.S. PRESIDENT, THE WHITE HOUSE

U.S. NAVAL OCEAN SYSTEMS CENTER

U.S. Department of the Treasury

U.S. SENATE Committee On Finance

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (DOD)

U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (USDOJ)

U.S. HOUSE COMMITTEE ON THE BUDGET

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

U.S. JOINT COMMITTEE ON TAXATION (JCT)

U.S. National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA)

U.S. HOUSE Committee on Ways & Means

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (USDA)

U.S. Office of the National Ombudsman

U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE ON APROPRIATIONS

U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

U.S. HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL SERVICES

U.S. SECURITIES & EXCHANGE COMMISSION (SEC)

U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)

U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE ON RULES & ADMINISTRATION

U.S. FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION (FDIC)

U.S. BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM

U.S. Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO)

U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)

Local and State Tax & TREASURY Departments

NON PROFIT & CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS

 

 

 

The Basics

Grounds, Facts & Evidence

 

 

 

 

 

Fact Number 1

 

 

The Estate of Basilio Lopez Martin (hereinafter, the Estate) is the absolute and universal owner of 2,116,938 acres in the U.S. Territory of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico since the date of February 4, 1750; covering no less than the 90% of all the surface of the island on 76 municipalities; including the water, antique uses and mineral rights.

 

Said ownership was ratified on the year 1898 after ending the Spanish-American War.

 

Calculated land value: $10 Trillion

Calculated structures value: $15 Trillion

 

Evidence/Legal Base/Grounds

 

·       Public deed of purchase and sale between Gaspar Lopez and Juan Claudio Bautista, issued on San Juan, Puerto Rico on February 4, 1750 before the Notary Public and Cabildo Francisco de Sostres [Source: General Archive of Puerto Rico]

·       Public deed of ratification of purchase and sale of hereditary participations, issued on Dorado, Puerto Rico on August 11, 1845 before the Notary Public Manuel Canales [Source: General Archive of Puerto Rico]

·       Last public deed of open will from Basilio Lopez Martin, issued on Dorado, Puerto Rico on March 22, 1848 before the Notary Public Carlos Vasallo [Source: General Archive of Puerto Rico]

·       Treaty of Peace Between United States and Spain; December 10, 1898 [Source: U.S. Congress, 55th Cong., 3d sess., Senate Doc. No. 62, Part 1 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1899), 5-11]

·       Capital origin Aragon, Mexico (today Oregon State)

 

 

Fact Number 2

 

 

Pursuant to the applicable laws all interests, actions, rights and obligations of said Estate are shared in equal parts, belonging to the following 7 Estates involving hundreds of heirs and grantees:

 

Estate of Andres López Salgado

Estate of Gaspar López Salgado

Estate of Petrona López Salgado

Estate of Eugenio López Salgado

Estate of Domingo López Salgado

Estate of Juan Pedro López Salgado

Estate of Maria Romana López Salgado

 

 

Fact Number 3

 

 

Pursuant to all the applicable laws:

 

·      All the economic production produced over said lands belongs to the Estate; and, in the same way,

·      All the economic production produced over said lands, using said economic byproduct, belongs to said Estate.

 

Gross Income on FY2014: $60 Trillion

Accumulated assets since year 1750: $600 Trillion

 

Evidence/Legal Base/Grounds

 

The Right of Accession

 

Enacted on the Puerto Rico Civil Code

 

31 Puerto Rico Annotated Laws secs. 1131 to 1199

 

§ 1131. Right of accession inherent in ownership

 

The ownership of property, whether movable and immovable, carries with it the right, by accession, to everything which is produced thereby, or which is united thereto or incorporated therewith, either naturally or artificially.

(Civil Code 1930, § 287)

 

History – Civil Code, 1902 § 360; Spanish Civil Code, art. 353; Civil Code of Louisiana, art. 498.

 

 

Fact Number 4

 

 

The Gross Income of the Estate is all the economic production produced on its lands by the residents and the entities of Puerto Rico; which have been continuing living on the Estate lands since the year 1750 under the same concept of their ancestors, as aggregates.

 

 

Fact Number 5

 

 

Because each Fiscal Year the Puerto Rico’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is produced on said lands by the residents and the entities using said lands and the liquid assets produced on said lands, based on said ownership and the Right of Accession all said GDP belongs entirely to the Estate.

 

 

Fact Number 6

 

 

Because said residents and entities of Puerto Rico produce, use, work and live in said Estate lands under the publicly accepted and recognized condition of “without prejudice the third of better right”, recorded and ratified in the local Registry of Property since the year 1880, said GDP belongs entirely to the Estate.

 

Evidence/Legal Base/Grounds

 

Federal U.S. Supreme Court, 1st & 4th Circuits Cases:

 

·        People of Puerto Rico v. Livingston, 47 F.2d 712 (1st Cir. 1931)

·        Ochoa v. Hernandez, 230 U.S. 139-148

·        Ubarri y Iramategui v. Laborde, 214 U.S. 168 (1909)

·        SEA HUNT INC v KINGDOM OF SPAIN No. 992035P - 07/21/00

 

Civil Code of Puerto Rico

 

31 Puerto Rico Annotated Laws secs. 1447 & 5269

 

§ 1447. Clandestine and tolerated acts.

 

Acts merely tolerated and those clandestinely executed, without the knowledge of the possessor of a thing, or with violence, do not affect possession. 

 

(Civil Code, 1930, § 373.)

 

§ 5269. Acknowledgment interrupts possession.

 

Any express or implied acknowledgment which the possessor may make with regard to the right of the owner also interrupts possession. 

 

(Civil Code, 1930, § 1848.)

 

Annual Report of the Governor of Porto Rico for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30th 1907 [Source: U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C., 1907)

 

 

Fact Number 7

 

 

Because the members of the Estate have been exercising the civil possession on said huge tract of land uninterruptedly since the year 1750; and the Civil Code of Puerto Rico does not recognize the possession in different personalities simultaneously, recognizing always as the real possessor the most ancient one, said GDP belongs entirely to the Estate.

 

Evidence/Legal Base/Grounds

 

Civil Code of Puerto Rico

 

31 Puerto Rico Annotated Laws sec. 1448

 

§  1448. Possession not recognized in different personalities

 

Possession, as a fact, cannot be recognized in two different personalities, unless in cases of indivisibility. If a question arises regarding the fact of possession, preference shall be given to the present possessor; if there be two possessors, to the one longest in possession; if the dates of the possessions coincide, to the one presenting a title; and when all these conditions are equal, the thing shall be placed in deposit or judicial keeping, whilst the possession or ownership be determined through proper proceedings. 

 

(Civil Code, 1930, § 374.)

 

 

Fact Number 8

 

 

The deductions of the Estate always are equal, and are based on all the economic production (Gross Income) illegally retained by the residents and the entities of Puerto Rico, that the Estate has the right to receives and controls, but never receives, due to forces out of its control.

 

 

Fact Number 9

 

 

Because the residents and the entities of Puerto Rico pay their local income and federal employment & payroll taxes using the illegally retained liquid assets belonging to the Estate, always such tax credits go in favor to the Estate each Fiscal Year, year after year, perpetually.

 

Based on that, due to the Estate is paying said taxes by conduct of the residents and the entities of Puerto Rico without receiving its Gross Income, having losses by theft, it has the right to claim and receives refunds by said overpaid taxes each fiscal year.

 

 

Fact Number 10

 

 

All members of the Estate (heirs & grantees) participate of all its benefits, rights, actions and obligations based on their particular share; and the administrators, based on the one percent (1%) of the GROSS INCOME according to the laws.

 

Evidence/Legal Base/Grounds

 

Civil Code of Puerto Rico

 

31 Puerto Rico Annotated Laws secs. 5101, 5105 & 5106

 

§  5101. Duration of obligation of person voluntarily taking charge without authority.

 

A person who voluntarily takes charge of the agency or administration of the business of another, without authorization, is obliged to continue managing the same until the end of the business and its incidents, or to notify the interested person in order that the latter may come to substitute him in his management, should he be in a condition to do so for himself. 

 

(Civil Code, 1930, § 1788.)

 

§  5105. Ratification of management.

 

The ratification of the management by the owner of the business produces the effects of an express authorization. 

 

(Civil Code, 1930, § 1792.)

 

§  5106. Liability of owner accepting advantages of administration.

 

The owner of property or a business who avails himself of the advantages of the administration of another, even when he has not expressly ratified it, shall be liable for the obligations contracted for his benefit, and he shall indemnify the administrator for the necessary and useful expenses which he may have incurred and for the losses he may have suffered in the discharge of his duties.  

 

The same obligation shall pertain to said owner when the object of said administration should have been to avoid any imminent or manifest damage, even when no profit results therefrom. 

 

(Civil Code, 1930, § 1793.)

 

Code of Civil Procedure of Puerto Rico

 

32 Puerto Rico Annotated Laws sec. 2491

 

§  2491. Compensation of administrators and executors; expenses.

 

Each administrator and executor, unless the will under which he is appointed provides to the contrary, shall be entitled to be paid from the estate, as compensation for his services, five per centum (5%) on sums received in the course of administration, amounting to one thousand (1000) dollars or under; two and one-half per centum (2 1/2%) on sums up to ten thousand (10,000) dollars, and one per centum (1%) on sums above ten thousand (10,000) dollars. The judge shall also allow an administrator or executor the necessary and proper expenses incurred in administration, including cost of advertising and publishing notice required by law, maintenance and care of the property, legal counsels and traveling expenses. 

 

(Code Civil Proc., 1933, § 586.)

 

 

Fact Number 11

 

 

The tax laws and regulations from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) mandate and authorize the Estate and its members the disclosing of said tax accounting when filing claiming refunds or justifying not filing.

 

Evidence/Legal Base/Grounds

 

IRS Publications Numbers:

 

525 Taxable and Nontaxable Income

570 Tax Guide for Individuals With Income from U.S. Possessions

559 Survivors, Executors, and Administrators

 

About the particular, said Publication 525 states:

 

·        Estate and trust income. An estate or trust, unlike a partnership, may have to pay federal income tax. If you are a beneficiary of an estate or trust, you may be taxed on your share of its income distributed or required to be distributed to you. However, there is never a double tax. Estates and trusts file their returns on Form 1041, U.S. Income Tax Return for Estates and Trusts, and your share of the income is reported to you on Schedule K-1 (Form 1041), Beneficiary's Share of Income, Deductions, Credits, etc.

·        Current income required to be distributed. If you are the beneficiary of an estate or trust that must distribute all of its current income, you must report your share of the distributable net income, whether or not you actually received it.

·        Current income not required to be distributed. If you are the beneficiary of an estate or trust and the fiduciary has the choice of whether to distribute all or part of the current income, you must report:

               -All income that is required to be distributed to you, whether or not it is actually distributed, plus

               -All other amounts actually paid or credited to you, up to the amount of your share of distributable net income.

 

 

Fact Number 12

 

 

Due to during the past 60 years the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the local banking, the developers, the entities and the residents have been involved in a conspiracy defrauding the U.S. Treasury, Wall Street and the American investors, producing a minimum of $1 trillion dollar of false and fraudulent mortgage backed securities, participating in a white collar money laundering and racketeering operation, the Estate continues accumulating in its favor a future compensation by concept of damages and tort practices by the triple amount once the Federal Government decide to take action to stop the already denounced practices in our land, now out of our control.

 

Evidence/Legal Base/Grounds

 

According to the federal and local laws, and regulations (48 U.S.C. 752; the Article Number 14 of Section VI of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; and the Title 28 of Puerto Rico’s Annotated Laws secs. 401 to 407, 421 and 431 to 435), in Puerto Rico USA the artificial persons (like the corporations, partnerships & trusts) ARE NOT AUTHORIZED to conduct the business of buying and selling real estate; and neither, to hold each one more than 500 acres of land.

 

 

At present, any person may verify said prohibitions, still in effect,

checking the websites of the Puerto Rico’s State Department and Supreme Court.

 

Click here to see an updated list of some of the local illicit urban projects

 

About the particular the Secretary of Justice of Puerto Rico has declared:

 

No corporation, doesn’t matter his nature, will be able to dedicate

to the business of buying and selling real estate in Puerto Rico.

Op. Sec. Just. No. 6 of 1968

 

A corporation can not be dedicated to the business of buying and selling real estate, or,

in any form, hold lands to speculate in the real estate market.

Op. Sec. Just. No. 15 of 1966

 

The corporations not engaged in agriculture are only limited by the first part of the statute of this section,

that prohibit to all corporation effectuate businesses of buying and selling real estate or to hold or

to have such class of assets except such as may be reasonably necessary to

enable it to carry out the purposes for which it was created.

Op. Sec. Just. No. 70 of 1956

 

 

 

Fact Number 13

 

 

The intervention of the Federal Government establishing a receivership, helping us to regain the control of our assets, could mean additional billions of dollars in revenues for the U.S. Treasury, alleviating part of the tax gap in America.

 

Just to give you an example, taxing our annual Gross Income ($60 trillion) on our control at a tax rate of 30% could generates to the U.S. Treasury a minimum of $20 trillion by virtue of imposing new taxations to Puerto Rico.

 

By one hand, at present, we have the residents and the entities there receiving billions in federal programs, subsidized by the taxpayers from the 50 States of Union; and, by the other, their local activities producing billions of dollars for their benefit by virtue of using and retaining illegally all our movable and immovable assets not paying federal income taxes, giving nothing in exchange to the American taxpayers.

 

We look forward to work with the U.S. Treasury to change that detrimental scenario.

 

These concerns need to be resolved before Puerto Rico become state of the union.

 

 

STATEMENT OF

LUIS G. FORTUÑO

GOVERNOR OF PUERTO RICO

BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES

UNITED STATES SENATE

MAY 19, 2010

Thank you, Mr. Chairman…and Ranking Member Murkowski…for the opportunity to appear this morning before you and fellow members of this Committee to express my support of H.R. 2499, the Puerto Rico Democracy Act of 2009. I especially appreciate the opportunity to follow Puerto Rico’s sole elected representative in Congress, Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, who was my running mate in 2008.

Today, I appear before you as Governor of Puerto Rico and as President of Puerto Rico’s statehood party, which includes national Republicans like myself as well as Democrats like Resident Commissioner Pierluisi.

In the elections of 2008, voters gave candidates of our party the biggest margin of any electoral victory in 44 years. We obtained over two-thirds of the seats in each house of the legislature and three-fifths of the mayorships. The candidates in the “Commonwealth” party, by contrast, received the lowest percentage of votes for their party in history.

This is particularly relevant because the process proposed by H.R. 2499 was an issue in the elections. Our party campaigned on a pledge to seek congressional sponsorship of a status choice process…in order to provide a choice among real status options to be made…directly by voters…in plebiscites.

Why does Congress need to act? Because there is a patently obvious need for the territory’s real options to be clarified. Under the present status…given Congress’ constitutional jurisdiction under the Territory Clause…Congress can provide the necessary clarification. Specifically, previous political status plebiscites without federal legislation…in the first two instances, at the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1990s…were inconclusive because of proposals for an unconstitutional and impossible governing arrangement. The most recent plebiscite…12 years ago…was similarly confused by such a proposal.

For decades, the leaders of the “Commonwealth” party– including those of that party’s delegation here today – have refused to recognize the reality that the only possible “Commonwealth” option that exists is the one that is the island’s current territory status.

H.R. 2499 simply clarifies what the possible status options for Puerto Rico are: continuation of the current territory status that goes by the name of “Commonwealth”, independence, nationhood in free association with the United States and statehood.

What is not included in the legislation…and what is the real reason for the “Commonwealth” party’s persistent objections to the bill… is this impossible “Commonwealth” status proposal that is not the current status [holding up copy].

Under this proposal of theirs, Puerto Rico would be permanently empowered to nullify federal laws and court jurisdiction. The island would also be empowered to enter into international agreements and organizations requiring national sovereignty. The proposal also includes a new subsidy for the government of the island, and incentives for companies in the States to locate plants in Puerto Rico. But wait, there’s more. The proposal also further includes all current federal program assistance to individuals, and U.S. citizenship would be perpetually guaranteed.

A wise member of this Committee once called this proposal “the free beer and barbeque option.” Members of the Senate should…once again… join their counterparts in the House in clarifying that such proposals are not a possible status option.

In doing so, Mr. Chairman, you and your colleagues would do well to join Congresswoman Virginia Foxx…who in a letter to myself and Resident Commissioner Pierluisi last week did just that. Congresswoman Foxx clarified that the “Commonwealth” option contained in her amendment to H.R. 2499…which was approved by the full House…is…and I quote…”the status quo, under which Puerto Rico is subject to federal Territory Clause authority.”

As Congresswoman Foxx further made clear, her amendment’s intention was not to endorse the legal viability or practical possibility of…and I quote once again…”’a new Commonwealth status’ which would grant Puerto Rico greater autonomy from federal authority with greater federal benefits.” With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I would like to submit Congresswoman Foxx’s letter for the record, along with my entire written testimony.

Mr. Chairman, what H.R. 2499 essentially does is authorize a process…at the discretion of Puerto Rico’s elected representatives…that would begin with threshold votes on whether to consider status options. This responds to the “Commonwealth” Party argument that the status question should not be addressed. Only if a majority of voters no longer favors the current status…and Puerto Rico’s elected representatives agree… would there be a second-stage vote on the full range of possible options. If a majority of voters in a threshold plebiscite do not want to consider Puerto Rico’s status options, the issue would be put aside for eight years.

If a second-stage vote does take place, the current status would stand equally alongside the other possible status alternatives that have support in Puerto Rico: free association – which is advocated by an increasing number of members of the “Commonwealth” Party, although not the current leadership; independence; and statehood. In terms of measuring support for Puerto Rico’s possible status choices, H.R. 2499 could not be any fairer.

In sum, H.R. 2499 would enable the preferences of Puerto Ricans…among the real status alternatives…to finally be ascertained. The legislation would not mandate any action in response by the federal government. If there ever is a majority of the vote for a status different than the present one, it is then that Federal officials could determine what response is appropriate. An accurate expression of status preferences by the people is the necessary first step.

Last month, members of the House took the right step. I urge you to do the same. By so doing, you will be effectively responding to the people of Puerto Rico’s clear mandate for a federally sanctioned status choice process. You will also fulfill Congress’ responsibility to enable a territory that lacks democracy at the national government level to determine if it wants one of the options for national government democracy.

Mr. Chairman, over the course of more than a century, millions of your fellow American citizens in the territory of Puerto Rico have made countless contributions to the Nation, both in peace and wartime. Thousands of our sons and daughters have laid down their lives…thousands more proudly serve today…in defense of American democratic values. Yet, we have never been given the chance to express our views about our political relationship with the Nation in the context of an accurate, fair and democratic process sponsored by Congress. This bill will, at long last, give us that chance. What could be more right?

Thank you very much.

 

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