What is the difference between us and Puerto Rico?

Answer 1

Puerto Ricans don't pay taxes or have political autonomy. What they do have is a

Governer like the 50 states in the United States. They are not a state but a Territory which they call a commonwealth. The big difference is that the United States is a part of a continent and Puerto Rico is merely an island in the Caribbean and still part of the United States.

Answer 2

Puerto Rican residents don't pay FEDERAL INCOME taxes on income earned on the island. Any income earned for business in the states is subject to federal income tax.

Puerto Rican residents still pay federal social security, medicare, federal interest income tax, federal dividend tax and capital gains tax, among others. They also pay a gigantic local (state) income tax.

Puerto Rican residents have one NON-VOTING observer in the House of Representatives instead of the 6 or 7 VOTING U.S. Representatives and 2 Senators it would have as a state. Puerto Rican residents cannot vote for President. They have no electoral votes. The only voice they have in Presidential politics is a vote in the presidential primary election.

Puerto Rico is a free associated commonwealth of the United States of America with a "State" government which consists of an elected Governor, Senate and House of Representatives. It is like the other 50 states in many ways, but it is a territory which is ultimately controlled by the US Congress in Washington.

To answer the main question is Puerto Rico is PART of the US. Puerto Rico is a Territory of a nation. The US is a nation.

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