P.R. Laws tit. 14, § 451
(a) Every corporation, joint-stock or limited liability company or association heretofore organized, chartered or incorporated under the laws of Puerto Rico, and every such association, corporation or company hereafter chartered or incorporated in Puerto Rico, before proceeding to transact business, shall file in the office of the Secretary of the Treasury of Puerto Rico an authenticated copy of its charter or articles of incorporation, together with a statement, verified by the oath of the president of such corporation and attested by a majority of its administration or board of directors, stating the name or title of such corporation, its domicile, the kind of business engaged in, the branches which may have been established and the commercial registry in which the articles of association or incorporation have been recorded.
(b) Except for nonpecuniary profit associations, it shall be unlawful for any corporation, joint-stock or association not incorporated under the laws of Puerto Rico to do business therein until such corporation, company or association shall have secured from the Secretary of State of Puerto Rico a formal license to transact business therein; and no such license shall be issued by said Secretary of State until such corporation, company or association shall have paid the license fee hereinafter specified; Provided, That a foreign corporation may transact only such business or have only such powers as a domestic corporation of like nature transacts and has in Puerto Rico, and to the extent authorized the latter by local laws; and the license issued by the Secretary of State of Puerto Rico shall set forth this restriction in its context.
(c) It shall be the duty of such corporations, companies or associations to renew their licenses annually, on or before the first day of July of each year; but no such renewal shall be issued by the Secretary of State until such companies, corporations or associations shall have respectively paid the license fees hereinafter specified.
(d) For the issue and renewal of every license issued under the provisions of this section, the sum of twenty-five dollars ($25) shall be paid to the Secretary of the Treasury of Puerto Rico through the official of the Department of State designated by the Secretary of the Treasury as collector or deputy collector.
(e) The Secretary of State shall report all violations of this section to the prosecuting attorney of the proper part of the Court of First Instance of Puerto Rico, who shall at once proceed to prosecute the corporation, company, association, officer or agent so violating the same; and, upon conviction thereof, such corporation, company, association or its officers or agents shall forfeit to The People of Puerto Rico the sum of four hundred dollars ($400) for any such violation.
History —Political Code, 1902, § 353; Mar. 10, 1904, p. 167, § 41; Mar. 6, 1913, No. 11, p. 55; Mar. 7, 1951, No. 7, p. 14.