Probably sooner than later every company in Chile must interact with it’s Tax Authority, the Internal Revenue Service (Servicio de Impuestos Internos or SII), so is a good thing to revise some rules related to the appointment of a representative to act on behalf of the company. Whether is the company manager or some other person specially appointed, they would need to prove their representation over the Service.

The Tax Code (Código Tributario), in its article 9 refers to the matter in the following sense:

“Any natural or juridical person that acts on behalf of a taxpayer must prove their representation. The mandate will have no other formality than being issued in written”

As we see, is pretty easy to comply with this requisite, its only necessary to give power in written. Even though, there are some general application instructions from the Service demanding that a Notary Public authorizes the representations, so is better to do so in every case. If the representative is the manager of the company, it will be enough to present the documents of incorporation (when the appointment is done in the bylaws) or the Minute of the Board Meeting for companies where the Board of Directors, makes the appointment, as in Corporations.

The same article 9 follows establishing an exception to the mentioned rule. But as the reader may notice, this is pretty precarious, because the Service reserves the right to require ratification in the term determined by itself.

“The Service will accept representations without the exhibition of the appointment deed, but may require the ratification of the appointment or prove of the relationship within a term determined by itself under penalty of having the request as not presented or the corresponding action as not done.”

The most relevant thing to have in mind when appointing a representative is the consequences or presumption that this appointment may have according to the final part of article 9.

“The person that acts over the Service as manager, representative or agent of the taxpayer, will be considered authorized to be notified on behalf of the taxpayer while there is no prove that the appointment has been revoked through written notice to the Office of the Service that has jurisdiction over the taxpayer.”Is necessary to have in account that in the system of the Internal Revenue Service, the person that appears as representative, will be still figuring as such until a new appointment is done by the taxpayer, even when the original appointment is extinguished or the representative has renounced to the representation.

It’s also important to know that there are some assignments that must be expressly included in the document of appointment of the representative. The most common example of this is the faculty to ask for the access password to the Service platform on behalf of the taxpayer.

For foreign companies that will begin their activities in Chile or for foreign investors, the person appointed as representative over the Internal Revenue Service must be a Chilean or a foreigner with Chilean residency (at least temporary).

Santiago Henríquez C., Lawyer.

Picture: Joe Reed (CC0)