For all foreigners who wish to carry out any kind of investment in Chile ought to be registered to the Taxpayer ID Number (Rut or Rol Único tributario). This procedure will assign a Taxpayer Number, which among others, will grant the right to acquire shares, real estate, the purchase of rights or goods that require formalities, etc. The obtainment of the Foreign Investor Taxpayer ID is available for natural persons as well as legal entities, and in both cases the pertaining documentation will be requested. In order to carry out this procedure, the interested party has to attend to the SII office (Servicio de Impuestos Internos) corresponding to the domicile that will be declared, as we explain as follows.
1. Foreign Investor Taxpayer ID for a Natural Person.
Firstly, a power of attorney (previously authorized by a notary public), has to be provided to the person(s) with Chilean citizenship that will represent the foreigner interested party. To go along with said power it will be necessary a copy of the representative(s) Taxpayers ID (also authorized before a notary public).
Also, if the one person carrying out the procedure is other than the interested party, it will also be required a power of attorney (previously authorized by a notary public) to do the procedure in the SII office on his behalf.
Then the Form nº 4415.1 has to be requested and filled (“Inscripción al Rol Único Tributario y/o Declaración Jurada de Inicio de Actividades para Extranjeros sin Residencia”) which is available at the SII office. This form has to be filled in only in some sections, namely, A, E, H and I. Meaning by this the identification of the taxpayer, the individualisation of the domicile in Chile, of which the taxpayer may be the proprietor, tenant or grantee. One or more representatives, managers or trustees have to be assigned in order to act on behalf of the interested party. Finally, it is needed to fill in the individualisation of the person who carries out the aforementioned procedure.
Sometimes, and depending of the corresponding office, the SII will keep some of these documents, thus is recommended to always have copies of them all.
2. Foreign Investor Taxpayer ID for Legal Entities.
For the obtention of this Taxpayer ID, the Constitution of the Company and its bylaws have to be submitted, this one has to be issued by the country of origin of the company and has to be previously apostilled in that country. Other documents, also issued in the country of origin, have to be submitted as well, these have to attest that the entity is currently in force and that it was validly incorporated according to the laws of the country they were issued from. All these documentation has to be authorized (protocolizados) by a national notary public. It is worth mentioning that these documents ought to be originals.
In the case of these not being in Spanish, then it will become necessary to submit the originals along with a translated copy of them.
As well as for the attainment of the natural person taxpayer ID, a Chilean citizen taxpayer’s ID will have to be submitted who will assume the representation of the foreign entity, a power of attorney or mandate from the legal entity to the trustee, Taxpayer ID or document issued in the country of origin that proves the fidelity of the information consigned in the form.
The 4415.1 Form has to be filled in the same sections that correspond to the acquirement of the taxpayer ID for a natural person, with the exception of section A. Instead, section B has to be filled with the individualisation of the foreign legal entity.
Francisco Mulatti, Lawyer.
Photo: Sweet Ice Cream Photography (CC0)