Chile Forum

Hi all - hoping for some info here.

I am a U.S. citizen, living in the U.S. (Missouri), who may be in a position, in a couple months, where I receive some Chilean stocks from an investment.

I am wondering how I would go about handling this, and how expensive and complex it would likely be.

I think the preferred scenario would be something like this. I open an account with a Chilean financial institution. A bit later, the shares (I think they would be an assortment of large Chilean stocks) come into the account. I sell off the shares, reasonably cheaply - perhaps via an on-line interface or a couple of phone calls with an appropriate rep. I pay any taxes due to Chile, have the residual proceeds converted to dollars and wired to a U.S. account, and then pay any further necessary taxes in the US.

As I typed that, it sounded like a lot of steps. To make it worse, I don't speak Spanish, and would prefer not to travel to Chile to do any of this. I am in suburban St. Louis, and I suppose I could travel to Chicago or New York if I really needed to.

So, is the above plan sound?

If so,
1) What is a good Chilean financial institution for doing this with?
2) What are the typical costs and transaction fees to trade large-cap Chilean stocks
3) What Chilean tax obligations, if any, would I have for this, assuming I only hold the stocks for a few days, and my overall gains on the transaction are 5-10%?
4) What kind of haircut would I likely take on the money transfer and conversion (assume it's for, say, $300,000).

If you have the answers to at least one of the above, I would appreciate thoughts.

Phil

I don't know any answers to your specific questions, but would offer that unless you have an immediate, identifiable need for those funds in the USA, you might be wise to delay your conversion of the value to dollars just now.

I am bumping this old thread.

It appears rather likely that I will soon want to be opening an account capable of receiving and selling stocks on the Chilean exchange.

I am open to various ideas as to how to do this - work with a major worldwide brokerage (Merrill Lynch, etc), work with the US branch of a major Chilean entity, or, if need be, work with a Chilean brokerage in Chile (preferably long distance from the US, and preferably one who can deal in English with a US citizen).

Does anyone have thoughts/suggestions/experience on this? Any particular entities that anyone can recommend?

The amount of money involved is potentially large and if the situation arises as I seems likely, I would be willing to undergo reasonable costs and hassle (to the extent necessary) to accomplish all this.