Chile Forum

I am thinking of opening an online service business directed at a specific Chilean target group.
I wanted to ask about the legal issues (not that of my personal working permit) but that of the start-up company.
Where to register the company, how to register, how long to wait for the permit, etc ,etc, any bit of information would be greatly appreciated!
If the issue has already been covered and I missed it, then I am sorry to bring it up again (key-word suggestions, please)?
BNN

Thanks zer0nz , but as the business will be directed at Chileans , it is inevitable to charge CLP.
Why do you advice against registering in Chile? And where do you register in the first place?

I'm in Chile with a temp visa.
Obviously, I don't want to give away my business idea at this stage, let me just say that it is not directed at gringos, it will be directed at a Chilean clientel. That's all I can say at the moment, hope yop understand.

Thanks for that link, zer0nz. I've been researching starting a business here, but had not come across that site.
Has anyone here started a small business in Chile? I have a few specific questions that I would love to have answered. I have searched the forum, as well as talked to a Lawyer and Accountant here,but have gotten some conflicting advice and would like to see if anyone here can offer any suggestions.
First, my situation:
I have a limited liability company in New Zealand, and each month I issue invoices for the work that I do. It's all web based work - I design, make, manage, test & write websites. While this is a good income, it's totally not recognised here in Chile. I would like to be able to open a bank account & maybe get a mortgage in the future, and that is not going to happen if my income is always from overseas. I also understand that the tax here in Chile is less than NZ, but I can't quite figure that out since here the tax is low but so many other things are taken out of paychecks...
So, I am thinking about opening a similar company here, and continuing to work as I always have, and issue my invoices from Chile. The companies I work for have no issue with that, and after a period of time, I would be declared non-resident in New Zealand and not be required to pay tax there.
I am now "en tramite" for the periodic income visa, and I have permission to work. The accountant who I talked to got all hung up on the fact that I didn't have a work visa at the time and couldn't tell me anything about the actual process for setting up a company, and what options I had.
A lawyer I spoke to said I should open a sociedad, and that it needed to be with another person, and that it couldn't be my partner for some reason. He also told me about the declaring an amount of money, which reading the previous link, I think was probably a declaration of capital. What's that all about? Why do you have to declare capital and what difference does it make? The lawyer recommended declaring $20.000.000 CLP saying that was the figure that the banks look at to open accounts and lend money.
Is this the best way do do things? Do I have to set up a sociedad because I am not Chilean and don't have permanent residency? I think I read on here that you could set up a company but needed to have Chilean legal representation which sounds less risky than a partnership.
Can I just do Boletas? Would that achieve the same result?
Interested in any feedback on the topic at all. Thanks

Be careful zer0nz with the idea of using a EU tax haven. For a start forming a company in the two places you mention, will not be tax advantageous, and even though these locations are " off shore" they have extremely strict laws regarding formation and operation of companies regardless of where the owners live. I have a lot of experience working with tax havens. Even if you did manage to invoice out of one of those, you still have the problem of how to legally transfer the funds to Chile so as you can pay your bills. On top of that, you need to check whether for example an offshore invoice to say a company in NZ for services can be paid by that company without any withholding of tax.
If you are doing work here say for a NZ company, there´s no reason why you need to even form a company at all. It´s not only expensive and cumbersome but is unnecessary.You can just issue your own personal boleta to that company ( assuming you have a RUT), in whatever currency you wish. That company can then remit payment to you in Chile or wherever. All you would need to do is pay over to SII each month the amount that corresponds to the 10% withholding tax that the customer can´t withhold as he is not in Chile. This is just an advance payment of tax that´s all. At the year end, you can simply fill in your tax return here, declaring all your income and automatically you have the right to make a standard deduction of 30% of that income up to a maximum of 15UTA in lieu of having to claim for all your expenses related to the generation of that income. A UTA at the moment for example is about say 450000 pesos. So the max in round numbers would be about 7 million. So if you had say gross income of 25 million, you would only pay tax on 18 million and tax rates in Chile are far lower than NZ where I know they are crippling. I handled my tax reporting this way . It´s very simple, you stay within the law and pay very little anyway. As others have said, it´s difficult to open a bank account here, but there´s no reason why you couldn´t have your fees paid into a bank in another country then have them sent to you on a collection basis to any bank here . It´s a lot to explain here, so PM me if you want with any questions, and don´t rely on Chilean accountants for advice !

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Hightower

1st category is your normal run of the mill business. The codigo tributario Art 19 says " primera categoria se aplicará a todas las rentas percibidas o devengadas de las rentas de capital y de las empresas comerciales, industriales, mineras y otras". So that doesn´t cover people who issue boletas.
Category 2 says it taxes income from work, ie if you get a salary for example or income from profesional services, which would cover people who use boletas to cover commission etc.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, for the type of business that people have mentioned here, there is no reason at all to go through all the hassle as well as high cost of forming a company. A companyt is fine if you have assets and liabilities involved in the production of income, employees, sales, inventories and all that stuff and you want to limit your liability just like say an INC in the USA. . If all you do is provide a service it´s not necessary. On top of that, once you´ve formed a company, you should be aware of the terrible bureaucracy that you will have to comply with. You´ll be asked for certified copies of your poder to act for the company etc etc. It´s a nightmare .
In simple terms, you first need to have a RUT. Once you have your RUT, you get on the SII website and get a clave secreta. Then you apply for approval for start of activities, which for boletas is just routine. Once you have that, you can have your boletas printed ; take them to SII for stamping and away you go . ( This is the procedure in a nutshell) If you send boletas to a client outside Chile, you´ll need to pay PPM each month that you issue a boleta, then fill in a form 29 each month and pay over the PPM .
It´s really difficult to explain everything properly on a website like this as space is limited. However if you want to PM me, I´ll give you my email address and perhaps I can make things clearer for you