Doing Business Chile 2026

The SpA is the standard for subsidiaries of foreign parents. It requires no minimum number of shareholders, is not dissolved by having a single shareholder, and allows fully tailored corporate governance. A branch does not shield the parent; reserve it for limited, short-term operations.

If the investment exceeds USD 5M, the Foreign Investment Statute (Law 20,848) guarantees access to the formal foreign exchange market and allows a VAT exemption to be requested for capital goods. Below that threshold, Chapter XIV of the Central Bank is more agile.

The difference between a shareholder in a country with a double taxation treaty in force with Chile and one without a treaty is 9.45 points of tax burden on every 100 of remitted profit (35% vs. 44.45%). It is decided once and its effect is permanent.

Chile’s constitutional guarantee is the floor, not the ceiling. For coverage against regulatory changes that strip your investment of value (regulatory expropriation), you need a BIT in force. A holding company in the right jurisdiction is what opens that door.

Gross salary is only the starting point. Add employer pension contributions (~8.5% at full phase-in), unemployment insurance, workplace accident insurance and the phase-in of the 2025 pension reform. Total employer cost exceeds gross salary by 25–30%.

The Pro Pyme regime (revenue under UF 75,000) has a reduced corporate tax rate in 2026 and full credit integration without the 35% clawback. The regime decision affects cash flow from the first fiscal year and is hard to change retroactively.

Merger control is a timing factor: a transaction above the thresholds cannot close without prior FNE clearance. Art. 3 of DL 211 captures exclusivity arrangements, conditional discounts and trade-association coordination. Collusion carries prison sentences.

The Karin Law protocol, poorly structured fee-based contractor agreements and consumer adhesion contracts are the three most frequent sources of contingency in the first year of operations. Fixing them before operating costs a fraction of litigating them.