Register a company in Chile

Yes. The registry works online, and one attorney may sign the incorporation form for every shareholder, with an advanced e-signature or before any Chilean notary. You sign a power of attorney at home and have it apostilled or legalised (Chile has applied the Apostille Convention since August 2016) and translated into Spanish where needed. It stays valid for a year at most. Your investor RUT is filed with the SII through a representative with domicile or residence in Chile who holds a power from you.

Registration starts from $2,900. Official notary fees and a legal address, if you need ours, are quoted separately. With an EMI or online bank account, from $4,800. The registry itself charges nothing; a notary signature on the incorporation form is UF 0.26 however many people sign, plus UF 0.18 per signatory whose documents the notary reviews and uploads.

By law the company is incorporated automatically on the date the last required signature goes on the form, and the SII then assigns the RUT without another application. The portal's brand is "Tu Empresa en un Día", your company in a day, yet we have not found an official processing time in days. What sets the calendar is the paperwork before signing: the power of attorney with its apostille or legalisation, and the investor RUT. All signatures must be in within 60 days of the first. Our own preparation time is confirmed in the quote.

Yes, and it is the question to settle first. The SII registers a foreign shareholder through a representative with domicile or residence in Chile. After incorporation, the start-of-activities notice has to come from a legal representative who is Chilean or holds a definitive visa, or a temporary visa that allows any lawful activity. A visa tied to a work contract, a student visa or dependant status does not qualify. We agree with you who fills each role before the power of attorney is signed.

Corporate tax is 27% under the partially integrated system. A company in the Pro Pyme regime pays 25% in normal years and 12.5% for fiscal years 2025 to 2027. Dividends to a non-resident owner carry a 35% additional tax with the corporate tax credited against it, which puts the total at 35% under Pro Pyme or for treaty residents and at 44.45% for a non-treaty owner under the general regime. Withholding on interest is 35%, or 4% on loans from foreign banks, and royalties bear 30% (15% for software, with standard software exempt). VAT is 19%.

Our second package opens an account with an EMI or online bank remotely, with the KYC file and compliance onboarding prepared by us. We quote a Chilean bank account separately, on request. Central Bank rules allow non-residents to hold peso current accounts in Chile. Capital contributions of USD 10,000 or more must go through the formal exchange market unless paid from funds held abroad, and are reported to the Central Bank either way.

For a foreign founder, usually the SpA. An EIRL can only be formed by one individual, is limited to one line of business and carries the owner's full name in its company name. A Limitada needs at least two partners and allows up to 50. A closed SA starts at two shareholders and needs a board of at least three directors. The SpA works with one shareholder, a person or a company, and leaves management free to organise.

There is no legal minimum. The paid part of the capital is contributed at incorporation and the unpaid part within the term your statutes set; how the money arrives is confirmed for your case. An investment of USD 5 million or more that gives at least 10% of the votes counts as foreign direct investment under Ley 20.848, and the investor can request a certificate from the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency.

Yes. SpA shareholders can be individuals or legal entities. For the parent's RUT the SII asks for its constitutive act or a certificate of good standing, legalised or apostilled at home (a good-standing certificate also translated and visaed by a Chilean consul), a tax residence certificate, and details of its owners or beneficiaries, including tax residence and tax ID. A company signs the form through its designated legal representative, and the registry's comparison table says legal entities sign before a notary.

A start-of-activities notice to the SII within two months of starting business. Declare every business line, because lines left out will not appear on your invoices. A municipal licence (patente municipal) each year of 2.5 to 5 per thousand of the company's own capital, at least UTM 1 and at most UTM 8,000, paid in July and January or in one go. Monthly advance tax payments and the annual return before 30 April. Share transfers go through the registry's electronic shareholder register, and amending the statutes takes an extraordinary shareholders' meeting whose minutes become a public deed.