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It was one of the innovations brought by the tax reform approved in January this year: applying a tax to digital platforms. The original bill established a specific, indirect and substitute tax for any other tax, of 10%, which was levied on digital services. Then, in successive negotiations, it was determined that they pay the same VAT rate, that is, 19%.
This tax began to be applied on June 1, and on Thursday the Internal Revenue Service (SII) delivered the first balance that includes June, July, August and September. In that period, the collection reached US $ 62.8 million.
Most of the 120 providers signed up for their quarterly payment and, therefore, the next payment process will be in January 2021, considering October, November and December.
The SII reported that the list of those who paid the most this tax is headed by Google and Netflix, followed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, owner of the online gaming platform, its PlayStation console. Facebook is in fourth place and Spotify in fifth. Microsoft and Amazon in sixth and seventh place, respectively; Zoom in eighth position and Valve, video game creator and owner of the Steam online store, in ninth. Closes the Uber ranking, in tenth place.
According to the director of the SII, Fernando Barraza, the results were “very positive.” He indicated that “not only for the amount declared and paid, which exceeds the collection of US $ 50 million estimated in the financial report of the Tax Modernization Law for this year, but also for a component of tax morale that is very relevant to us” . This, because he stated that “the main platforms are beginning to comply with their tax responsibilities with the country, which we hope will also serve as an example for other platforms that will also have to carry out the registration, registration and payment process.”
The SII specifies that according to the Financial Report of the Tax Modernization Law, an annual collection of US $ 241 million was estimated under the regime.
The number of 120 registered may vary over time. “When a platform starts its operations in our country, it must register, so that registration will grow over time,” Barraza says.
To apply this tax, Barraza explained that the “Tax Compliance Management Model” was used, which has “a very important emphasis on prevention, that is, on developing actions to avoid non-compliance.”
In this framework, as detailed, along with identifying the platforms, they contacted one by one to explain the characteristics of this new tax, resolve their queries and explain the system to them and thus facilitate the process. “The results show that this strategy was the correct one, because we are talking about an important collection, if we consider that it is the first period of declaration and payment”, says the director of the SII.
Barraza points out that “the new demands imposed by the Digital Economy represent a huge challenge for the tax administrations of the world. In this sense, Chile is among the countries that are already addressing this issue and, as a Service, we have worked intensively in recent years, learning about the characteristics of these new business models to prepare ourselves for the implementation of this tax ”.
The Service will now proceed to check that the tax returns and payment are what corresponds to each of the providers. This, based on the information that the SII receives from the banks, on the transactions of goods and services that are carried out through credit cards, debit cards, payment with provision of funds or other similar payment systems, which allows to enhance the control of this tax.
