Selling into Chile, buying from it, or opening an operation here all run into the same three questions: what entity holds the business, what the contract says when something goes wrong, and what Customs decides your goods actually are.
Chilean law requires every importer and exporter to engage a licensed customs broker — a agente de aduana, who must be Chilean and accredited by the National Customs Service. They file the declarations. That is not the work we do, and any firm telling you otherwise is selling you something.
Where counsel matters is on either side of the broker: the entity that acts as importer of record and the contracts behind the shipment, before goods move — and the dispute with Customs over classification, valuation or origin, when they stop moving.
To import as principal, to invoice locally, or to hold assets here, you need a Chilean tax presence. This is the part closest to what we do every day.
An SpA is the usual vehicle for a foreign group: single shareholder, flexible bylaws, straightforward capital. A registered branch of the foreign company suits a different set of cases. The choice affects liability and tax, and it is hard to reverse cheaply.
The company needs a tax number and a representative with capacity to act before the tax authority and Customs. Getting the scope of that power wrong is a frequent source of delay.
Chilean tax registration requires a real address, verified by the tax authority. This is where trade work meets our core practice: the lease of the office, the purchase of the warehouse, the industrial site and its permits.
Capital entering Chile is reported through the regime under Law 20.848, which replaced the old Decree Law 600. Doing it correctly at the start is what allows profits and capital to leave cleanly later.
Most cross-border disputes we see are not about bad faith. They are about a contract that never said who bore the risk at the moment the problem happened.
Chile is a party to the Vienna Convention (CISG), which applies by default to commercial sales between parties in different signatory states unless you exclude it. Many contracts are drafted as if it did not exist.
The three letters decide who pays freight, who carries the risk at each leg, and who clears customs. Copied from a previous contract, they routinely contradict what the parties actually agreed.
Appointing a Chilean distributor or agent, and — more importantly — being able to end the arrangement later without an exit claim that costs more than the relationship earned.
A clause naming a foreign court is worth little if the assets are in Chile. Arbitration seated where an award can actually be enforced is usually the better answer, and it has to be drafted, not assumed.
Three decisions Customs makes about your shipment, each of which changes what you pay — and each of which can be challenged.
Which heading your goods fall under is a legal question, not a clerical one. A reclassification applied retroactively across past shipments is one of the largest unexpected liabilities an importer can face.
Challenges to declared value, and to what must be added to it — royalties, licence fees, assists — where related-party pricing is involved.
Chile has one of the widest free-trade agreement networks in the world, but preferential tariffs depend on origin rules being met and documented. Verification arrives after the goods have been sold.
Challenging a Customs determination, and defending charges arising from a declaration that turned out to be wrong.
This page is general information about Chilean law, not legal advice, and it does not create a lawyer–client relationship. Figures in UF vary daily. Every matter turns on its own documents.
Whether you are setting up in Chile, reviewing a contract before you sign, or holding a Customs determination you think is wrong, describe it in a few lines and we will tell you what it involves.
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