Any company undertaking activities which earn revenue will need to be on top of their financial compliance, and this priority is further exacerbated when looked at in the context of cross-border corporations. If you do business overseas, understanding local regulations is pivotal to ensuring the longevity of your operations, this is to say, going into business without complete knowledge you are doing so legitimately, could cause issues beyond your control as the owner. This leads us on to our main focus of today, Chile, and specifically, the financial regulations and necessary compliance measures to take into account before making the move. Latin America is fast becoming a hub for IT services in a rapidly developing market, meaning the popularity of nations such as Chile, with strong workforces and incentives for foreign businesses, is only set to increase, so enforcement of compliance will too, making your understanding of the rules is extremely important.
Let us first define financial compliance, as although we have stated its importance, this means nothing if you do not know what it is. In short, it is a set of rules and regulations within every aspect of the financial world that are in place for businesses and corporations to follow and will be enforced by the appropriate authorities to ensure the good practices of everyone involved in these markets. Now, this context is very useful as it means you can understand where your business forms part of a much wider net, the likes of which when all complying together, make the global financial markets more stable.
The above information is the majority of the background to the broader matter of financial compliance, below we will outline some of the specific requirements for companies operating in Chile:
· One permanent resident must be in the nation at all time as a representative
· Annual return must be filed with details of all directors and shareholders
· Have a physical office in Chile
· Possess a tax number in Chile
· Payment of the following taxes: corporate and personal income, VAT, customs duties, stamp tax
· Business start-up document if necessary
· Working license specific to the region of the country you operate in
· Professional accident insurance registration for every employee
· Contract a local Legal Representative
These legal requirements will ensure your business stays on the right side of Chilean law, and although it appears as though there are rather a lot of things to organise, this is to be expected with cross-border corporate activity. In terms of specific financial compliance, Chile also has a few of its own regulatory rules, these can be found here:
· Annual shareholders meeting, the minutes of which are notarised and circulated properly
· Register for appropriate licenses
· Financial statements from within the business must be shown to shareholders
· Obtain corporate seal and register documents of owner and shareholders
· Update shareholder book of letters for the business
· Comply with auditors both within and from outside the business
While we have somewhat summarised these requirements for the purpose of remaining succinct to give you an initial introduction to this theme in Chile, there is certainly enough information to ascertain the importance of being on top of the different regulations. Another thing to note is that many of the rules are not too dissimilar to what could be expected anywhere else in the world, meaning that while the lists are rather extensive, this is not to say that are extremely stressful.
So, if you are interested in finding out more, get in touch with us today! At Creimerman, we are a team of global citizens, working with each client and providing a tailor-made service in order to help make their cross-border ventures a success, and we would love you to be the next.