Chile’s Internal Revenue Service, Servicio de Impuestos Internos (SII), has for the first ever time from this year included a section on cryptocurrencies in its income tax returns form for citizens.
In the form, crypto will be listed under “other own and/or third-party income from companies that declare their effective income.”
Just last year, the Chilean government had ruled cryptocurrencies to be intangible assets, and are not subjected to Value-Added Tax, according to Chilean media, which also noted that Chileans will have to pay taxes on crypto-related earnings since these will bulk up total income.
According to an official letter signed by SII director Fernando Barraza, those trading cryptocurrencies must register their operations under tax-exempt invoices for the purpose of government monitoring.
Patricio Bravo, a tax attorney and member of Bitcoin Chile, a non-governmental organization, reportedly told Chilean media that SII has “arranged taxation in the broadest possible way, this is apparently due to two objectives: on one hand expand the tax structure as much as possible to cover all types of crypto assets and, on the other hand, due to the current lack in Chilean legislation of figures specifically designed for this type of instruments, which makes it difficult to generate more specific items.”
Last year, Chilean crypto exchanges had a tough time after local banks decided not to continue working with them and shut their accounts. The official legal status of cryptocurrency in Chile is still under discussion.
Comments