Operator News
Chile – VAT Crackdown on online operators
By Phil - 31 May 2022
The Chilean Internal Revenue Service (SII) has announced the development of a plan for sports betting sites to register and pay taxes under a new simplified tax regime.
As set out by the SII, some of the best-known international betting brands are now under scrutiny, as are crypto currency companies.
“Our service has developed coordinated work with banks and other payment card issuing entities, in order to obtain information to determine if the registered platforms are declaring and paying the tax; or, well, identify the platforms that do not declare or pay digital VAT, and must do so”, Diario Financiero quoted the director of the SII, Hernán Frigolett as saying.
While stepping up efforts to contact unregistered companies, the official stated that they had met with banking and non-banking entities that issue payment cards “to coordinate the operational aspects of this measure, which begins on the first of August”.
At the same time he explained that those registered companies that do not declare and pay the VAT corresponding to the digital services they provide “are in a situation of non-compliance.”
“The SII will continue to permanently monitor that any foreign business or platform, without domicile or residence in Chile, that provides digital services taxed with VAT in Chile, complies with the payment of this tax,” Frigolett said.
The government announced that it would begin to regulate online sports betting earlier this year. In March Undersecretary of Finance Alejandro Weber said that tax generated by the newly regulated industry would amount to as much as US$55 million a year for government coffers.
According to figures released by the Gambling Board (SJC) there are now more than 900 offshore betting sites that offer their services locally with the total handle now standing at US$ 150 million. Lockdown has increased online betting significantly in Chile and younger players are now betting in increasing numbers online.
