No doubt many know this so if someone is thinking about moving to Chile and asking why they ought not to, here is another example of… why not. And this shit is only getting worse.
If you let your Revisión Técnica expire, under the current rules you may have your vehicle taken away from you and it may cost you 200,000 CLP or more to get it back. And a lot of money is going into some pockets because of this. And out of your pocket, of course.
WTF?
Just watched a “fiscalización” circus that resulted in several vehicles sequentially loaded onto a wrecker and the owners won’t them back until next week and only after paying mega-expenses for the towing, the violation, and the impoundment fees. The offense? Revisión Técnica two months expired.
You think this much is bad? Stay tuned for the new bullshit rules about riding bicycles.
Here’s another one. At the start of December, Impuestos internos sent me a mail advising me that I owe them nearly CLP $4M in Contribuciones and have until the end of the month to pay, even though I’m al día with the tri-monthly installments.
When I queried this in the Tesoreria, that told me that all properties were revalued in 2020, but due to the effects of the COVID pandemic, those higher rates (over double the previous amount)were not applied. Until now. They want to charge the full amount for 3 years, ignoring the payments already made at the old rate.
Correction: they did take those previous payments into account, and are only claiming the outstanding amount. Even so, it still sucks.
Do you know what happens if you fail to pay? First they charge interest on the outstanding, then quite soon they auction off your property.
Yeah that happened to an expat gringo.buddy who got caught with no permiso. They took his car and him to booking in 2016. Put the fear of the permiso in me from then on. Same poor guy went to the DR to look into moving there at end of 2017 due to chile visa drama…ended up mort via fentanyl overdose in the DR beachside hotel room from tainted alcohol in the minibar. So sad, he loved life and he lived it deliberately just him, his guitar, and his little dog.
The difference is that I am not breaking any laws. Having successfully f***ed my business, like many others, with their manufactured social unrest, my IVA returns are nonexistent, and they are desperate for money.
Next to go will be the Secreto Bancario giving them access to private bank accounts at will. They can already do this with commercial accounts, btw. I know because they did it to me…
Just hope you don’t get a Christmas message like this one…
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Good points. My asesor here has advised me to close dollar accounts in Chile and minimize exposure to anything resembling liquid assets that could be targeted. My real estate holdings are exempt from contribuciones – for now. I still have the right to accounts in the US and can make most payments via foreign debit or credit card although that usually involves a surcharge now. Getting to be more like things in Argentina, which ironically might be able to improve under Milei. Maybe. Eventually. Someday.
There was big capital flight right after Red October in 2019 and now we are doing our own little part.
Chile: It’s still Latin America. With all that is implied.
