Our Tax Group Director, Andrea Bobadilla, spoke exclusively with Diario Financiero to take stock of the investments declared by Chileans in the US in the first year of the double taxation agreement.
Data from the Internal Revenue Service (SII) reveal a 25% increase in the 2024 fiscal year, the period in which the agreement to avoid double taxation between the two countries came into effect.
Since January 1, 2024, the agreement to avoid double taxation between Chile and the United States has been in force, an agreement that was approved after more than a decade of legislative proceedings in both nations.
This is a key step, as the agreement establishes benefits for investments made between the two countries, such as tax reductions or exemptions from certain tax payments.
Although 2024 may seem like a distant year in the calendar considering the recent arrival of 2026, it was only during 2025 that an initial approximation of the effect of this agreement could be made.
This is because in Operation Income 2025, based on information from the previous fiscal year, taxpayers reported the amount of investments in the US to the Internal Revenue Service (SII) for the first time since the agreement came into force. And there is a noticeable difference from the previous situation.
According to data from Form No. 1929 on foreign transactions—obtained via the Transparency Law—Chileans reported investments totaling more than US$41 billion during 2024 ($37,172,981 million). This represents a 25% increase over the amount declared a year earlier, when the agreement was not yet in force.
Now, analyzing the historical series, the amount declared in 2025 is 51.4% higher than that reported in 2021 (see graph).
The Benefits
According to SII data requested by the Albagli Zaliasnik (AZ) study, 32,757 Chilean taxpayers reported investments in the US during the 2024 fiscal year. To give you an idea, 42,674 Chilean individuals and companies filled out that form to declare investments during the period.
The director of the AZ Tax Group, Andrea Bobadilla, explained that the figures reflect a longer-term trend, as Chilean investors are increasingly diversifying their assets into developed markets, and the US, as the world’s leading financial market, occupies a natural place in that strategy.
Second, she argued, the entry into force of the double taxation agreement with the US in 2024 “significantly changes the tax cost of that decision. Lower withholding rates and greater legal certainty mean that, in practice, the US becomes more competitive compared to other jurisdictions.”
Thirdly, the lawyer pointed out that, from a tax and compliance perspective, the very existence of the agreement and its benefits creates a ‘clear’ incentive to regularize assets that were already abroad but had not been reported on Form 1929.
‘In other words, not all of the increase is due to new capital leaving Chile, but a significant part has to do with better compliance, greater transparency, and taxpayers who now prefer to be within the system rather than face unnecessary contingencies,’ Bobadilla said.
Some of the benefits of the agreement include, for example, the reduction of the withholding tax on dividends from 30% to 5%, the reduction of the total burden on a shareholder from 44.45% to 35%, and the exemption of cross-border services from withholding taxes, to name a few.
“The novelty effect of the agreement has already been felt. What comes next is a phase of consolidation, with family estates and companies beginning to incorporate the US as a stable and recurring component of their investment portfolios,” concluded the specialist.
