The tax year is the year ending 31 December for all activities. All companies, other than companies in certain regulated industries, are free to choose a different year as their accounting year, but if they do so, they must draw up an additional set of financial statements to 31 December for tax purposes.

A company must file a tax return by 30 April of each year reporting its income earned in the previous year ending 31 December. No extensions of this deadline are permitted. A company normally assesses its own first category tax payable on this annual return, although the tax authorities may issue an assessment to collect unpaid or wrongly paid taxes for any year within three years from the end of the period in which taxes are due. This term is extended to six years if a return has not been filed or there has been malicious intent to defraud.

Starting from January in each year, a company must make monthly payments on the first category tax that will ultimately be due on that year's results. These payments are calculated as a percentage of monthly gross receipts, the percentage normally being determined by the relationship between gross receipts of the preceding tax year and the first category tax payable for that year. In a company's first year of operations, the percentage used is 1%. The monthly payments may be suspended if any year or quarter shows a loss.

The final balance of first category tax payable on each year's taxable income, after deducting the monthly payments, is due when the tax return for that year is filed. Any excess of monthly payments is refunded in the following month.

The information in this article was correct as of 9 July 1996.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

For further information contact Anthony Cook, Deloitte & Touche, Santiago, Chile on Tel: +56 2 638 4186, Fax: +56 2 639 1522.