Plan contractor hiring in Chile

Engage the Chilean taxpayer that will issue the document: a second-category natural person sends a Boleta de Honorarios Electrónica, while a first-category business follows the service-export invoice route when its service qualifies. For a BHE addressed to this foreign customer, the contractor handles the Chilean provisional monthly payment and the buyer pays without withholding it. Put the legal name, service result, gross fee, currency, billing event and due date in the agreement. Keep the operating model independent as well. A receipt cannot preserve contractor status when the individual works under continuing hours, supervision and instructions.

Sources: Servicio de Impuestos Internos, BHE for foreign customers, Servicio de Impuestos Internos, first and second tax categories, Dirección del Trabajo, subordination and dependency

If the line is crossed

A finding of employment replaces the honorarios model with Chilean employment duties for the period the facts support. The contract must be put in writing within the Labour Code deadline, and employment rights can include paid annual leave, holiday rest and service-based severance when their own conditions are met. The BHE history cannot settle those liabilities. For this foreign buyer, the immediate response is to stop extending the same controlled working model, determine the Chile-compliant employment arrangement and quantify the worker's entitlements and social-security position from the actual start date. Keep invoices, instructions, schedules and payment records available for that reconstruction.

Sources: Dirección del Trabajo, subordination and dependency, Dirección del Trabajo, rights under honorarios arrangements, Dirección del Trabajo, Código del Trabajo

Boleta de Honorarios Electrónica

Electronic professional-fee receipt

This is the SII-generated tax document a second-category contractor sends for paid or credited personal services. It identifies the emitter and customer, states the service and gross fee, records who handles the provisional tax amount and carries a unique sequential number. For a foreign customer, the document uses the SII foreign-recipient RUT and the customer's real foreign name. Reconcile its gross fee and service description to the agreement before payment. The document can be checked in the SII system, so retain its number and PDF with the approval record.

Issued by: Issued by the Chile-resident second-category contractor through the SII and delivered to the foreign customer.

Timing: Issued when the fee is paid, credited to the contractor or made available, whichever occurs first under the SII rule.

Sources: Servicio de Impuestos Internos, BHE for foreign customers, Servicio de Impuestos Internos, Resolution 83 on BHE

Certificado de Inicio de Actividades

Start-of-activities certificate

This certificate shows that the contractor completed the SII start-of-activities process online. Collect it with the personal RUT before accepting a first BHE, then use the SII public third-party check to confirm the taxpayer's current status. The public report is available to anyone who knows the RUT and can flag irregular tax behaviour. These records establish the contractor's tax identity and declared activity. They carry no conclusion on subordination, so keep the working-model assessment beside them instead of treating tax registration as a contractor-status certificate.

Issued by: Generated by the SII for the registered taxpayer and provided by the contractor to the foreign customer.

Timing: Collect before the first bill and rerun the public RUT status check after a change in taxpayer, activity or document type.

Sources: Servicio de Impuestos Internos, start-of-activities certificates, Servicio de Impuestos Internos, third-party tax-status check

Accept a BHE without Chilean VAT from a natural person correctly billing second-category personal services. The SII states that the 2023 service-VAT change did not alter that natural-person BHE position. A first-category business follows a separate service-export analysis. Its service must be supplied to a customer without Chilean residence, used exclusively abroad and verifiable in existence and value; a service missing from the Customs list needs a reasoned application. That supplier uses a Factura de Exportación Electrónica once authorized. Check the contracting taxpayer and activity first, because asking every Chilean contractor for the same document produces the wrong result on one of the two routes.

Sources: Servicio de Impuestos Internos, VAT on services, Servicio de Impuestos Internos, service-export portal

What an invoice has to show

• RUT 44.444.446-0 and the foreign customer's actual name on a BHE

  This SII identifier is the specific foreign-recipient entry for a customer without Chilean domicile or residence, whether the customer is a natural or legal person. The contractor also enters the foreign customer's real name. Check both before payment and reject a BHE that substitutes the contractor's name or an unrelated Chilean group company. The generic RUT cannot be used for a recipient that actually has Chilean domicile or residence, so a later local establishment or counterparty change requires a fresh document decision.

  Sources: Servicio de Impuestos Internos, BHE for foreign customers

• The BHE date, sequential number, service description and gross honorarium value

  These fields connect the SII document to the approved work and payment event. The BHE date follows the earliest of payment, credit or making the fee available, while the description states the nature of the service and its value. Match the description to a deliverable or service period rather than accepting a bare consulting label. Keep the unique number with the payment record and confirm the document shows emitter-paid provisional tax for this foreign recipient. The current 2026 percentage is 15.25%, even though the original 2004 resolution still displays its historic figure.

  Sources: Servicio de Impuestos Internos, Resolution 83 on BHE, Servicio de Impuestos Internos, 2026 BHE rate, Servicio de Impuestos Internos, BHE provisional monthly payment

Pay the gross BHE amount to a second-category contractor and leave the 2026 Chilean provisional monthly payment to the emitter. SII assigns that 15.25% PPM to the professional when the customer is foreign, and the contractor declares it through Formulario 29. Align the contract's billing event with the BHE timing rule: the tax date arises when the fee is paid, credited or made available, whichever comes first. State the commercial due date in the agreement because that tax trigger does not create a buyer payment term. Reconcile the gross amount, service period and document number before release.

Sources: Servicio de Impuestos Internos, BHE for foreign customers, Servicio de Impuestos Internos, BHE provisional monthly payment, Servicio de Impuestos Internos, Resolution 83 on BHE

The currency on the invoice

A first-category export invoice may use the agreed foreign currency or Chilean pesos. The SII permits either on the Factura de Exportación, so the payer can keep the contract, invoice and approval record in one chosen currency and state any conversion rule expressly. The BHE is a different tax document. Do not carry the export-invoice currency permission across to it by assumption. Where the contractor uses BHE for a foreign-currency price, agree before the first payment how the gross contractual fee will be represented for Chilean tax-document purposes and which party bears conversion differences.

Sources: Servicio de Impuestos Internos, service-export portal, Servicio de Impuestos Internos, BHE for foreign customers

Local currency rules

An ordinary service-export receipt does not need to be channelled through Chile's formal exchange market or reported to the Banco Central as a foreign-trade operation. The Central Bank states that foreign-trade operations have been outside those requirements since 1 January 2020. Keep the payment purpose tied to the service invoice so the receiving institution can identify it correctly. Credits, investments, deposits, derivatives and capital operations follow separate rules, and the resident remains responsible for correct reporting when a payment is really one of those transactions. A service fee should not be recoded to solve a bank-data request.

Sources: Banco Central de Chile, international exchange operations questions

Deducting 15.25% from a BHE addressed to the foreign customer

This reduces the contractor's receipt even though SII assigns the PPM to the emitter for a BHE issued to a foreign client. The contractor selects the emitter-paid option, receives the gross contractual amount and declares 15.25% through Formulario 29 for 2026. Confirm the BHE shows the foreign-recipient RUT and the correct tax-responsibility option before payment. If an accounts rule automatically nets every Chilean honorarium, turn it off for this recipient profile. A Chilean customer with a withholding duty is a separate case and should not be used as the template.

Sources: Servicio de Impuestos Internos, BHE for foreign customers, Servicio de Impuestos Internos, 2026 BHE rate

Running a fixed schedule and reporting line while calling the person an honorarios contractor

This creates the Chilean indicators that matter most: continuity, required hours, supervision, instructions, accountability and stable availability. Articles 7 and 8 look at personal paid work under dependency and subordination, then presume an employment contract when those facts exist. Reframe the work around results, contractor-controlled method and genuine independence before it starts. If the role needs a manager's continuing direction or a staff schedule, use a Chile-compliant employment arrangement. Changing the agreement title or collecting a BHE leaves the operating facts exactly where they were.

Sources: Dirección del Trabajo, subordination and dependency

Requesting the same Chilean document from every contractor structure

This mixes two tax categories and can produce a document from the wrong taxpayer. A second-category natural person issues BHE under their personal RUT. A first-category business uses the export-invoice route only after its registrations and the service-export conditions are satisfied. Ask which taxpayer signed, inspect its start-of-activities record and match the issued document to that answer. If the contractor changes from personal billing to a company, pause approval until the agreement, RUT, activity and document route all move together. A familiar brand name is insufficient for that reconciliation.

Sources: Servicio de Impuestos Internos, first and second tax categories, Servicio de Impuestos Internos, service-export portal