The Internal Revenue Service (SII) selected 33 taxpayers for an in-depth review after detecting payments totaling US$ 3,270 million into their international accounts that do not appear in their annual income tax returns, according to CNN Chile. The agency disclosed the figure on Wednesday.
To put the amount in perspective, it averages more than US$ 99 million for each of those taxpayers. The source does not disclose their names or whether they are individuals or companies.
"What matters to us is that everyone complies and pays the taxes they owe, no more, no less," said SII Director Jorge Trujillo. He added that the service will use "all the information, technology and powers the law gives us."
How does the SII know what you have in a Swiss bank? Through the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), an agreement for the automatic exchange of information between countries. It works like an annual notification: every September, foreign banks report, through their governments, the balances Chileans held as of December of the previous year.
Using those data, the SII calculated that Chileans' financial accounts abroad totaled US$ 39,657 million as of December 2024, compared with US$ 28,818 million a year earlier. That is an increase of nearly 38%.
Payments received in those accounts, such as interest, dividends and redemptions, totaled US$ 14,307 million in 2024. That figure fell from US$ 16,862 million in 2023.
By cross-checking personal data, the SII identified 144,388 direct or indirect holders of these accounts, accounting for 95.35% of reported payments. Of all taxpayers reported, 93.53% are individuals and 6.47% are companies.
The information came from 90 countries. Switzerland leads with US$ 10,130 million, followed by Luxembourg with US$ 8,015 million and the Cayman Islands with US$ 4,458 million. Rounding out the top ten are New Zealand, Peru, the Bahamas, Ireland, Liechtenstein, the United Kingdom and Spain, with the ten together totaling US$ 32,903 million.
If you have money abroad, the SII has already issued a notice. During the latest income tax filing campaign, it sent preventive notifications to 8,700 taxpayers so they could consider including that information in their returns for the 2026 tax year.
Deputy Director of Tax Audits Carolina Saravia clarified that these alerts "do not in themselves constitute noncompliance," but must be reviewed alongside other sources. The report does not detail the penalties the 33 selected taxpayers could face.
The SII is also focusing on local banks. This year it launched seven audits of due diligence at financial institutions in Chile, meaning how they verify who their customers are, and added eight further proceedings. It coordinates that work with the Financial Analysis Unit (UAF) and the Financial Market Commission (CMF).
Since late 2025, the service has been working with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and Chile can exchange tax information with more than 140 jurisdictions. The plan includes auditing 70 financial institutions over the next three years.
