Chile's Chamber of Deputies votes to bar tax agency from running VAT system for unlicensed betting sites

Chile's Chamber of Deputies has voted to stop the country's tax agency from using public money to collect VAT from online betting platforms that hold no authorisation to operate in Chile.

According to the Chamber's voting records, deputies approved the amendment to the 2027 budget bill (bulletin 18702-05) by 133 votes to 2, with one abstention, at 22:07 local time on November 10. Filed by Deputy Eduardo Cretton of the UDI, it attaches to the budget of the Internal Revenue Service (Servicio de Impuestos Internos, SII) and reads: "No SII resources may be allocated to the implementation or administration of tax declaration and payment mechanisms for online betting platforms or other activities that are not authorised to operate in Chile."

The amendment, number 19 in the Ministry of Finance section, had been declared inadmissible. At 22:06, a minute before the substantive vote, deputies upheld a challenge to that declaration by 87 votes to 30, with 18 abstentions.

The measure is aimed at SII Exempt Resolution No. 69, dated June 2, 2026. It set up a system for betting, gambling and casino providers with no domicile or residence in Chile to register, file the digital VAT form F129 and pay VAT on what they receive from Chilean customers, and requires registered platforms to pay VAT owed for the previous 36 tax periods. The resolution notes that these providers had been kept out of the simplified digital-VAT regime "given the illicit nature of their activity," citing 2022 letters from the Superintendency of Casinos. In its June 3 announcement, the SII said the resolution "refers exclusively to compliance with tax obligations" and that licensing and the lawfulness of the activity are for other bodies.

The vote came in the bill's first constitutional stage, so the Senate still has to take up the budget. Separately, the Senate is debating the online gambling bill, where its Economy Committee on November 9 backed amendments that would ban online betting. We earlier covered how the tax resolution complicated that bill.