Head of Internal Tax Service concerned about decreased tax collection

SANTIAGO.- The head of the Internal Tax Service (SII), Ricardo Escobar, has expressed concern for the decrease in collections this year in a country that has experienced significant growth.  Escobar especially referred to the case of large mining companies that have registered more earnings, but have declared fewer taxes. 

Escobar said that the SII will need to investigate the claims, because the difference might be a normal situation that, in the case of mining companies, “could be attributed to rises in costs”, however there may also be errors that will have to be verified.

“While it is true that it is normal to have differences between financial results and taxes, they are normally not a far cry away from each other, it is not common to have losses reported on tax documents and profits reported in financial statements”, Escobar told Radio Cooperativa.

“There are some people who evade taxes, but that is normally not the situation with large, stable companies because they usually have extensive audits and other control mechanisms to verify that their accounting practices and financial elements are in order”, stated Escobar.