Chile's tax authority (SII) clarified that employers must schedule payments to short-term performing arts workers by contract end date and apply proportional progressive tax rates under Articles 43 and 45 of the Income Tax Law, with workers retaining recomputation rights under Article 47 during annual filing.
Chile’s tax administration (SII) has issued Ruling No. 1723-2026 of 14 July 2026, in which it addresses and formalises the tax treatment for short-term performing arts workers.
The SII issued this directive in response to a specific consultation regarding how to calculate the second-category single tax (IUSC) for arts and entertainment workers hired for very specific, short durations (such as one, three, or seven days) under a contract lasting fewer than 30 days. The query specifically asked what to do when a net payment was scheduled 30 days after the contract began.
What the Labour Code requires
Article 145-G of the Labour Code sets strict boundaries for these arrangements. Payment must be scheduled by the contract’s end date, not pushed past it. This means if someone works a one-week contract, the employer can’t schedule payment for 30 days later. The termination date and payment date must align.
How the tax gets calculated
Because these contracts fall outside the standard monthly framework, the standard monthly tax scale doesn’t apply. Instead, employers use Article 45 of the Income Tax Law (LIR), which requires proportional application of the progressive tax rates from Article 43.
The practical result: employers withhold using either the daily or weekly withholding table. The choice depends on what the contract specifies. A continuous week of work, for example, would use the weekly table rather than seven separate daily calculations.
The worker’s safety valve
Article 47 of the LIR gives these workers a protective right. They can recompute their tax during annual filing, even if their total income doesn’t otherwise require them to file a global complementary tax return.
This matters because the compressed weekly or daily scale can produce a higher effective rate than their true annual income warrants. The recomputation ensures they don’t overpay based on how the work happens to be concentrated.
