On November 5, the opposition and the Executive branch announced progress in talks to reach an agreement on the tax reform debate (Exp. 12043), following a meeting between the Interior and Finance Ministers, Gonzalo Blumel and Ignacio Briones, with opposition members from the Senate Finance Committee.

Although the final text of the agreement has yet to be formalized, Ignacio Briones confirmed the existence of a “draft agreement” with the opposition that includes modifications to the reforms being driven by Piñera. He added that the proposed regulations would be changed to ensure a more progressive style of taxation and greater incentives to promote investment in general.

Opposition Senator Ricardo Lagos Weber told the media that a tax agreement had been reached which would allow the state to raise US$1.5 billion more than the original reform bill. He also confirmed that a new property tax will be established and that a review will be carried out until April to determine how to tax the richest 1% of the population in other ways. 

However, the issue of tax refunds (which is one of the most complex in the negotiations) was left to one side, as according to former General Treasurer Hernan Frigolett, “in the case of SMEs the agreements are being accepted in terms of having a higher ceiling of around 75 UF, which are the inflation-indexed financial units used in Chile, to create a more simplified system, which will remain in the framework of attributed income.”.