Tax declarations fall amid slowdown in economic activity

SANTIAGO.- According to the Internal Tax Service (Servicio de Impuestos Internos, SII), income taxes declared in April totalled an equivalent of US$ 8.895 billion dollars, compared to the US$ 9.286 billion dollars last year - representing a drop of 4.2%.

Among the primary tax categories included in those that registered decreases were Primary Category (-3.3%), Primary Category for large private mining companies (-17.1%), Specific Mining Activity (-19.9%), and Additional Taxes for State Companies (excluding Codelco) with -57.6%.

"This is directly related to the slowdown of economic activity during 2008, given that product grew by approximately 3.2% during the year and closed out the year with growth during the last quarter of only 0.2%", informed the SII.

Other categories displayed only very slight variation in comparison to last year: for example Complementary Global (0.1%) and Second Category (0.1%). Meanwhile, First Category tax payments in the "Other companies" sector (3.6%) and Additional Taxes (2.6%) rose.

"Apparently, Operación Renta 2009 mirrors the economic activity slowdown that became apparent during the final part of last year", stated the director of SII, Ricardo Escobar.