Hand down your estate early at half the tax
Once the law is published, a twelve-month window opens to make gifts to your children, spouse, civil partner and ascendants while paying 50% less tax.
How much do you save with the 50% gift tax reduction?
What exactly the 50% reduction is
It is not a benefit for donating to foundations, nor a credit against your income tax. It is a reduction of the tax you pay when you transfer assets to your family during your lifetime, instead of leaving them as an inheritance.
You pay half the tax
The rate scale in Article 2 of Law 16,271 does not change; what is cut in half is the resulting tax. The benefit can be used only once per donor.
The credit is calculated on the full tax
For your future inheritances and gifts, the tax you would have paid without the reduction is deemed paid. You pay half, but you carry forward a credit for the full amount.
No court approval (insinuación)
These gifts are exempt from the insinuación procedure (court approval) under Article 1401 of the Civil Code, which used to add months to the process.
The four requirements you must meet
Making a gift does not trigger the reduction automatically. Nor does it require splitting the gift in fixed percentages among your heirs: the law lets you freely decide how much each one receives. What it does control is who receives it, how much the total weighs against your net worth, and how it is proven.
Forced heirs and cuarta de mejoras only
It is available to those who would be entitled to a forced share (legítima) or to the cuarta de mejoras, in whatever proportion you decide. If you have none, you can make gifts to other people and keep the reduction, as long as this is stated in the sworn statement.
Up to 50% of your net worth
It is measured on the total of all gifts made under this article, and your net worth is your assets, valued under Articles 46 and 46 bis, minus your proven liabilities.
Sworn statement filed with the SII
It must establish who your forced heirs and cuarta de mejoras beneficiaries are, what share each one receives, what percentage of your net worth the gifts represent, and that you hold assets worth at least twice the amount given.
Public deed with the tax already paid
The notary cannot authorize the deed until the filed sworn statement and the tax payment are proven by an SII certificate, which is entered into the notarial record together with the gift.
Twelve months sounds like a lot until you start
The window runs for one year from the first day of the second month after publication in the Official Gazette. Within that period you must sign the deed and file the sworn statement; registrations and recordings can be done afterwards. What takes time is not the signing: it is everything that comes before it.
Value the assets
Real estate, shares and equity interests are valued under SII rules. It is the most underestimated stage, and the one that sets the tax.
Set up the structure
Decide what goes to each recipient to comply with the percentages, review liens and take into account earlier gifts, which are cumulative.
Sworn statement
Map out your entire net worth and back it up with documents. Any inconsistency here is what later turns into a tax audit.
Deed, payment and certificate
The sworn statement is filed, the tax is paid, and with the SII certificate the notary authorizes the deed. Registrations can be completed after the deadline.
What people ask us most about giving with the reduction
Not yet. Congress passed the law on August 4, 2026, but as of today it has not been enacted or published in the Official Gazette. The one-year period only starts running on the first day of the second month after that publication, and the SII has thirty days from then to issue its instructions. What does make sense now is the preparation, which is what takes weeks.
Only those who would be entitled to a forced share (legítima) or to the cuarta de mejoras qualify: children and other descendants, ascendants, spouse and civil partner. You freely decide the proportion among them; the law does not require minimum shares. Gifts to siblings, nieces and nephews or third parties do not qualify for the reduction and also carry a 20% or 40% surcharge on the scale, unless you have no forced heirs or cuarta de mejoras beneficiaries.
Not on what you already gave. And there is a detail worth highlighting: to determine the Article 23 credit and to calculate your future inheritances or gifts, the tax you would have paid without the reduction is deemed paid. You pay half, but you carry forward a credit for the full amount.
No. The accumulation rule in Article 23 of Law 16,271 does not apply to gifts already made as of the law's publication date. That is one of the reasons this window is not the same as simply bringing forward what you were going to do anyway.
You can give assets of any kind. Non-cash assets (real estate, shares, equity interests) are valued under Articles 46 and 46 bis of Law 16,271 and, in several cases, require later registrations. It is the part that takes the longest and where the outcome is most at stake: the tax comes from that valuation.
If the recipient disposes of the asset within three years of the deed, its tax cost will be the lower of the donor's cost and the cost the recipient would have had under the general rules. The SII can also audit the valuation and the filings for three years from payment of the tax.
Yes, under specific conditions. The recipient can finance it with loans executed by public deed, or promissory notes signed before a notary, granted by the companies whose interests or shares are being given or by related companies, without triggering the penalty tax under Article 21 of the Income Tax Law. But they must be at least UF-denominated and have a maximum term of ten years: if they do not meet those conditions, that tax applies again. And if the company borrows in order to lend, that interest is not a deductible expense.
There are three pending challenges before the Constitutional Court and vetoes announced by the Executive, although none of them directly targets the gift tax reduction. Until the law is published, any figure (including this simulator's) is an estimate based on the text passed by Congress.
The calculation is the easy part
The hard part is valuing the assets under Articles 46 and 46 bis, structuring who receives what, and making the sworn statement audit-proof (the SII can review it for three years). That is what we do, and it takes weeks: that is why it pays to start before the law is published.
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