🇨🇱 Mercado Libre in Chile
The friendliest market for a test run: the trade agreement with China zeroes the duty, and purchases up to USD 500 carry only recoverable VAT.
Mercado Libre fees and charges
What the marketplace withholds on every sale. Check the exact rate for your category in your seller dashboard.
Shipping
The biggest cost after the fee — and the main reason cheap products go into the red.
Work out the exact cost for your product and price in the free calculator— it has the rates and thresholds of all six countries built in.
Taxes: two routes
The regime you pick determines both your tax burden and whether you can import goods at all.
The company pays no profit tax — profit passes straight to the owner and is taxed at their personal rate on a 0–40% scale. For a small seller that rate is usually low.
IVA 19% on the markup and IDPC at 12.5% — the reduced rate runs through 2027 inclusive.
Imports and customs
Two import channels with different economics. Picking the wrong channel costs more than picking the wrong product.
Purchases up to USD 500 through foreign marketplaces carry only 19% IVA, collected by the platform at checkout. Nothing extra is due at the border.
A 6% duty, or 0% with a certificate of origin: for China that is Form F, which covers almost the entire product range.
With a certificate of origin the entire customs payment is recoverable IVA. The difference between working legally and off the books is literally 19% here.
There is no USD 3,000 threshold for registering with the SII — that is a common myth. Registration is mandatory once you sell systematically.
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350 $ 50 USDT
What you need to start
The order of steps specific to Chile — it differs from the rest of the region.
- File the inicio de actividades with the SII — without it IVA is not creditable
- Ask your Chinese supplier for a Form F certificate — that is the difference between 6% and 0%
- Choose the Pro Pyme regime: the company's profit tax is zeroed
- Check the SEC or SUBTEL requirements for your category
- Bear in mind that banks report to the SII on accounts with a high number of incoming transfers
Useful reading
Breakdowns from our blog, with examples and numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Is it true that in Chile you do not need to register until USD 3,000 of turnover?
No, that is a myth — no such threshold exists in law. Registration with the SII is mandatory once you sell systematically. On top of that, banks report accounts with a high number of incoming transfers to the tax office, so off-the-books sellers are visible straight away.
How much tax is there on a parcel up to USD 500?
Only 19% IVA, and the marketplace collects it at checkout. Nothing extra is due at the border. The old USD 41 duty-free allowance has been abolished.
What is Form F and why do you need it?
A certificate of origin under the free trade agreement between Chile and China. With it the duty drops to zero on almost the entire product range instead of the standard 6%. You have to ask the supplier for it in advance — it cannot be issued retroactively.
Tools for Chile
Fees, shipping, instalments and taxes in Chile — it works out net profit and margin. Free.
A unit-economics workbook for the country, a six-country customs calculator, books on importing directly from China and a country playbook — 36 files.
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Receiving, storage and dispatch into Full. No contract, no minimum volume.
Let us look at your case
Tell us what your product is and where you plan to sell — we will run the economics and tell you whether Chile makes sense for you.