Why digital businesses need a country-by-country file
A remote business may sell software, subscriptions, consulting, advertising, or platform services to customers in several Latin American countries without maintaining a traditional office. That does not eliminate local tax administration. The business must identify whether it is a non-domiciled supplier, an electronic-service provider, a withholding or perception agent, or an entity required to provide annual information.
Peru’s official 2026 schedule specifically includes non-domiciled providers of digital services to individuals without business activity when they have the status of IGV withholding or perception agents. The schedule gives a monthly maximum filing and payment date. For operations arising in October 2026, the listed maximum date is November 13, 2026, calculated under the applicable tenth-business-day rule.
Peru: separate the transaction month from the filing month
A digital provider should maintain a monthly Peru worksheet containing:
- The date and value of customer transactions.
- Whether the customer is an individual without business activity.
- The tax treatment applied to the service.
- Amounts collected, withheld, or perceived.
- The filing and payment status for that month.
The practical danger is assuming that the filing deadline falls at month-end. The official schedule uses a business-day calculation and excludes Saturdays, Sundays, and national holidays. Finance teams should therefore use the published date rather than calculating informally.
Chile: monitor information-return formats
Chile’s 2026 resolution index includes measures establishing or modifying annual information declarations, including a declaration concerning persons or entities that reported that their activity was not subject to the obligation to begin activities. It also identifies a resolution replacing the format, content, and instructions for an annual declaration concerning financial accounts associated with persons with tax residence abroad.
For a multinational or platform, this means that tax compliance is not limited to payment returns. Data architecture must also support information reporting. Customer residence, beneficial-owner information, account balances, and documentation explaining non-registration positions may become relevant depending on the entity’s circumstances.
Action plan for a remote business
- Create a country matrix for Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and Peru.
- Classify customers and services by residence, customer type, and service category.
- Separate payment obligations from information returns. They may have different owners and deadlines.
- Version-control forms and instructions. Do not reuse last year’s file without checking the current authority material.
- Retain evidence. Keep customer-residence records, invoices, payment reports, and tax calculations together.
- Use a calendar with business-day logic for Peru and similar systems.
Example
A U.S.-based software company with Peruvian individual subscribers and Chilean customers may have no physical office in either country but still need a structured compliance file. Its Peru file should track monthly IGV-related obligations and the November 13, 2026 date for October activity. Its Chile file should monitor whether the business or an intermediary falls within an annual information-reporting format. The best tax-planning result comes from reliable transaction data, not from waiting until a filing deadline approaches.