In 2009, Law Nº20,322 was
enacted providing the basic grounds in which tax disputes would be
resolved through the new "Tax and Custom Duty Courts".
Previous to the law being enacted, tax disputes were solved by the
Director of the Chilean IRS, which was problematic from a due
process perspective because the same person that had applied the
fine or had ruled that a taxpayers' declaration was under legal
review was also acting as the judge over the proceedings! Only at a
second tier, the Appeal Courts could resolve them.
In addition, the Director of the
IRS delegated his faculties to Regional Directors that were usually
the ones tasked with solving the tax disputes between taxpayers and
the Chilean IRS. The problem with all this is that pursuant to the
law, the only person with powers to do so was the Director of the
Chilean IRS.
