Senate Passes Kast's Megarreforma in Particular, Corporate Tax Cut 27% to 23% Heads to Chamber

After an overnight session ending around 2:40am, the Chilean Senate completed the article-by-article ('en particular') vote on President Kast's Plan de Reconstrucción Nacional y Desarrollo Económico y Social, clearing every contested article by similarly narrow margins: the corporate tax cut (Article 8) 26-24, the tax reintegration mechanism 26-24, the property-tax mechanism (Article 10) 28-22, 25-year tax-invariability guarantees for investments over $50 million (Article 29) 26-23-1, the environmental-compensation mechanism 26-24, and a capital-repatriation 'right to financial oblivion' provision 25-23-1. The reform phases the corporate rate down from 27% to 25.5% in 2027, 24% in 2028, and 23% from 2029, and adds temporary VAT exemptions on new home purchases and property-tax relief for seniors over 65. Opposition senators — Yasna Provoste, Beatriz Sánchez, and Daniel Núñez among them — blasted the repatriation clause as an 'amnesty' for tax evaders and the investor benefits as 'obsceno,' citing estimates that each percentage point of corporate-tax reduction costs the treasury roughly $420 million and warning of Constitutional Court challenges; public polling showed 56% of Chileans opposed the bill. The IMF flagged fiscal-pressure risks even as it credited the reform with potential growth upside. The bill now returns to the Chamber of Deputies, where the government's allied coalition holds a working majority.