Service agreement in Chile: Template, Key Clauses and Local Law (2026)

What a service agreement is in Chile A service agreement in Chile (contrato de prestacion de servicios, often on an honorarios basis) engages an independent provider to deliver a service for a fee, outside an employment relationship. It rests on the civil law of contract (the Codigo Civil) rather than the Codigo del Trabajo, and the dividing line is subordination. Under Article 7 of the Codigo del Trabajo an employment relationship requires services under subordination and dependence; under Article 8, services provided without schedule, oversight, or employer control do not create an employment contract. A genuine service agreement sits on the civil side of that line, and the whole drafting job is to keep it there. ## How honorarios work in practice An independent provider in Chile generally issues an electronic fee receipt, the boleta de honorarios electronica, through the tax authority (the Servicio de Impuestos Internos, SII), for each payment. For payments to an individual provider, the payer typically withholds a percentage of the fee and remits it to the SII. That retention rate has been rising each year under Law 21.133 on the schedule toward 17 percent by 2028, so the exact rate depends on the year; confirm the current rate with the SII rather than relying on a figure from a template. Companies and other entities issue a factura instead of a boleta. Record in the contract who bears the retention and how invoicing works. ## The reclassification risk This is the central risk. If a service agreement on honorarios actually involves fixed hours, supervision, exclusivity, and integration into the company, a labour court can find that subordination and dependence existed and reclassify it as employment, with back pay of employer contributions, severance, and other entitlements. The label honorarios does not protect an arrangement that functions as a job. Keep the relationship genuinely independent: the provider sets their own method and hours, serves other clients where possible, carries their own tools and costs, and is paid against deliverables. ## The clauses that matter Scope and deliverables. Describe the service and deliverables precisely, with milestones and acceptance criteria, so the engagement is result-based. Fees, retention, and invoicing. State the fee, the SII retention treatment, invoicing through boleta or factura, and payment terms. Independence. State plainly that the provider is independent, not subject to subordination or dependence under Article 7, and responsible for their own tax and contributions. Intellectual property. State who owns the deliverables and assign rights where the client needs ownership. Confidentiality. Protect information shared during the engagement, during and after the term; two years after the end is a common period in Chilean templates. Term and termination. Set the term, or tie it to completion of the work, and provide for termination on written notice, with the treatment of work in progress and final payment. Governing law and forum. For a Chile-connected engagement, Chilean law and a Chilean court or arbitration keep enforcement practical. ## Sample wording > The Provider renders the Services as an independent contractor under the Codigo Civil and is not subject to the subordination or dependence described in Article 7 of the Codigo del Trabajo. The Provider sets the manner and means of performing the Services, subject to the deliverables in the Annex, and is responsible for its own taxes and contributions. > The Provider shall issue the corresponding boleta de honorarios or factura for each payment. The Client shall pay the agreed fee, applying any retention required by the SII, within [number] days of a valid receipt. Adapt these to your engagement and confirm current rates; they are a starting point, not legal advice. ## Red flags to avoid Watch for an honorarios arrangement with fixed office hours, supervision, and exclusivity, which points to subordination and invites reclassification. Watch for paying a fixed monthly amount unrelated to deliverables with no boletas, which undercuts independence. Watch for applying a withholding rate from an old template instead of the current SII rate. And watch for silence on intellectual property, which can leave the client without ownership of deliverables. ## Acceptance, change control, and the honorarios pension rule Two clauses keep the engagement on track. An acceptance clause defines how each deliverable is tested and signed off against agreed criteria, with a window for the client to accept or reject, so completion is objective. A change-control clause requires any change to scope, fee, or timeline to be agreed in writing first, which stops the work expanding without extra pay. There is also a Chilean specific worth knowing: independent workers on honorarios are, under recent law, generally required to make pension and social-security contributions through the annual tax return (the operacion renta), funded in part by the retention the payer withholds. This does not turn the provider into an employee, but it does mean the retention has a purpose beyond income tax, and a provider who understands that is less likely to dispute it. ## Keeping service contracts consistent A company typically runs many honorarios and service contracts at once, with different providers, scopes, retention treatments, and end dates. The practical difficulty is keeping the set consistent and defensible on the subordination question, and knowing which contract ends when and which terms were agreed, so classification risk stays under control across the portfolio. That is the idea behind a single contract workspace. Adira brings drafting, a per-clause risk view, version history, and key-date tracking into one place, tuned to how your company contracts, so service agreements are drafted, reviewed, and tracked together rather than scattered across tools. Adira is India-first today, with other jurisdictions on its roadmap, so Chile-specific depth should be treated as developing, and local tax and reclassification points confirmed with Chilean advisers. This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. For a specific service agreement in Chile, confirm the current Codigo del Trabajo position and SII rules with qualified Chilean advisers.