Piñera Family Pays Record-setting Inheritance Tax as Deadline Approaches

Original article: Plata sobre la mesa: familia Piñera paga uno de los impuestos a la herencia más altos de la historia chilena

Almost two years after the passing of former President Sebastián Piñera Echenique on February 6, 2024, his family has paid a substantial sum in taxes to claim the inheritance.

With the legal two-year deadline nearly expired, the heirs made a significant payment on Tuesday, February 3, 2026, marking the second highest amount ever recorded for inheritance tax in Chile.

According to information provided to La Tercera by sources directly involved in the transaction, the heirs submitted a payment to the General Treasury of the Republic equivalent to nearly 2.4 million Monthly Tax Units (UTM). As of February 2026, the value of the UTM stands at $69,611, bringing the total payment in Chilean pesos to approximately $167 billion, which is about US$190 million at the current exchange rate. This tax payment only ranks below the record set in 2009 by the heirs of businessman Anacleto Angelini Fabri, which reached 4,693,707 UTM.

The beneficiaries of the inheritance, and thus the tax contributors, include five forced heirs due to the absence of a will: his widow, Cecilia Morel Montes, and their four children—Magdalena, Cecilia, Sebastián, and Cristóbal Piñera Morel.

Under Chilean law, in such cases, the estate is divided into six equal parts, with the spouse receiving double that of each child. Consequently, Cecilia Morel receives two shares, while each child receives one.

In terms of the tax paid, sources from the process disclosed that Cecilia Morel made a payment exceeding US$60 million, while each of her children paid amounts surpassing US$30 million.

Inheritance Exceeds $640 Billion

The basis for calculating this tax was the total declared inherited wealth, which was approximately 9.2 million UTM, equivalent to about $640 billion (around US$740 million).

The law establishes a progressive tax rate, with a maximum rate of 25% applied to portions of inheritances exceeding 1,200 Annual Tax Units (UTA), roughly $1 billion. Given the scale of Piñera’s estate, almost the entire inheritance was subject to this maximum rate.

Although tax regulations allow heirs to split the payment over a period of up to three years, the Piñera Morel family opted for a full and immediate payment, aiming to expedite the legal and financial closure of this process, as indicated by sources close to the family.

Before the payment, the family’s legal team, led by Barros Errázuriz law firm, coordinated early information submission with the Internal Revenue Service (SII), a procedure permitted by law to facilitate compliance and prevent potential discrepancies.

This effort involved Fernando Barros Tocornal—the founding partner of the firm, a long-time advisor to Piñera, director of family companies, and future Defense Minister of José Antonio Kast—along with partners Tomás Kovacevic, a tax expert, and Bernardo Simián, a mergers and acquisitions specialist, as reported by La Tercera.

The payment of the tax is a key requirement for the Civil Registry to grant effective possession to the heirs, a processing step that the legal team started last year. Once granted, the family will be able to formally partition and manage the estate.

This inheritance tax payment is only surpassed by the 4,693,707 UTM paid in 2009 by the heirs of Anacleto Angelini Fabri, who passed away in 2007.

Piñera’s Multimillion-dollar Estate

Notably, as sources explain, this process did not require a large forced liquidation of assets for the family. The majority of the substantial wealth built by Sebastián Piñera as a businessman—estimated by family sources to be over US$3 billion—was already held in family investment companies in the names of his wife and children, such as Inversiones Odisea.

Thus, they had sufficient liquid resources to cover the magnitude of the tax.

At the time of his passing, the former president still held significant personal assets, primarily centered around his 66.85% stake in Bancard Inversiones Limitada, the company that honors the business foundation of his fortune. In his final wealth declaration as president in March 2022, Bancard reported assets valued at over US$600 million, with a declared value of $417.332 billion.

These assets included a diversified portfolio with shares in companies such as Quiñenco, Antar Chile, Ripley, and SQM, time deposits, bonds, and international investment funds, as well as properties like a site at Lake Caburgua and another in Bahía Coique, near Lake Ranco, the location of his tragic death.