Individuals not required to file taxes

If you want to have knowledge about how to create a company in Colombia, you must know the date to declare the taxes generated by your economic activities. Here we give you all the Bogotá accounting advice you need on this subject.

The Directorate of National Taxes and Customs (Dian) issues its tax calendar every year to indicate the dates on which taxes must be declared. However, not everyone is required to comply with this requirement.

Here is a list of people who are not required and the conditions they must have to be exempt from payment, according to Decree 1778 of December 20, 2021:

Employees, individuals, successions

Employees who are not responsible for paying VAT (sales tax), whose gross income comes from an employment relationship under at least 80%, also fulfilling the following additional conditions:

• Gross assets that do not exceed 4,500 units of tax value (UVT).
• Gross income less than 1,400 UVT.
• Inputs with credit card less than 1,400 UVT.
• Total purchases and annual consumption less than 1,400 UVT.
• Cumulative total of bank appropriations, financial investments or deposits less than 1,400 UVT.

The conditions set forth above for the case of wage earners apply equally to individuals and to those successions, who maintain residence in the country. If you do not meet any of these conditions, you must not file your return.

Another important detail to take into account is that within this accumulated income, derived from the employment relationship, those from retirement, disability, old age or death should not be included.

Income derived from capital gains will also not be included, since this tax is determined independently.

Foreign persons or foreign companies

These are exempt from declaring taxes. Foreign individuals or legal entities that do not have residence or domicile in Colombian territory, as long as all of their income is subject to the provisions of Article 407 and 409 of the National Tax Statute in relation to tax withholding, shall not pay.

• Article 407 establishes the obligation to apply withholdings on dividends and shares.
• Article 409 establishes the obligation to apply a special withholding of 7% on the payment of foreign teachers who do not have residence in the country, and who have been hired for a period of less than 4 months, by a higher education institute approved by the ICFES.

Only if these withholdings have been made at the time of payment, people will be exempt.

Another condition to be declared exempt is that foreign natural or legal persons do not comply with the factual assumptions provided for in articles 20 – 1 and 20 – 2 of the National Tax Statute related to permanent establishments and branches within the country.

Individuals or companies belonging to the Simple Taxation Regime

Those persons who have formally registered for the Simple Tax Regime (RST) are exempt. This new regime makes it possible to reduce the formal burdens on taxpayers, facilitate compliance with labor obligations and encourage the formalization of small businesses.

To opt for this payment system, the following conditions apply:

• Individuals who develop companies, liberal professionals are included.
• Legal entities whose shareholders are natural persons residing in Colombia.
• Gross income not exceeding 100,000 UVT.
• Comply with national and local tax obligations.

If when evaluating your income and your situation, you do not meet any of these conditions, it is time to move on to the next step and check according to your NIT number, the day you have to declare. If you don’t know how, seek the advice of experts who will be willing to guide you.