Colombia is home to a distinctive blend of ethnicities, cultures and geography, has the second-largest population in South America and is the continent’s fourth-largest country. After spending much of the second half of the 20th century embroiled in the world’s second-longest modern civil war, the 2016 peace accord brought a formal end to the conflict between FARC and the government. The end o
In conjunction with EY Colombia, this chapter explores the taxation system and Colombia’s efforts to build an investor-friendly environment. It also contains an interview with Jaime Vargas, Tax Managing Partner and International Tax Services Leader, EY Colombia.…
Interview: Jaime Vargas How can tax collection become more efficient? JAIME VARGAS: If we look at Colombia’s competitiveness ranking, fiscal regulations are its second biggest weakness, after the tax burden. While the system is inherently complex, it is unacceptable for it to be made more so by the lack of unification between national and regional policies, such as the one requiring entities to…
In Colombia a change of government often precipitates a tax reform. During his presidential campaign President Iván Duque acknowledged that the tax burden of corporate taxpayers was too heavy, and promised to reduce it as a means of fostering investment and productivity. To counter the reduction in corporate income tax collections, the government proposed to apply value-added tax (VAT) to…
This chapter provides an overview of Colombia’s tax regime, covering areas of particular interest to investors such as individual and corporate income tax, income tax exemptions, VAT and rates, investment incentives, and other investor considerations. This chapter contains a viewpoint from Jaime Vargas, Tax Managing Partner and International Tax Services Leader, EY Colombia.…
The new tax reform is aimed at generating structural changes to the Colombian tax regime, with the purpose of redistributing the tax burden between legal entities and individuals, supplying better audit tools to the tax office, and avoid, in as much as possible, the creation of new taxes and/or the increase in the rates of the currently existing ones. The new tax code also includes a new regime…
Viewpoint:Jaime Vargas For too many years tax reforms in Colombia have been aimed at solving fiscal collection shortages by creating new temporary taxes that, by way of being re-enacted time after time, became permanent, or by increasing the rates of existing taxes. This short-sighted approach has resulted in a disjointed tax system that imposed an excessive burden on companies, with direct…
With oil accounting for roughly half of Colombia’s total exports, Latin America’s fourth-largest economy is feeling the effects of lower international oil prices. The negative impact of lower prices was nonetheless offset by positive performances by the retail, agriculture and financial services sectors, ensuring continued growth in 2015. Higher growth is expected in 2016 and beyond, driven in
In English Las nuevas medidas fiscales deberían ayudar al gobierno de Colombia a superar el déficit presupuestario y alentar la inversión, aunque la inflación mayorista y por consumo podrían tener un repunte a corto plazo. Un nuevo régimen tributario Las enmiendas al código tributario se producen cuando el gobierno intenta ampliar sus ingresos base y compensar las bajas ganancias de los…
Colombia is harmonising its fiscal legislation with international tax law, in particular the guidelines developed and applied by members of the OECD. With the exception of regional integration agreements, there are no legislative, executive or judicial international bodies which regulate financial matters between countries. The methods used to determine the regulations to which international transactions…
