For Colombians

How tax residency works

Under article 10 of the Estatuto Tributario (the national tax code), you are a Colombian tax resident if you spend more than 183 calendar days in Colombia, continuously or not, within any period of 365 consecutive days, counting the days you arrive and leave. If that period straddles two calendar years, you are resident in the second one.

Colombian nationals face further tests that ignore the day count entirely. You remain resident for any year in which one of the conditions below applies, even if you live abroad full time.

There is one way out of these national tests. Under paragraph 2 of article 10, a national caught by one of them is not resident if half or more of their annual income has its source in the country where they are domiciled, or half or more of their assets are located there. Income from clients or investments in third countries is generally not sourced in your new country, so for people moving to a territorial or zero tax country with an international income, the cleaner route is not to trigger the tests in the first place.

Residents pay tax to the DIAN (Dirección de Impuestos y Aduanas Nacionales, the national tax and customs authority) on worldwide income at rates up to 39%, and must report their assets in Colombia and abroad. Non residents pay only on Colombian source income and report only Colombian assets.

• Your spouse or permanent partner, not legally separated, or your dependent minor children are Colombian tax residents.
• Half or more of your income comes from Colombian sources.
• Half or more of your assets are managed in Colombia.
• Half or more of your assets are held in Colombia.
• The DIAN asks you to prove your residence abroad and you cannot.
• You are tax resident in a jurisdiction on Colombia’s list of non cooperative, low or no tax jurisdictions.

Leaving properly

There is no exit form that ends Colombian residence. You stop being resident when the facts change, and the burden of proving it is on you. A national who claims to be resident abroad must prove it to the DIAN with a tax residence certificate, or an equivalent document, from the new country.

The list of non cooperative, low or no tax jurisdictions was updated by Decree 1496 of 2024 and applies from 2025. It has 25 entries, including Vanuatu, the Bahamas, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. Paraguay, Panama, the UAE, Uruguay and Georgia are not on it, and St Kitts and Nevis and Antigua and Barbuda were removed in that update.

1. 01

   Plan the 365 day window

   Because the count runs over any 365 day period, the year you leave can still be a resident year even if you spend fewer than 183 days in Colombia in that calendar year. Your accountant sets the departure date with this in mind.

2. 02

   Move your family with you

   If your spouse or permanent partner, or your dependent minor children, stay behind as Colombian residents, you remain resident whatever your day count.

3. 03

   Rebalance income and assets

   Arrange your affairs so that less than half of your income comes from Colombia and less than half of your assets are held or managed there. This is usually the step that needs the most planning.

4. 04

   Get your new residence and a certificate

   Obtain your residence permit and, once you qualify, a tax residence certificate from your new country, so you can answer the DIAN if it asks.

5. 05

   Update the RUT

   Update the RUT (Registro Único Tributario, the taxpayer register) through the DIAN’s online service for Colombians abroad, with your identity document and a passport showing your departure date.

6. 06

   Close out the resident years

   Your accountant files the returns for your resident years and confirms that Colombian payers withhold at non resident rates from then on.

Exit tax, property and investments

Colombia has no exit tax for individuals: becoming non resident does not trigger a deemed sale of your assets. What changes is how your Colombian income is taxed afterwards.

As a non resident, most Colombian source income, such as rent, is taxed at a flat 35% under article 247 of the Estatuto Tributario, and dividends from Colombian companies at 20%. Gains on assets held for two years or more, such as a property, are generally taxed as occasional gains (ganancias ocasionales) at 15%.

The wealth tax (impuesto al patrimonio) applies to individuals whose net worth on 1 January is 72,000 UVT or more (Unidad de Valor Tributario, an indexed tax unit set each year), at rates from 0.5% to 1.5%. Non residents pay it on their Colombian assets alone, so a large Colombian property portfolio can keep you within it after you leave.

The rules are in flux. A tax reform bill filed in July 2026 proposes lowering the wealth tax threshold to 40,000 UVT and raising the tax on dividends to 30%, including for non residents. The government that took office in August 2026 has rejected that bill and announced its own fiscal package. Neither is law, so our team checks the rules in force before you plan around them.

Pensions and social security

Colombia has two pension systems: Colpensiones, the public fund (régimen de prima media), and private pension funds with individual accounts (régimen de ahorro individual). Moving abroad does not let you cash out either. At pension age, currently 57 for women and 62 for men, you claim a pension if you have the required weeks of contributions; if you do not, Colpensiones pays a substitute lump sum (indemnización sustitutiva) and private funds return your balance (devolución de saldos).

The 2024 pension reform, Law 2381, replaces this with a system of pillars, in which contributions up to 2.3 monthly minimum wages go to Colpensiones and anything above to a private fund. In Sentencia C 264 of 2026, published in September 2026, the Constitutional Court upheld most of the law and sent some articles back to Congress. It is scheduled to take effect on 1 April 2027, but the government has asked for that date to change, so the timing is not settled. People with 750 weeks (women) or 900 weeks (men) keep the current rules.

Colombians abroad can keep contributing voluntarily. Colombia has bilateral social security agreements with Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Spain and Uruguay, and is part of the Ibero American Multilateral Convention, which also covers Paraguay, Peru, Brazil and Portugal. These agreements combine your weeks of contributions across countries; they do not move the money itself.

Health cover through an EPS (Entidad Promotora de Salud, the health insurer within the social security system) depends on contributions and care in Colombia, so arrange private international health insurance for your new home before you go.

Dual citizenship

Colombia allows dual nationality. Under article 96 of the Constitution, no Colombian by birth can be deprived of their nationality, and Colombian nationality is not lost by acquiring another one.

One practical rule: a Colombian who holds another nationality must enter, stay in and leave Colombia using a Colombian passport or identity document, under article 2.2.1.11.2.3 of Decree 1067 of 2015.

A second citizenship does not change your tax position. Tax residence follows the tests in article 10, not your passport.