You have logged into the DIAN portal, you have found the income tax section, and now there are two form numbers in front of you. Nobody has explained which one is yours, and the guidance you can find is either in dense Spanish or written for Colombians who never had to ask.
The short answer is simpler than the internet makes it look.
Formulario 210 is the income tax return for personas naturales — individuals. In practice, if you are a human being who is a Colombian tax resident, this is your form.
Formulario 110 is the income tax return for personas jurídicas — companies and other legal entities — and it is also the form used for certain non-resident filings.
That is the shape of it. The complications sit in the edges, and the edges are where foreigners actually live. Here is the whole picture.
Who files Formulario 210?
Formulario 210 is the Declaración de Renta y Complementarios Personas Naturales y Asimiladas de Residentes. It is the return for individuals who are Colombian tax residents.
You are in this category if:
- You are a natural person (not a company), and
- You are a Colombian tax resident under Article 10 of the Estatuto Tributario, and
- You have crossed at least one of the filing thresholds for the year.
Residency is the hinge, and it has nothing to do with your visa. Article 10 is presence-based: more than 183 days — so 184 — in Colombia during any rolling 365-day period, with entry and exit days counted and non-consecutive days aggregated. Where the window straddles two calendar years, residency lands in the second year. Other triggers exist (family or centre of economic interests in Colombia, rules for Colombian nationals abroad, tax-haven rules), but the day count is what catches most foreigners. We cover the mechanics properly in our guide to the 183-day rule.
For AG2025 — the return being filed during 2026 — the thresholds are measured in UVT 2025 ($49,799), not UVT 2026:
| Trigger (AG2025) | UVT | COP |
|---|---|---|
| Gross income | 1,400 | $69,718,600 |
| Patrimonio bruto (gross assets at 31 Dec) | 4,500 | $224,095,500 |
| Credit card consumption | 1,400 | $69,718,600 |
| Total purchases | 1,400 | $69,718,600 |
| Bank deposits / investments | 1,400 | $69,718,600 |
AG2025 filing thresholds for personas naturales, measured in UVT 2025. Source: canonical figures verified 9 September 2026.
Anyone who is a responsable de IVA files regardless of amount. Crossing any single line in that table creates the obligation — they are alternatives, not a combined test. Our article on who has to file a Colombian tax return works through each one.
A Colombian tax resident reports worldwide income and worldwide patrimony on the 210, not just what happens inside Colombia.
Who files Formulario 110?
Formulario 110 is the return used by personas jurídicas — the SAS, the SA, the Ltda, branches of foreign companies, and other legal entities — and by certain non-resident filers.
Two distinct groups end up here, and it helps to keep them separate in your head:
1. Colombian companies and entities. Any locally incorporated company filing its annual income tax return. This is the ordinary corporate case: 35% general corporate rate, with surcharges for specific sectors and the 15% tasa mínima de tributación operating as a floor on financial profit. Régimen Simple filers are the exception — the RST is a substitute regime with its own annual consolidated return, not a version of the 110.
2. Non-residents. A non-resident individual or foreign entity with Colombian-source income that has not been fully settled by withholding at source may have a filing obligation, and the return used is Formulario 110 rather than the 210. Non-residents are taxed only on Colombian-source income and Colombian-located assets — worldwide reporting does not apply.
That second bullet is the one that surprises people. A foreigner who owns an apartment in Medellín, rents it out, and spends only a few weeks a year in Colombia is not filing the 210, because they are not resident. If they have a filing obligation at all, it runs down the non-resident route. Rental income for non-resident owners has its own set of complications — withholding, deductibility, whether the property is held personally or through an entity — and we cover it separately in rental income for non-resident owners.
Where you should confirm rather than assume: the exact form for a specific non-resident situation depends on how the income arises, whether withholding has already discharged the liability, and whether a permanent establishment exists. If your case is anything other than straightforward, verify the form with a professional before you file. Filing the wrong form is not a fatal error, but it is a correction, a delay, and occasionally a penalty.
What does the cedular structure on the 210 look like?
This is where the 210 stops resembling any tax return you have filed elsewhere.
Colombia does not pool all your income into one number and apply one rate table. It sorts income into cédulas — separate baskets — and each basket has its own rules about what can be deducted from it. You cannot take a deduction that belongs to one basket and apply it against income in another.
The baskets, in broad terms:
- Cédula general — employment income, honorarios and professional fees, self-employment income, rental income, and most other ordinary income. This is where the majority of a working foreigner’s income lands, and it is the basket with the most moving parts.
- Cédula de pensiones — pension income, with its own exemption tested monthly rather than annually.
- Cédula de dividendos y participaciones — dividends, taxed under their own rate rules rather than the ordinary progressive table.
Alongside the cédulas sits ganancia ocasional — occasional gains, such as the sale of an asset held more than two years, inheritances and lottery winnings. It is not a cédula and it is not taxed at the progressive rates; it carries its own flat treatment.
Two caps govern the cédula general, and they are the source of more filing errors than anything else on the form:
- The 40% / 1,340 UVT cap. Exempt income plus deductions in the cédula general are limited to 40% of net income, capped at 1,340 UVT — $66,730,660 for AG2025 — whichever is lower.
- The 25% renta exenta laboral is capped at 790 UVT ($39,341,210 for AG2025) and sits inside the 1,340 UVT cap, not on top of it. This is the mistake. People add the two, or treat the 25% as a free-standing exemption. It is neither.
The pension exemption — 1,000 UVT per month, tested monthly — sits outside the general cap.
After the cédulas are computed, the progressive rate table in Article 241 applies to the taxable base. You will find the full seven-band table, in UVT and in AG2025 pesos, on our 2026 rates and thresholds page.
What supporting information sits behind the return?
Neither form is filed in isolation. Expect to assemble:
- Certificados de ingresos y retenciones from every Colombian payer — the annual statement of what you were paid and what was withheld. If a payer withheld from you, DIAN already knows.
- Bank certificates showing balances at 31 December and, where relevant, GMF paid.
- Evidence for every deduction you claim: dependientes, medicina prepagada, mortgage interest (capped at 1,200 UVT per year under Article 119 — note this is routinely and wrongly conflated online with the 100 UVT ICETEX educational-loan cap, which is a different deduction entirely), AFC and voluntary pension contributions, and the 1% purchase deduction, which only counts where it is supported by a valid electronic invoice.
- Documentation of foreign income and foreign assets, converted into pesos on the correct dates. Assets and income do not use the same conversion convention — see which TRM to use.
- The separate foreign-assets return, if you cross that threshold. It is a different filing from the 210, and the two need to agree.
- Prior-year returns, because your closing patrimony last year is your opening patrimony this year, and unexplained jumps between the two invite questions.
For the 110, add the company’s financial statements, the reconciliation between accounting profit and taxable income, and — where the thresholds are met — transfer pricing documentation.
What do foreigners get wrong most often?
Assuming the visa decides the form. It does not. A digital nomad visa holder past the day count is a resident filing a 210. A resident visa holder who spent the year outside Colombia may not be resident at all. Count days, then choose the form.
Filing a 210 as a non-resident. If you have not crossed the residency threshold, the 210 is not your form, and filing it can imply a worldwide reporting position you did not intend to take.
Using UVT 2026 for the AG2025 return. The return you are filing during 2026 is measured in UVT 2025. Several mainstream Colombian outlets have published the AG2026 threshold as though it applied to the return due now. It does not.
Stacking the 790 UVT exemption on top of the 1,340 UVT cap. It sits inside it.
Treating withholding as the end of the matter. Retención en la fuente is a payment on account, not a final tax, for most resident situations. Having had tax withheld does not mean you have no return to file — and it very often means you are owed a refund you will never receive unless you file.
Reporting foreign assets on the renta return but not on the separate foreign-assets return, or vice versa. The mismatch is exactly what DIAN’s cross-checking is designed to find.
Missing the calendar. For AG2025, personas naturales file between 12 August and 26 October 2026, staggered by the last two digits of the NIT. Decreto 1171 moved that window to 27 October – 13 November 2026 for taxpayers domiciled in Cali, Palmira, Tuluá, Buenaventura, Pereira, Armenia, Manizales, Quibdó and Popayán after the 10 August 2026 earthquake. Corporate dates run on a different calendar entirely — grandes contribuyentes pay in three instalments across February, April and June, and other personas jurídicas file in May with a second payment in July.
Frequently asked questions
I’m a foreigner with a Colombian company. Do I file a 210 or a 110? Both, potentially, but for different taxpayers. Your company files its own return as a persona jurídica. You file your own return as an individual if you are resident and cross a threshold. They are two separate taxpayers with two separate NITs, and dividends paid from one to the other have their own tax treatment.
Can I file the 210 in English? No. DIAN operates in Spanish, and the return, the portal and the supporting documentation are all in Spanish. This is one of the more common reasons foreigners use an accountant even when their affairs are simple.
I had tax withheld all year. Do I still need to file? Probably yes, if you crossed a threshold. Withholding is an advance payment, not a substitute for filing in most resident cases. Filing is also how you claim back over-withholding — and in our experience foreigners are over-withheld more often than under-withheld.
Does the Régimen Simple change which form I file? Yes. The RST is a substitute regime with its own annual consolidated return, replacing renta, consolidated ICA and INC — but not IVA. If you are in the RST you are not filing the ordinary return. Whether the RST is available to you at all is a separate question, and it is not available to persons without Colombian residence.
What if I filed the wrong form last year? Correct it. Colombia has a formal correction process, and correcting voluntarily is materially better than being corrected. Have someone scope how many years are open before you touch anything.
Picking your form in one pass
Individuals who are Colombian tax residents file Formulario 210, report worldwide income and patrimony, and work through the cedular structure with its 40% / 1,340 UVT cap. Companies and other legal entities file Formulario 110, as do non-residents in certain circumstances. Residency, not visa status, decides which side of the line you are on — and the AG2025 return filed during 2026 is measured in UVT 2025, not UVT 2026.
If your situation sits on any of the edges — a non-resident with Colombian property, a resident with foreign income, a first year of residency, or a company and an owner filing in parallel — the form choice is worth twenty minutes with someone who does this daily. We are happy to be that twenty minutes.
General information, not tax or legal advice. Figures verified as of 9 September 2026 for AG2025 / 2026 rules. Colombian tax law changed materially between December 2025 and September 2026 — a rejected reform, struck-down emergency decrees, and pending legislation that is not law. Where this article tells you to confirm the treatment of a specific situation, please do; form selection for non-resident and mixed cases genuinely varies.