✅ Verified as of 9 September 2026
Every figure on this page comes from a single verified source sheet, re-checked on the date above. This page is updated each January when the new UVT and SMMLV are published. If you are reading a copy of this without that banner, find the original before you rely on it.
Read this before you use any number below
The AG2025 return you file during 2026 uses UVT 2025 — not UVT 2026.
This error is everywhere in Colombian tax content right now, and mainstream Colombian media has been publishing it all year. Filing thresholds are measured in the UVT of the taxable year, not the year of filing.
| Return | Tax year | UVT that applies | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Filed during 2026 | AG2025 | UVT 2025 | $49,799 |
| Filed during 2027 | AG2026 | UVT 2026 | $52,374 |
Which UVT applies to which return. Getting this backwards inflates every threshold by about 5%.
So the income filing threshold for the return due right now is 1,400 × $49,799 = $69,718,600. Not the higher figure you have seen quoted. If a source quotes you a 2026-UVT threshold for a return due in 2026, that source has not understood the rule.
Throughout this page, each table says which year it applies to. Check the caption before you copy the number.
How to read a figure expressed in UVT
Almost nothing in Colombian tax law is written in pesos. It is written in UVT — a tax unit that DIAN re-values every December — so that thresholds index automatically to inflation without Congress having to legislate each year. A rule that says “1,400 UVT” means a different peso amount every year, by design.
To convert: multiply the UVT count by the UVT value for the relevant tax year, then round to the nearest peso. That is the whole method. The difficulty is never the arithmetic; it is picking the right year, which is why the table above sits at the top of this page rather than buried in a footnote.
The same logic applies to the SMMLV, the monthly minimum wage, which indexes most immigration and payroll thresholds. Because the SMMLV rose 23% in January 2026 while the UVT rose about 5%, figures indexed to the two moved very differently this year.
1. The two numbers everything else is built from
| Value | 2025 | 2026 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| UVT (Unidad de Valor Tributario) | $49,799 | $52,374 | DIAN Res. 000238 of 15 Dec 2025 |
| SMMLV (monthly minimum wage) | $1,423,500 | $1,750,905 | Decreto 1469 de 2025 |
| Auxilio de transporte (monthly) | — | $249,095 | Decreto 1470 de 2025 |
Reference values for 2025 and 2026. All amounts in Colombian pesos.
The 2026 minimum wage rose 23% — the largest single-year jump in decades. Every threshold expressed in SMMLV moved with it, which is why so much competitor content quoting 2025 pesos is now simply wrong: visa thresholds, payroll costs, exoneration limits, all of it.
2. Personal income tax — personas naturales
Colombian personal tax does not work by pooling all your income and applying one table. Income is sorted into cédulas — separate baskets, principally the cédula general (employment, professional fees, self-employment, rents), pensions, and dividends — and each basket has its own rules about what may be subtracted from it. Only after that sorting does the Article 241 rate table apply. If you are trying to reconcile a Colombian tax bill to a rate table and the numbers will not meet, the cedular structure is almost always the reason. Formulario 210 vs 110 walks through it.
Article 241 marginal rate table
| Taxable income from (UVT) | To (UVT) | Rate | From (COP, AG2025) | To (COP, AG2025) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1,090 | 0% | $0 | $54,280,910 |
| 1,090 | 1,700 | 19% | $54,280,910 | $84,658,300 |
| 1,700 | 4,100 | 28% | $84,658,300 | $204,175,900 |
| 4,100 | 8,670 | 33% | $204,175,900 | $431,757,330 |
| 8,670 | 18,970 | 35% | $431,757,330 | $944,687,030 |
| 18,970 | 31,000 | 37% | $944,687,030 | $1,543,769,000 |
| 31,000 | — | 39% | $1,543,769,000 | — |
Art. 241 ET progressive rates. Peso columns computed at UVT 2025 ($49,799) for the AG2025 return filed in 2026. For AG2026, apply UVT 2026 ($52,374) to the same UVT bands.
These are marginal rates applied to the taxable base after the cedular calculation, not flat rates on gross income.
The cédula general caps
| Cap | Limit | COP (AG2025) |
|---|---|---|
| Exempt income + deductions, cédula general | 40% of net income, capped at 1,340 UVT — whichever is lower | $66,730,660 |
| 25% renta exenta laboral | 790 UVT — sits inside the 1,340 UVT cap, not on top of it | $39,341,210 |
| Pension exemption | 1,000 UVT per month, tested monthly, outside the general cap | — |
Cédula general limitations, AG2025 (UVT 2025).
The 790-inside-1,340 point is the most misreported rule in Colombian personal tax. The two do not stack.
AG2025 filing thresholds
| Trigger | UVT | COP (UVT 2025) |
|---|---|---|
| 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, filed during 2026, at UVT 2025. Crossing any single line creates the obligation — these are alternatives, not a combined test.
Plus: anyone who is a responsable de IVA files automatically, regardless of amount.
Main personal deductions
| Deduction | Limit |
|---|---|
| Dependientes | Per Art. 387 rules |
| Medicina prepagada | Per statutory limit |
| Intereses de vivienda (mortgage interest, Art. 119) | 1,200 UVT/year — $59,758,800 at UVT 2025 |
| AFC and voluntary pension contributions | 3,800 UVT ceiling per the statutory text |
| Purchases supported by electronic invoice | 1% |
Personal deductions, AG2025. The 1,200 UVT mortgage-interest cap is routinely and wrongly conflated online with the 100 UVT ICETEX educational-loan cap — they are different deductions. One outlier source disagrees on the 3,800 UVT AFC/pension ceiling; the statutory text is what we have followed.
Ganancia ocasional
| Item | Rate / exemption |
|---|---|
| General occasional gains | 15% |
| Lotteries, raffles and games of chance | 20% |
| Casa de habitación exemption | 5,000 UVT |
| Inheritance exemptions | 13,000 / 6,500 / 3,250 UVT depending on the item |
Ganancia ocasional, 2026 rules.
Impuesto al patrimonio — individuals
Colombia taxes wealth annually, not just income, and this is the point at which non-residents stop being safely outside the system: non-residents are liable on directly held Colombian assets. A foreigner who owns nothing in Colombia but an apartment can fall inside this tax without ever having been tax resident, and the “directly held” wording is doing real work — how the asset is held changes the answer.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Threshold | 72,000 UVT = $3,770,928,000 (2026) |
| Rates | 0.5% / 1.0% / 1.5% |
| Top rate | Transitional through 2026, then reverting to 1.0% |
| Non-residents | Liable on directly held Colombian assets |
Individual wealth tax, 2026 (UVT 2026).
Two corrections. Decreto 240 de 2026’s 200,000 UVT emergency wealth tax applies only to personas jurídicas — it is not an individual tax, whatever you have read. And several tax blogs still publish a struck-down 40,000 UVT table as current. It is not current.
3. Corporate tax
Colombia’s headline corporate rate is high by regional standards and has not moved for 2026. What varies is the sector loading on top of it, and the tasa mínima de tributación underneath it — a 15% floor calculated against financial profit rather than taxable income, which catches companies whose incentives and timing differences would otherwise push their effective rate below that line.
For foreign owners, the corporate rate is only half the picture. The other half is what it costs to get profit out, which is the dividend table immediately below and the reason so many investment models come out wrong.
| Item | Rate |
|---|---|
| General corporate income tax | 35% (unchanged for 2026) |
| Financial institutions | +5 points → 40% (2023–2027, income ≥120,000 UVT) |
| Hydroelectric generation | +3 points → 38% (2023–2026) |
| Crude oil and coal | Extra points by price percentile |
| Tasa mínima de tributación (TTD) | 15% floor on financial profit |
| Zonas francas | 20% preferential rate |
Corporate income tax rates, 2026.
Zona franca users qualified before 13 December 2022 are grandfathered by Sentencia C-384/23 and keep the 20% rate with no internationalisation plan required.
Dividends
| Recipient | Rate |
|---|---|
| Corporate shareholder (Colombian) | 10% (creditable / transferable) |
| Non-residents | 20% (Art. 245, raised from 10% by Ley 2277) |
| Distributions of untaxed profits | 35% first, then 20% on the remainder — an effective 48% |
Dividend taxation, 2026 rules under Ley 2277 de 2022.
The 48% effect is the one that ruins forecasts. If profits were never taxed at the company level — because of exemptions, incentives or timing differences — the distribution is taxed at 35% before the 20% non-resident rate applies to what is left. Foreign shareholders modelling a 20% cost frequently discover a 48% one. We cover the mechanics in dividend withholding for foreign shareholders.
4. IVA and consumption
The rate is simple; the filing frequency is where businesses go wrong. Colombia has two IVA periods and only two: bimestral (every two months) for grandes contribuyentes, for taxpayers above the income threshold, and for those handling exempt goods under Articles 477 and 481, and cuatrimestral (every four months) for everyone else. If you have been told to file quarterly, you have been told something that does not exist in Colombian law.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| General IVA rate | 19% |
| Reduced rate | 5% |
| Bimestral filing required if | Grandes contribuyentes, or gross income ≥92,000 UVT ($4,581,508,000, measured with UVT 2025), or handling exempt goods under Arts. 477/481 |
| Cuatrimestral filing | Everyone below that |
| GMF (4×1000) | 0.4% on financial withdrawals |
| POS tiquete limit | 5 UVT = $261,870 (Res. 000165 de 2023 as amended by 000227 de 2025) |
IVA and transaction taxes, 2026. There is no quarterly IVA period in Colombia — only bimestral and cuatrimestral.
5. Retención en la fuente — main rates
Retención en la fuente is withholding at source, and in Colombia it reaches much further than payroll. Businesses withhold on purchases, on services, on professional fees and on rent, and the withholding agent — not the recipient — is the one DIAN holds responsible for getting it right. For most resident taxpayers it is an advance payment, not a final tax, which is why foreigners who have been withheld on all year and assume they are square with DIAN are frequently owed a refund they will never see unless they file.
The minimum bases below matter: a payment under the stated UVT floor is generally not subject to withholding at all for that category.
| Payment type | Rate | Minimum base |
|---|---|---|
| Compras (purchases) | 2.5% | 10 UVT |
| Servicios (services) | 4% | 2 UVT |
| Honorarios to a persona jurídica | 11% | — |
| Arrendamiento de muebles | 4% | — |
| Arrendamiento de inmuebles | 3.5% | 10 UVT |
| ReteIVA | 15% of the IVA (100% when paying a non-resident) | — |
| Withholding on payments abroad | 20% and 15% by payment type (services, technical services, consultancy, royalties, interest) | — |
Principal retención en la fuente rates, 2026. Live caveat: Decreto 572 de 2025 (retención/autorretención) was suspended on 14 May 2026 and reinstated from 1 July 2026. The nullity action is still pending, so these rates can move again. Confirm before applying.
6. ICA — municipal industry and commerce tax
ICA is the tax foreign business owners consistently forget to budget. It is municipal, charged on gross revenue rather than profit, and the rate depends on both the municipality and your activity code. That means a company operating in three cities has three ICA positions, not one, and the ranges below are ranges precisely because there is no national rate to quote.
Charged on gross revenue, ICA is payable in loss-making years too. Build it into pricing rather than discovering it at year-end.
| Activity | Range |
|---|---|
| Industrial | 2–7 per mil |
| Commercial and services | 2–10 per mil |
| Bogotá | 4.14–13.8 per mil |
ICA rate ranges, 2026. ICA is municipal — the applicable rate depends on the municipality and the activity code. Bogotá allows an annual rather than bimonthly return where prior-year ICA was ≤391 UVT.
7. Régimen Simple de Tributación (RST)
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Income ceiling | 100,000 UVT = $5,237,400,000 |
| Opt-in deadline for 2026 | 27 February 2026 |
| Replaces | Renta + ICA consolidado + INC |
| Does not replace | IVA |
| Liberal professions cap | The old 12,000 UVT cap was struck down by Sentencia C-540 de 2023 |
Régimen Simple parameters, 2026 (UVT 2026).
We are not publishing an RST professional-services rate table, and you should be suspicious of anyone who does right now. Two incompatible rate sets for professional services are circulating in Colombian sources (5.9 / 7.3 / 12 / 14.5 versus 7.3 / 8.3), and we cannot verify which is correct as of today. Confirm your specific group’s rate with DIAN or your accountant before you budget against it.
Note also that the RST is not available to persons without Colombian residence — a point that matters constantly for foreign-owned businesses.
8. Payroll — employer cost
The honest way to budget a Colombian employee is not “salary plus a bit.” Between social security, parafiscales and prestaciones sociales, the loading on top of gross salary is substantial, and every element of it indexed upward when the minimum wage rose 23% in January 2026. If you costed a hire using 2025 figures, re-run it.
Prestaciones sociales are not optional benefits — prima, cesantías, interest on cesantías and vacation accrual are statutory entitlements that accrue whether or not you have provisioned for them.
| Contribution | Total | Employer | Employee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salud | 12.5% | 8.5% | 4% |
| Pensión | 16% | 12% | 4% |
| ARL | 0.522–6.960% | All | — |
| SENA | 2% | All | — |
| ICBF | 3% | All | — |
| CCF (caja de compensación) | 4% | All | — |
Social security and parafiscal contributions, 2026.
Article 114-1 exoneration: for workers earning under 10 SMMLV ($17,509,050/month at 2026 values), the employer is exonerated from the 8.5% health contribution, SENA and ICBF. CCF is never exonerated.
| Prestación social | Rate |
|---|---|
| Prima de servicios | 8.33% |
| Cesantías | 8.33% |
| Intereses sobre cesantías | 12% of cesantías |
| Vacaciones | 4.17% |
Prestaciones sociales, 2026.
Nómina electrónica must be transmitted within the first 10 days of the following month.
9. Transfer pricing
| Obligation | Threshold |
|---|---|
| Form 120 (informative return) | Patrimonio bruto >100,000 UVT or income >61,000 UVT |
| Local file | Operations >45,000 UVT per type |
| Country-by-country report | 81,000,000 UVT |
Transfer pricing thresholds, 2026.
10. Filing calendars
Colombian filing deadlines are staggered by the last digits of your NIT, not shared. There is no single national deadline for personas naturales; there is a window, and your date sits somewhere inside it. Find your own digits rather than working to the closing date, because the closing date belongs to somebody else.
Personas naturales — AG2025
| Item | Dates |
|---|---|
| Standard window | 12 August – 26 October 2026, by last two digits of the NIT (Decreto 2229 de 2023) |
| Earthquake extension (Decreto 1171) | 27 October – 13 November 2026 for taxpayers domiciled in Cali, Palmira, Tuluá, Buenaventura, Pereira, Armenia, Manizales, Quibdó and Popayán |
AG2025 personal filing calendar. The extension follows the 10 August 2026 earthquake and is domicile-based — confirm whether it applies to you.
Personas jurídicas — AG2025
| Taxpayer | Dates |
|---|---|
| Grandes contribuyentes — first instalment (20%) | 10–23 February 2026 |
| Grandes contribuyentes — filing + second instalment | 13–24 April 2026 |
| Grandes contribuyentes — third instalment | 10–24 June 2026 |
| Other personas jurídicas — filing + 50% | 12–26 May 2026 |
| Other personas jurídicas — second payment | 9–23 July 2026 |
AG2025 corporate calendar, Decreto 2229 de 2023.
11. Visa thresholds in 2026 pesos
| Visa | Threshold | 2026 COP | Duration | Counts toward R? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| V — Nómada Digital | 3 SMMLV/month | $5,252,715/month | 2 years | No |
| M — Socio / propietario | 100 SMMLV | $175,090,500 | 3 years | Yes |
| M — Inversionista (property) | 350 SMMLV | $612,816,750 | 3 years | Yes |
| M — Inversionista (FDI) | 650 SMMLV | $1,138,088,250 | 3 years | Yes |
| R — Residente | No investment route | — | Renew every 5 years | — |
Immigration thresholds at SMMLV 2026 ($1,750,905). These rose 23% in January 2026 — most published figures are still in 2025 pesos.
Correction: the 650 SMMLV figure is the FDI route into the M visa, not an R-visa threshold. Resolución 5477 de 2022 eliminated the old direct-investment R visa. The official R routes are renounced nationality, five years of accumulated M time, ETPV, and the Visa de Paz.
Time-sensitive: Resolución 9316 de 2024 extended the pre-2022 R-visa traspaso deadline to 31 October 2026.
And the point that matters most for tax: none of this decides your tax residency. Article 10 of the Estatuto Tributario is presence-based — more than 183 days in any rolling 365-day window — and visa type is irrelevant to it. See the 183-day rule.
12. What actually happened between December 2025 and September 2026
This is the part you need if you are trying to work out whether something you read six months ago is still true. Most of it is not.
The last nine months have been the most legislatively unstable period in recent Colombian tax history: a reform rejected, two economic emergencies declared, decrees struck down with refunds ordered, one emergency tax surviving in narrowed form, and a bill now sitting in Congress that would change dividend and financial-sector taxation again. Content published at almost any point in that window is describing a snapshot that has since moved. Here is the sequence, in order.
- 9 December 2025 — the Senate rejected the government’s tax reform, 9–4 in Comisión Cuarta. Nothing from that bill is law. If you read an article in late 2025 describing “the new rates,” it was describing a bill that died.
- The government responded by declaring an economic emergency and issuing Decreto 1474.
- April 2026 — the Constitutional Court struck down the emergency (C-075) and the decree (C-079), and ordered that taxes collected under it be refunded. Decreto 1390/2025 was declared inexequible; Decretos 1474/2025 and 044/2026 were suspended.
- A second emergency produced Decreto 240 de 2026 — a corporate wealth tax at 200,000 UVT, rates 0.50% / 1.6%, declared on Formulario 425. C-191 de 2026 narrowed it, and Auto A-533 de 2026 suspended the second instalment for ESAL and entities in liquidation. This one is being collected. It applies only to personas jurídicas.
- 20 July 2026 — Proyecto de Ley 004 de 2026 was filed, proposing a permanent 50% financial-sector rate and 30% dividend withholding for non-residents. It is still in Congress. It is not law. Do not plan around it, and do not trust content that describes it as enacted.
- Decreto 572 de 2025 (retención / autorretención) was suspended on 14 May 2026 and reinstated from 1 July 2026. The nullity action is still pending, so withholding rates can move again.
Bottom line: Ley 2277 de 2022 remains the law actually in force. Every rate on this page reflects that, as verified on 9 September 2026.
Where we have deliberately left gaps
A reference page is only useful if you can trust the parts it does print, which means being explicit about the parts it does not. Three things are missing from this page on purpose:
- RST professional-services rates, because two incompatible sets circulate in credible Colombian sources and we cannot currently establish which governs.
- A definitive double-taxation treaty list. Colombia has roughly 15–18 CDIs, but the status of several — Brazil, the Netherlands, Uruguay, Luxembourg and the UAE — is reported differently by international and Colombian sources. We name the long-established partners and tell readers to confirm the rest. What we can state without qualification: there is no US–Colombia income tax treaty and no totalization agreement, only a Tax Information Exchange Agreement and a FATCA IGA. See US expat taxes in Colombia.
- Real-estate registration percentages. The widely quoted “1.67%” is really two separate charges — a national component and a departmental one that varies by department — so it cannot honestly be published as a single national figure.
If a competing page prints confident numbers for all three, that is a signal about the page, not about the law.
Common mistakes this page exists to prevent
- Using UVT 2026 for the AG2025 return. The return filed during 2026 uses UVT 2025 ($49,799). Mainstream Colombian outlets have published this wrong all year.
- Stacking the 790 UVT renta exenta on top of the 1,340 UVT cap. It sits inside it.
- Treating the 40% cédula general limit as a floor rather than a ceiling. It is 40% or 1,340 UVT, whichever is lower.
- Describing Decreto 240’s 200,000 UVT wealth tax as an individual tax. It is corporate only.
- Quoting the struck-down 40,000 UVT wealth tax table. It was struck down. It is not current.
- Describing PL 004 de 2026 as law. It is a pending bill.
- Assuming 20% on dividends to non-residents. If the underlying profits were untaxed, the effective cost is 48%.
- Quoting an RST professional-services rate. Two incompatible sets are circulating. Confirm yours.
- Assuming a quarterly IVA period exists. It does not — bimestral or cuatrimestral only.
- Using 2025 pesos for visa thresholds. The minimum wage rose 23% in January 2026.
- Assuming a visa determines tax residency. It does not. Only the day count and the Article 10 triggers do.
- Assuming the AG2025 deadline is the standard one. Decreto 1171 moved it for nine named municipalities.
- Converting foreign assets at the wrong date. Assets go at the 31 December TRM of the tax year — see which TRM to use.
Using this page
Bookmark it. Cite it. It is updated every January when DIAN publishes the new UVT and the government sets the new minimum wage — those two numbers move nearly everything else on the page, and the January 2026 update moved a great deal more than usual.
If you need to work out which of these figures apply to you rather than just what they are, start with who has to file a Colombian tax return, Formulario 210 vs 110, or — if you are investing rather than living here — our guide to investing in Colombia from abroad.
And if you would rather have someone confirm your position than triangulate it from a table, that is what we do. A short conversation now is considerably cheaper than a correction later.
General information, not tax or legal advice. All figures verified as of 9 September 2026 and reflecting AG2025 (filed 2026) and 2026 rules. Colombian tax law changed materially between December 2025 and September 2026: a tax reform was rejected, emergency decrees were struck down with refunds ordered, one corporate emergency wealth tax survives in narrowed form, and further legislation is pending but not enacted. Items marked contested on this page — RST professional-services rates in particular — are contested because credible Colombian sources disagree, not because we have not looked. Confirm current figures with a qualified professional before acting on any of them.