Visa holders · From Colombia
A spouse or dependent minor child who stays a Colombian tax resident can keep a national resident after moving to the US from Colombia. Taxes back home can then reach your US salary.
Family ties can stop counting once half your income or half your assets for the year are in the US. Until then, Colombia can also tax your US pay. Only Colombia’s own credit eases that double tax, because the US credits foreign tax only on foreign income.
Updated · Sources
What Colombia counts and charges in 2026
- Over 183 days
- in Colombia in any run of 365 days make you resident, arrival and departure days included.
- 35%
- is Colombia’s flat tax on a non-resident’s ordinary income from Colombia.
- 15%
- is Colombia’s tax on a gift or inheritance, and the person who receives it pays.
Part of each gift or inheritance is exempt, in amounts set in UVT, a tax unit DIAN updates each year.
Which ties keep Colombia taxing your worldwide income after you leave?
Any one test can make you a Colombian resident for the year. The last three apply only to Colombian nationals. A national can escape all three once half the year’s income comes from the new country, or half their assets sit there.
More than 183 days in Colombia
Colombia counts your days in any 365-day window, and that window can run across two tax years. Colombian law does not split a year at your departure, so the year you leave can still count as resident. Your accountant in Colombia can check if yours does.
A spouse or minor child still tax resident in Colombia
A national is resident for any year in which a spouse or permanent partner, not legally separated, is tax resident in Colombia. Dependent minor children who are tax resident there have the same effect. This test ignores how many days you spend in Colombia.
Half your income or assets in Colombia
A national is also resident when half or more of the year’s income comes from Colombian sources. The same applies when half or more of their assets are held or managed in Colombia, valued for tax on December 31.
No proof for DIAN that you live abroad
When DIAN asks, a national must prove residence abroad with a tax residence certificate, or an equivalent, from the new country. Form 6166, the IRS certificate of US residency, will not usually serve: the IRS issues it only for treaty benefits or a VAT exemption. Ask your accountant in Colombia what DIAN will take instead.
On COP 400 million from a parent, Colombia’s occasional gains tax can charge you COP 48 million.
Colombia taxes a gift as an occasional gain. Once you live abroad, the tax still reaches gifts of assets located in Colombia, under DIAN’s reading of its source rules.
The gift
COP 400M
About $106,000 at Treasury’s exchange rate for December 31, 2025.
Exempt in Colombia
COP 80M
Colombia exempts 20% of a gift, up to 1,625 UVT, or COP 85.1 million in 2026.
Colombian tax, paid by you
COP 48M
The other COP 320 million is taxed at 15%. Most parents are not withholding agents who must take the tax out for you, so you likely file a Colombian return to pay it.
US income tax
$0
A gift is not income in the US. Form 3520 still reports it, since it tops $100,000.
Peso figures use the 2026 UVT of COP 52,374. The gift’s dollar amount converts at Treasury’s rate of 3,773.62 pesos per dollar for December 31, 2025. At its September 30, 2026 rate of 3,325.0, the gift is about $120,300. DIAN has ruled on a gift of Colombian shares to a non-resident. The example assumes cash in a Colombian account is treated the same way. A gift paid from money your parent holds outside Colombia is not Colombian income, so Colombia does not tax it. Since the US does not tax the gift, the Colombian tax generally earns no US credit.
Colombia charges non-residents flat rates on Colombian income, and no US-Colombia tax treaty lowers them.
The rates below are for 2026. Once you are a US resident, the US taxes your Colombian income too. Its foreign tax credit on Form 1116 is the only relief, up to that form’s limit. Colombia lets only its residents credit foreign tax.
| Colombia | US | |
|---|---|---|
| Interest on a CDT or savings account | 20% withholding rate Applied by withholding agents; can be your final Colombian tax | Taxed each year A CDT is a bank deposit, so generally not a PFIC |
| Dividends from a Colombian company | 20% More if the company paid no tax on the profits | Taxed |
| Rent from an apartment in Colombia | 20% withholding rate If the tenant withholds; otherwise 35% of net income on a return | Taxed Generally depreciated over 30 years |
| Gain on property held 2 years or more | 15% 1% of the price is generally withheld at the notary | Taxed in dollars |
| Gain on shares listed in Colombia | Not taxed If you sell 3% or less of the company in a year | Taxed |
Which Colombian habits cost money once the US taxes you?
Withdrawing cesantías after your residency starts
Cesantías you take before your US residency starting date are generally outside US tax, unless a joint-return election makes you resident for the whole year. Once you are resident, Publication 519 says the US taxes foreign income you receive, even if you earned it earlier. No IRS ruling or publication says how that applies to cesantías. The fund must pay in full within 5 days of your request once your Colombian job ends.
Relying on Colombia’s pass-through rule for FICs
Colombia taxes a fondo de inversión colectiva (FIC) as if you held its assets. Under US rules, though, it is usually a PFIC (passive foreign investment company). Your FIC then generally needs its own Form 8621 every year. If you sell without having made a PFIC election, the whole gain is taxed as ordinary income. The part of the gain allocated to your earlier US-resident years is taxed at the top rate, plus interest.
Expecting the US to index your property’s cost
Colombia lets you raise a property’s cost by the rise in property values since the year you bought it. US tax law has no such adjustment and generally measures your gain in dollars from what you paid. So the US gain is usually larger than the Colombian one.
Assuming the IRS cannot see your Colombian accounts
Under a FATCA agreement in force since 2015, Colombian banks report US persons’ accounts to DIAN for the IRS. An FBAR is due for any year in which your foreign accounts, added together, top $10,000 at some point. At Treasury’s December 31, 2025 rate, that line was about COP 37.7 million.
Counting on Colombian weeks for US Social Security
Weeks paid into Colombia’s pension system add nothing toward US Social Security benefits, and US credits add nothing in Colombia. Because the US and Colombia have no Social Security (totalization) agreement, your US work cannot stay in Colombia’s system through a certificate of coverage. Ley 100 still lets Colombians living abroad pay into Colombia’s system voluntarily.
We match each Colombian account and fund to the US rules it follows.
Valim, a CPA firm, prepares and files the US side of a move from Colombia, including cesantías, FICs and Colombian property.
- We file every federal and state return you owe in the US, starting with the dual-status return your arrival year usually needs. Your Colombian returns, DIAN’s Forms 210 and 110, stay with your accountant in Colombia.
- We list your CDTs, savings and FIC accounts on the FBAR, and your cesantías fund too, as a precaution. When your foreign assets pass Form 8938’s thresholds, we prepare that form as well.
- For every FIC you hold, we prepare the annual Form 8621 whenever the PFIC rules require one. We prepare Form 5471 for a Colombian company where one is due. Our instant quote prices each account, fund and company you own over 20% of separately.
- We claim the foreign tax credit on Form 1116 for Colombia’s tax on your CDT interest, rent and dividends, up to the form’s limit. In a year Colombia still counts you as resident, we give your accountant there the US tax figures its own credit needs.
- We time your FIC redemptions and cesantías withdrawal against the date your US residency starts, and show what changes if either comes later. Rent and CDT interest from Colombia arrive with no US tax withheld, so we also set your quarterly estimated payments.
- We prepare the Form 3520 you file once gifts from a parent in Colombia, with that parent’s relatives, pass $100,000 in a year.
- We answer any IRS or state notice about a return we prepared at no added cost, even one about a FIC sale.
- Individual return
- from $195
- Business return
- from $495
We quote a flat fee before work starts. We do not bill hourly.
How do cesantías and Colombian residence play out after you move?
Is there double taxation between Colombia and the USA?
Yes, double taxation between Colombia and the US can happen, because no treaty divides taxing rights between them. In your year of arrival, Colombia may still count you as resident and tax your US salary. The US taxes that salary too, from your residency starting date. Colombian tax on US wages earns no US credit, so Colombia’s own credit is the only relief. Once Colombia stops counting you as resident, it taxes only your Colombian income, and that tax earns a US credit within its limit.
What is the 183-day rule in Colombia?
The 183-day rule makes you a Colombian tax resident once you spend more than 183 days in Colombia within any 365 consecutive days. Arrival and departure days both count. When the 365 days span two tax years, you are resident from the second one. Colombian nationals can be resident with fewer days, through family, income or assets in Colombia.
Does Colombia have a tax treaty with the US?
No: neither the IRS treaty list, last reviewed January 3, 2026, nor Treasury lists a US-Colombia tax treaty, in force or signed. The two countries do share a 2001 agreement to exchange tax information, in force since April 30, 2014, which lowers no tax. Without a treaty, Colombia’s full rates apply to your Colombian income. If both countries count you as resident, no tie-breaker rule decides which one wins. The US foreign tax credit covers Colombian tax on Colombian income, and Colombia credits US tax only while you are its resident.
What happens to my cesantías and Colombian pension when I move to the US?
Cesantías are released when your Colombian job ends, and Colombia already taxed or exempted deposits made since 2017 as they went in. Your pension stays in Colombia. An AFP pays out only as a pension. If you lack the weeks or savings for one, it refunds your balance at 62 for men and 57 for women. Ley 2381, set to start April 1, 2027, replaces that refund with a life annuity for most members with 300 to 999 contribution weeks. In the US, Colpensiones payments are generally taxed as annuities, and an AFP account is generally a foreign pension on Form 8938. The IRS has yet to say how it taxes the growth inside an AFP account.
Do I still file a Colombian return?
Yes, for the year you leave, if Colombia still counts you as resident and you cross a filing threshold. For tax year 2026, you file once gross income reaches COP 73,323,600 or gross assets pass COP 235,683,000, among other tests. That resident return, Form 210, reports income from everywhere, with a credit for US tax on your foreign income. The same applies, on Form 210, to any later year in which Colombia still counts you as resident. Otherwise, a non-resident files Form 110 for Colombian income only, and may need no return if withholding covered all of it. Returns for 2026 are expected from August to October 2027, by the last two digits of your NIT, your Colombian tax ID.
Sources
- IRS, United States income tax treaties, A to Z
- US Department of State, Colombia (14-430), Agreement for the Exchange of Tax Information
- US Treasury, Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act
- Social Security Administration, totalization agreements overview
- Colombia, Estatuto Tributario (DIAN official compilation)
- Colombia, Decreto 1625 de 2016, Decreto Único Reglamentario en materia tributaria (DIAN compilation)
- Colombia, Ley 50 de 1990 (Función Pública, Gestor Normativo)
- Colombia, Ley 100 de 1993 (DIAN compilation)
- Colombia, Ley 2381 de 2024 (Senate)
- Corte Constitucional (Colombia), Sentencia C-264 de 2026
- Colombia, Decreto 2555 de 2010 (DIAN compilation)
- Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia, Contrato de depósito a término (CDT)
- DIAN, Concepto 11108 de 2026 (non-residents)
- DIAN, Concepto 14951 de 2025 (foreign tax credit)
- DIAN, Oficio 908351 de 2022 (gifts to non-residents)
- DIAN, Oficio 909173 de 2021 (gifts as the recipient’s occasional gain)
- DIAN, Oficio 74527 de 2013 (gifts to non-residents and withholding)
- DIAN, Comunicado de Prensa 128 de 2025 (2026 UVT and tax calendar)
- DIAN, Resolución 44 de 2024 (Form 210)
- DIAN, Resolución 22 de 2023 (Form 110)
- IRS, Publication 519 (2025), U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens
- IRS, Publication 915, Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits
- 26 U.S.C. § 7701, Definitions
- 26 U.S.C. § 861, Income from sources within the United States
- 26 U.S.C. § 901, Taxes of foreign countries and of possessions of United States
- 26 U.S.C. § 904, Limitation on credit
- 26 U.S.C. § 102, Gifts and inheritances
- 26 U.S.C. § 168, Accelerated cost recovery system (bonus depreciation)
- 26 U.S.C. § 1291, Interest on tax deferral
- 26 U.S.C. § 1297, Passive foreign investment company
- 26 C.F.R. § 1.1298-1, Section 1298(f) annual reporting for PFIC shareholders (Form 8621)
- 26 C.F.R. § 301.7701-3, Classification of certain business entities
- 31 C.F.R. § 1010.350, Reports of foreign financial accounts
- 31 C.F.R. § 1010.306, Filing of reports
- IRS, Instructions for Form 8938
- IRS, Instructions for Form 3520 (Rev. December 2025)
- IRS, Instructions for Form 8802 (Rev. October 2024)
- US Treasury, Fiscal Data, Treasury Reporting Rates of Exchange
Reviewed and updated October 2026. General information, not advice for your situation.