One thing you can be sure of all over the world is that dealing with tax laws in each country is both complicated and unavoidable.

The complexity and variety of international taxes makes it difficult to monitor and non-compliance can result in heavy fines or worse.

In our team we have tax law specialists who know the national and international tax laws, who help develop a solid strategic tax planning in line with the current and long term needs of your business. The tax team works closely with all other departments of our organization to ensure that all our services to clients are carried out in the most efficient way possible.

While the fiscal environment in Colombia is conducive to business, its complexities need to be carefully evaluated on a case-by-case basis to ensure that transactions are structured in the most efficient manner in terms of taxes. In addition, as in all international transactions, the interaction between national legislation and double taxation agreements (DTAs) must be reviewed and applied with the utmost care through optimal investment vehicles and stable corporate structures.

Restrepo Cañavera, with its unique combination of experience and knowledge, provides services to its valued clients in all its tax requirements in Colombia, including advice, tax and estate planning, compliance and litigation. In addition, we offer our clients privileged access to a network of professional tax advisors in more than 100 countries around the world.

The Tax Unit includes tax lawyers, certified accountants and tax auditor; Which focus on providing a comprehensive set of premium services, including the following:

Tax law

  • Fiscal structuring of cross-border activities, mergers and acquisitions.
  • Corporate and corporate restructurings.
  • Fiscal planning with respect to international structures and transactions.
  • Tax planning strategies for wealthy individuals
  • Tax consultancy in Colombia.
  • Implications of local regulatory and legislative changes.
  • Handling of inquiries from foreign tax authorities under the exchange of information items from DTAs / Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs).
  • Review of contracts and other commercial documents from a fiscal perspective.
  • Reports of tax due diligence.
  • Request for refund of balances in favor of rent and VAT.
  • Request for certificate of residence tax and taxes paid in Colombia.

Tax litigation

  • Management of tax audits.
  • Management of tax assessment cases.
  • Preparation of appeals against acts issued by the tax authority.

Exchange Market

In Colombia there is a rigorous regulation of the exchange market, which although it allows to carry out all the activities within the framework of the business requires an effective registry of operations and reports of the movements of the operations. In Colombia, borrowing with non-financial entities from abroad allows foreign investors to carry out intercompany financial support operations.

The international exchange regime allows all types of investments in Colombia, from opening of companies and purchase of real estate to investment in hydrocarbons and portfolio investments.

 Services offered include:

  • Business structuring in compliance with international exchange legislation.
  • Foreign investment records.
  • External indebtedness and debt status report.
  • Management of the foreign exchange channel in the process of payment for imports and exports of goods.
  • Payments abroad.
  • Modifications of declarations of change, substitution or cancellation of the investment.
  • Compensation, registration and reporting accounts.

Customs

Colombia has an advanced customs regulation and a great variety of alternatives of special customs regimes that allow the structuring of international trade operations, among which are different types of free zones and laws of customs and tributary benefits for certain zones of the country.

Our services include:

  • Planning investments to access protection benefits
  • Controversies in relation to rules of promotion and protection of investments.
  • Procedures before the National Customs Authority (DIAN).
  • Response to administrative requirements and processes initiated (DIAN).
  • Optimization structures of international trade operations.
  • Dumping and trade defense measures.
  • Customs valuation.
  • Tariff classification.
  • Special regimes (Free zones, Users highly exporters).