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@N.Barley

I didn't have to cut off the tags of

my new clothing before I flew back

from Lima a couple of weeks ago. 

There were no outer tags, because

the clothes were custom-made at

one of the tailor shops on Benevides

near Kennedy Park.

Expat travelers, be aware you can get

high-quality tailored articles made

to measure at South American prices

priced far below what this kind of work

costs up North.

Ön the Lima trip, I ordered collared shirts,

a navy blazer, khaki pants and

Thai-style drawstring shorts .. with

excellent results.

cccmedia in Quito

@N.Barley In all honesty , never heard of DIAN " auditing " anyone on thier overseas ( emphasis) income..and I know dozens of expats and locals I have been here 11 years and visitng almost 20 years.

Of course there were stories of this in the news for a few very rich Colombians with substantial assets in Panamá during the " Panamá papers" fiasco.

Deleted

@cccmedia pretty well everyone I know says "I have nothing to declare" when passing through DIAN in El dorado. And thats it.

Other than occaisionally through security, the only time someone searched my or my  wifes bags at the airport, along with a dozen other People, is when the sniffer dog somehow thought there were drugs in a bunch of bags.

Think the old mutt had alzheimer and they retired him.

Ohh and United Airlines occaisionaly do an additional search on top of the airport security looking for " stuff". They once made me get ridof a bottle of listerine hat passed security..

As far as DIAN..laid back and easy going in every way...

Dont know where people get the idea they are the Gestapo or something...

Some of the airport-security dogs are trained to

sniff out ´Ú°ù³Ü³Ù¾±³Ù²¹²õÌý ..  not just drugs.

I had a ³¾²¹²Ô³ú²¹²Ô²¹Ìý confiscated at BOG on one trip

due to this fact.

cccmedia

all honesty , never heard of DIAN " auditing " anyone on thier overseas ( emphasis) income..and I know dozens of expats and locals

Assuming the hypothetical of a retired expat who qualifies as a tax resident and may own apartment in Poblado that they live in year-round, and/or exceeds 59 million in digital transactions in 2023 from ATM withdrawals with his Capital One card, is it your recommendation that the expat NOT file form 210 of DIAN, or that they should file it, but report NO income? If the expat is not going to report income under this hypothetical, there is really no need to hire an accountant, true?

@artisvida you should connect with an accountant. First, determine if you are a fiscal resident. You may be even if you don't spend more than 150 days.

Assuming you are not a fiscal resident, you only need to pay taxes on your Colombian income. However, even if you don't have income, if you cross any of the limits (e.g., the value of your condo is above the threshold,  mine is), you have to file taxes even with zero liability. I had to pay a bunch of penalties because I didn't do it.

Again, each situation is very different so talk to an accountant. Also, be careful, I had an accountant who wanted to file my taxes as resident and make up income because my penalty was lower. That would have meased up my US taxes (plus... lying!). I had to read the law and talk to three different people. And, I'm in this forum trying to find more info

Enjoy the Colombia ride!

@Cristy1977 so sorry to hear about the penalties.

At the moment, I'm not a Colombian Fiscal resident because all my income is U.S. based. Additionally, I haven't spent more than 90 days of a calendar year in the Country.

However, this will change in about 3 years when I purchase property. It is above the threshold, so I will need to report.

all honesty , never heard of DIAN " auditing " anyone on thier overseas ( emphasis) income..and I know dozens of expats and locals

Assuming the hypothetical of a retired expat who qualifies as a tax resident and may own apartment in Poblado that they live in year-round, and/or exceeds 59 million in digital transactions in 2023 from ATM withdrawals with his Capital One card, is it your recommendation that the expat NOT file form 210 of DIAN, or that they should file it, but report NO income? If the expat is not going to report income under this hypothetical, there is really no need to hire an accountant, true?
-@N.Barley

People can do whatever they want.

If they feel they are tax evaders and cant sleep at night they can file a tax return, with whatever accountant they want.

But the fact of the matter is, you do a declaracion de renta, you are in their radar, and the people who recieve the most hassle  and penalties, etc., are the ones that provide the most informatiom to DIAN, and try to follow the rules as close as possible.

The ones that dont file and live " "under the radar" are the ones that get harrassed the least, followed by the ones that shop around for an accountant that minimizes their tax payment by filing a " bogus" declaracion de renta( please excuse the label) that gets rubber stamped by DIAN.

This seems counter intuitive, but thats the way t is.

Also I dont know but I highly doubt DIAN has access to Capitol One, Charles Schwab or other foriegn debit/ credit card withdrawals.

They do have access to your Colombian Bank deposits, your Immigration data( through Migraciones ) and your US or foriegn tax returns and possibly even your overseas bank accounts through the CRS system  but I personally have never heard of them go through the effort of aquiring this information and questioning expats or tourists in regards to these matters, but locals, yes..occaisionally...when large purchases or bank deposits ( usually over 100 million pesos) are made..but only occaisioonally.

Only recommendations I can make is

1. If possible spend less than 183 days on 365 in Colombia if you have significant overseas assets

2.NEVER buy property or businesses in Colombia, and keep the bank account balances low.

On another note, DIAN cannot legally embargo ( freeze or remove.money from) bank accounts with values less than 25 UVTs or 30 million pesos.

For other creditors the limit to " inembargabilidad " is 40 million pesos.

I got this info. From a lawyer in a casual conversation. I posted the limk on annother site. If you want, I can post it here.