Do I have to file at home while living in Colombia?
For most people the answer turns on whether the ties that made them resident have actually ended. For a US citizen or green-card holder it does not: the return is due in Colombia exactly as it would be at home. Everything else on the file follows from which of those you are.
Is there a treaty between my country and Colombia?
That is verified rather than assumed: we confirm which treaty text governs Colombia and your home country for the year in question, because a protocol can move a rate or an article between years. If there is no treaty, unilateral credit rules are what prevent double taxation.
I own property in Colombia. Where is the rent taxed?
Rent from immovable property is almost always taxable where the property is situated, frequently by withholding on the gross amount, with your home country taxing the same income and giving credit. A net-basis election, where one exists, is usually the difference between tax on profit and tax on turnover.
How many days in Colombia make me tax resident there?
The count is the thing to get right, but the period it is measured over matters more than the number itself. Colombian residency is determined on presence across periods that can straddle calendar years, so a stay that looks short against any single year can still cross the line when measured on the local basis. Running the count on the home country's tax year, which is what most people do instinctively, produces the wrong answer. Keep entry and exit records as you travel, run the count on the local basis, and check the position before the year end while there is still time to act on it.
I split my time between Bogota and Canada, who taxes me?
Possibly both, at first. Each country applies its own residence test, and satisfying both at once is quite normal; that is what the tie-breaker in a treaty, where one is in force for the year, exists to resolve. It looks at where you have a permanent home available, then where your personal and economic relations are closer, then where you habitually stay. The evidence that decides it is ordinary material: leases, where the family lives, where the bank accounts and the doctor are. Gather it for the year in question rather than describing the arrangement as it stands today.
Do I pay Colombian tax on my salary from abroad?
It depends entirely on whether you are resident there for the year. Residents are generally taxed on income wherever it arises, so a salary paid by a foreign employer into a foreign account is still within the charge once residence is established. Non-residents are taxed on what arises locally. Because residency turns on a presence count run across periods that may straddle calendar years, the same salary can be inside the charge in one year and outside it in the next without anything about the job changing at all. Settle the residence question first; the treatment of the salary follows from it.
I work for a US company while living in Colombia, where do I file?
Probably in both places, for different reasons. The United States taxes its citizens and permanent residents wherever they live, so that return continues. Colombia looks at whether you are resident under its presence rules, and if you are, the income falls within its charge regardless of who pays it or where the money lands. Relief comes through a credit for tax properly paid in the other country, which means the two filings have to be prepared together and in a sensible order. A permit allowing you to live there is an immigration document; it does not settle the tax residence question either way.
Why do I have to make advance payments during the year?
Systems across the Americas generally collect through monthly or quarterly advances and withholding at source, then reconcile on the annual return. The advances are provisional and are credited against the final liability, so the return produces either a balance to pay or an excess to be repaid, rather than a second bill. They are normally set from a prior period, which is why a change in income during the year leaves them wrong in one direction or the other. Reviewing them when the income changes, rather than at filing, keeps the final reconciliation small and avoids funding an excess you then wait to have repaid.
I have lived in Colombia for years and never filed, what now?
Work out the residence position year by year first, because it decides whether anything was owed at all, and in which country. Then rebuild each year from the records that exist: bank statements, contracts, entry and exit records. A voluntary disclosure is received far better when it is complete and explains openly how any estimated figures were arrived at, and it is worth making before an authority raises the question itself. The home-country side usually needs the same treatment for the same years, including account and foreign property reporting, so treat the two as one exercise rather than two.
Do American citizens living abroad have to pay taxes?
American expats and green card holders need to file US returns for life, and many of them pay little or no US tax once the relief is applied — but the filing is what unlocks the relief, so the two questions have different answers. The exclusion for foreign earned income, the credit for foreign tax already paid and the treaty between the two countries between them usually leave the total at roughly the higher of the two countries' tax rather than the sum. Skip the return and none of it applies. See Americans abroad.
Who qualifies for US tax treaty benefits?
A resident of the other treaty country, under that treaty's residence article, who is the beneficial owner of the income and who satisfies any limitation-on-benefits test the treaty contains. Nationality is not the test and neither is where the bank is. Note the trap in the other direction: a US citizen living in the treaty country generally cannot use the treaty to reduce US tax, because the saving clause preserves the US claim over its own citizens. See our treaty work.
