Most Colombians arriving in London assume their flight ends their Colombian tax exposure. It rarely does. In practice, the double tax convention in force since 2020 often does less work than people expect regarding UK Colombia tax residence.
Two Tax systems that don’t align
When evaluating UK Colombia tax residence, the two jurisdictions apply conflicting frameworks. The UK tests residence through the Statutory Residence Test (SRT) (day counts weighed against ties) across a tax year ending 5 April, with split-year treatment available in defined cases. In contrast, Colombia tests residence under Artículo 10 del Estatuto Tributario across the calendar year, and its residence status is strictly all-or-nothing: there is no split year.
For Colombian nationals, days are only one route in. You remain resident if your spouse or dependent minor children are resident in Colombia; if 50% or more of your income is Colombian-source; if 50% or more of your assets are administered or deemed held in the country; or if the DIAN asks you to evidence residence abroad and you cannot. The Estatuto also provides the way out: a Colombian national is not resident where 50% or more of annual income arises in, or 50% or more of assets are located in, the jurisdiction of domicile. In practice that test is harder to satisfy in the first years abroad than clients expect, which is why I have seen people remain Colombian tax resident for years after leaving, having never come close to 183 days.
The year of arrival therefore usually produces dual residence. Article 4(2) breaks the tie by permanent home, then centre of vital interests, then habitual abode, then nationality not by counting days. A retained flat in Bogotá and a family that hasn’t yet moved will often point the wrong way.
Relief in the UK vs. Tax in Colombia: Navigating UK Colombia Tax Residence
Since April 2025, new UK arrivals with ten years of prior non-residence can claim relief on foreign income and gains for four years. Useful unless Colombia still treats you as resident. Colombia taxes worldwide income and grants credit for UK tax paid under article 21(1). Relief in the UK means no UK tax, which means no credit in Colombia. An election that looks generous can simply move the tax to Colombia.
Where the convention does apply, the mechanics are ordinary enough, and both States relieve by credit under article 21. Employment income is taxable where the duties are performed, unless the three cumulative conditions in article 14(2) are met: fewer than 183 days in any twelve-month period, an employer who is not resident in the host State, and remuneration not borne by a permanent establishment there. Dividends from Colombia are capped at 5% for a corporate holder of at least 20% of the capital and 15% otherwise; against a 20% domestic withholding rate for non-residents, the treaty is worth claiming. Gains fall to the State of residence alone, save for the categories reserved in article 13.
Companies: the gap is wider
The UK looks to incorporation and to central management and control. Colombia looks to incorporation, principal domicile, or sede efectiva de administración, where the key commercial and management decisions are in substance taken.
Those tests overlap in precisely the situation that is now common: the founder who relocates to London and carries on running the Colombian SAS. The company can acquire UK residence without a line changing on the share register. The mirror image is just as real, a UK company whose real decisions are taken in Bogotá.
And here the convention does not rescue your corporate UK Colombia tax residence structure. Article 4(3) contains no place-of-effective-management tie-breaker. It refers dual-resident entities to the competent authorities, and absent mutual agreement the company is treated as resident of neither State for the purpose of claiming treaty benefits, save for articles 21, 23 and 24. The company does not land in one jurisdiction, it can fall out of the treaty while remaining fully taxable in both. Mutual agreement procedures take years.
What the treaty does not cover
It reaches taxes on income and capital gains. A Colombian who becomes a UK long-term resident, ten of the previous twenty tax years brings worldwide assets within inheritance tax, while Colombia may still tax net wealth and charges 15% ganancia ocasional on certain inheritances. Neither exposure is addressed by the convention: inheritance tax is not a tax on income or capital gains, and the impuesto al patrimonio falls outside article 2 altogether.
Two further points catch people out. Leaving Colombia does not extinguish its taxing rights over a Colombian shareholding: article 13(5) preserves them, capped at 10%, where the holding exceeded 10% at any point in the preceding twelve months and the cap falls away under article 13(2) where the shares derive more than half their value from Colombian immovable property. Nor does the paperwork align: HMRC certificates of residence follow the UK tax year, while the DIAN reasons in calendar years.
The practical point
Almost every one of these outcomes is fixed before the move rather than during the filing season: when the family travels, when the Bogotá flat is let or sold, where board decisions are genuinely taken, whether dividends are declared before or after the year of departure.
The relevant deadline is rarely 5 April. It is usually 31 December of the year before.
About Del Canto Chambers
At Del Canto Chambers, our dual-qualified tax barristers and legal experts specialise in cross-border tax planning, residence structuring, and double taxation treaty analysis between the UK, Colombia, and international jurisdictions.
If you are planning a cross-border relocation or managing business interests across multiple jurisdictions, contact our expert team today for tailored legal and tax advice.
