How to get your rental income out of Colombia legally

Colombia has no capital controls in the sense that would worry you. Money leaves the country routinely and legally. What determines whether your money leaves easily is a decision you made at the beginning: whether the funds that came in were registered as foreign investment.

Step one happens before you buy

Funds must enter through the regulated exchange market, converted by an authorised intermediary — a Colombian bank or exchange house — and declared to the Banco de la República on the corresponding foreign-exchange form. That declaration is what registers your investment. Wiring money to a friend's personal account, or arriving with cash, does not register anything and cannot be fixed retroactively without a penalty process.

Registered investment can be repatriated, including capital gains, with no additional government authorisation. Unregistered investment is a paperwork problem you will pay a lawyer to solve later.

Tax on the income while it is here

• Rental income sourced in Colombia is taxable in Colombia, regardless of where you live.
• A corporate or commercial tenant generally withholds at source and remits it; an individual tenant usually does not.
• Non-residents file an annual return on Colombian-source income. Ownership does not make you a tax resident — physical presence over 183 days in a 365-day period does.
• Property tax (predial) and, in some municipalities, valorización are separate annual obligations attached to the property.

Moving the money out

Net income is transferred abroad through the same regulated channel it came in by. Your bank will ask for the investment registration, evidence that the income is what you say it is, and proof that the tax obligations on it are settled. With those three, the transfer is an ordinary banking operation.

Practical advice

Keep a Colombian account in your own name, keep every rental contract and receipt, and repatriate on a schedule rather than in one large annual movement, which invites questions. Use a Colombian accountant who has filed for non-residents before — the cost is trivial relative to the cost of an unfiled year.