Do I have to file income tax?

For taxable year 2026, filed in 2027, the UVT is 52,374 pesos. You have to file if you meet just one of these thresholds: gross assets of more than 235,683,000 pesos on 31 December 2026 (4,500 UVT); gross income of 73,323,600 pesos or more in the year (1,400 UVT); or credit card spending, purchases, or bank deposits and investments of more than 73,323,600. Also if you are registered for VAT.

For taxable year 2025, filed in 2026, the UVT was 49,799 pesos: 224,095,500 for assets and 69,718,600 for the other thresholds. It is always measured in the UVT of the year being filed, not of the year you file in.

With assets of 180 million, 75 million of income in 2026, 20 million of card spending, 60 of purchases and 70 of deposits, only one threshold is met: income, passed by 1,676,400 pesos. That is enough to have to file in 2027.

Assets are 55,683,000 pesos short of their threshold, and deposits 3,323,600. If the last two digits of the ID are 45, the return is due on Tuesday 14 September 2027.

Since 2024 the calendar for individuals is permanent (Decreto 2229 de 2023): each pair of final digits of the NIT —for an individual, their ID number without the check digit— is due on a set business day of August, September or October. 01 and 02 are due on the seventh business day of August, and 99 and 00 on the seventeenth of October. That day the return is filed and paid, in a single instalment.

Since business days depend on holidays, the dates change from year to year: in 2026 they ran from 12 August to 26 October, and in 2027 they run from 10 August to 26 October. A decree can move them: Decreto 1226 de 2026 moved August’s to as late as 13 November for anyone whose tax address was in the Cali, Palmira, Tuluá, Buenaventura, Pereira, Armenia, Manizales, Quibdó and Popayán offices on the day of the 10 August earthquake.

Having to file does not mean you owe tax. The tax already withheld from you is subtracted, and many employees file a zero return or one with a refund the DIAN pays back. That is also why filing without having to can pay off: it is voluntary, and it is how you recover withholding that was too much.

What does cost is filing late. The late-filing penalty is 5 % of the tax due for each month or part of a month, up to the tax itself; if the return shows no tax due, it is 0.5 % of the year’s gross income for each month or part of a month, up to the lower of 5 % of that income and twice the refund due, or 2,500 UVT if there is no refund (Tax Code, art. 641). It is never less than the minimum penalty of 10 UVT, 523,740 pesos in 2026. This tells you whether you have to file and by when, not how much you will pay: for that, and for your particular case, an accountant.

Gross assets are everything you own on 31 December without subtracting debts: property, vehicles, accounts and investments, at their tax value and not at what they would sell for. A property counts at the higher of its tax cost and its cadastral appraisal (Tax Code, art. 277). Gross income is everything you received in the year before subtracting costs, deductions or what is not taxed: salary, fees, rent, interest, pensions.

Card spending is what you paid with credit cards; purchases, everything you bought by any means; deposits, everything that came into your accounts, deposits and investments during the year. These are the figures banks and companies report to the DIAN.