Colombia Mandates First Companies Required to Comply with eInvoicing

The Colombian tax administration (DIAN) enacted Resolution 000072 of December 29, 2017, by which it establishes the first wave of taxpayers that will be mandated to issue and report electronic invoices in Colombia.

This resolution is fundamentally different from the original draft resolution published by the DIAN in November 2017 for public consultation. In that project, the taxpayers that would be required to invoice electronically would be all of those that qualify as large taxpayers as defined in the Resolution 000076 of 2016.

However, in the new resolution, the taxpayers required to comply with the mandate to issue electronic invoices in Colombia and report them to the DIAN include those that have requested numbering ranges (Folios) for their electronic invoices as explained in the Decree 1929 of 2007 within the previous five years. In other words, those that were already issuing electronic invoices in the old electronic invoicing model during the previous five years.

Who is affected in Colombia:

• Group 1: June 29, 2018 – Companies who requested numbering ranges (Folios) for eInvoicing during the last five years and invoice less than 3M invoices per month.
• Group 2: September 29, 2018 –  Companies who requested numbering ranges (Folios) for eInvoicing during the last five years and generate more than 3M invoices per month.
• Group 3: Jan 1, 2019 – All taxpayers who declare and pay VAT in Colombia.

It’s important to note that in the next couple of weeks, the DIAN is also expected to release the resolution in which it will mandate large taxpayers as defined by the DIAN.

We advise all companies with operations in Colombia to contact their local teams to understand which affected group they fall into and how they should prepare. Companies need to act now, as Colombia has accelerated the mandate by selecting the first group of companies to invoice electronically starting June 29, 2018. Even if your company does not fall in the first wave or first group, you must start now as more than 3,600 companies who declare VAT in Colombia are mandated starting Jan 1, 2019 and all will need to implement new technology or update existing solutions within 2018.