Colombian E-invoicing: Latest Mandates

Update: 14 February 2023 by Andrés Landerretche

Colombia Update: P.O.S. Tickets Threshold Rules Now in Force

As of February 2023, new rules came into force in Colombia. These are for the issuance threshold of equivalent documents generated by Point of Sale (P.O.S.) systems.

As a result, a ticket issued by cash registers with P.O.S. systems (tickets de máquinas registradoras con sistemas P.O.S.) must not exceed the maximum amount of five Tax Value Units (UVT), without including the amount of tax for each sale or service provision operation.

For sales operations and the provision of services exceeding this amount – excluding taxes – taxpayers must issue an electronic sales invoice as part of the country’s e-invoicing mandate.

It is important to note that the equivalent documents generated by cash registers with a P.O.S. system do not entitle the purchaser to discountable sales tax (VAT) or costs and deductions in income and complementary taxes.

However, purchasers may request that the seller issue a sales invoice when they have the right to request deductible taxes, costs, and deductions. In this case, the supplier must issue an electronic sales invoice.

The Colombian tax authority (DIAN) officialised the implementation of the five UVT thresholds for tickets generated through P.O.S. systems through Resolution 1092, published on 1 July 2022.

The Resolution implemented the phased roll-out of this mandate, following the calendar below:

• 1 February 2023: Large Taxpayers (already in force)
• 1 April 2023: Taxpayers who file for income and complementary tax (contribuyentes del impuesto sobre la renta y complementarios) who are not large taxpayers
• 1 May 2023: Taxpayers who do not file for income and complementary tax
• 1 June 2023: Other taxpayers not included above

Every 1 January from the taxable year 2024, taxpayers obliged to issue a sales invoice that choose to issue the equivalent document, called a ticket for a cash register with a P.O.S. system, must adjust the value of the applicable UVT to comply with the limitation of five UVT in the issuance of each ticket.

Speak with a member of our expert team for further clarification of e-invoicing in Colombia.

Update: 23 August 2022 by Kelly Muniz

The Colombian tax authority (DIAN) has concentrated heavily on expanding its electronic invoicing regime over recent years. The DIAN introduced the first schedule for mandatory implementation of e-invoicing in the country in 2018, and, since then, the system has gradually encompassed more transactions and taxpayers.

In this article, we’ll look at the two latest new mandates in Colombian e-invoicing:

1. The introduction of the support document for purchases (Documento Soporte en Aquisiciones con No Obligados a Facturar Electronicamente) and
2. The implementation of a threshold for the issuance of point of sale (POS) tickets.

These new obligations have significant impact and require adjustments by taxpayers. These changes also represent a substantial expansion of Colombia’s e-invoicing to include entirely new transactions under its scope.

Support document for acquisitions

The Colombian tax authority has created a new e-document type, the support document for acquisitions from subjects not obliged to issue e-invoices. This support document and its corrective notes were introduced by Resolution 167 of 2021. It expands the e-invoicing scope to ensure more transactions fall within the mandate and allows support for tax deductions.

Taxpayers obliged to generate this e-document are those under the country’s e-invoicing regime. It includes those subject to income and complementary tax payments and responsible for VAT when purchasing goods and/or services from suppliers not obliged to issue e-invoices or equivalent documents and require support for costs and deductions in the mentioned tax declarations. To generate the support document, the taxpayer must be authorised by the DIAN as an electronic issuer.

The support document and its corrective notes must be generated in XML format and contain a CUDS: unique support document code (código único del documento soporte). This alphanumeric code allows it to be unequivocally identified. After generation, the e-documents must be transmitted for clearance by the DIAN either in real-time or, at the latest, on the last calendar day of the week, for accumulated operations with the same supplier carried out during that same week.

Having been postponed from its original implementation date, the generation of the acquisitions support document became mandatory on 1 August 2022.

Implementation of POS ticket issuance threshold

According to this mandate, cash register tickets generated through POS systems (tickets de máquinas registradoras con sistemas P.O.S.) may be issued by subjects obliged to invoice, provided that the sale of the good and/or the provision of the service recorded therein doesn’t exceed five (5) UVT (tax value unit) for each document, excluding taxes.

This means that, for operations covering sales of goods and/or provision of services exceeding the amount of five (5) UVT, taxpayers under the country’s e-invoicing mandate must issue an electronic sales invoice. The purchaser of goods and/or services below the threshold may still require the issuance of a sales invoice, in which case the supplier must provide it.

The threshold was de facto introduced in 2021 by Law 2155, but it was only in July 2022 that the DIAN established a phased roll-out of the mandate, through Resolution 1092, following the calendar below:

• 1 February 2023: Large taxpayers
• 1 April 2023: Taxpayers who file for income and complementary tax (contribuyentes del impuesto sobre la renta y complementarios), who are not large taxpayers
• 1 May 2023: Taxpayers who don’t file for income and complementary tax
• 1 June 2023: Other taxpayers not included above

Are you ready for these changes?

While the generation of the support document for acquisitions is already srequired, taxpayers must start preparing to comply with the new threshold for e-invoice issuance in place of POS tickets. Sovos can help your company adjust to e-invoicing and ensure compliance with Colombia’s new mandates.