Tax Controversy and Defence before the DIAN in Colombia

The deadlines to defend yourself are short and they do not extend

When a formal assessment notice, a statement of charges or an official assessment arrives, a strict statutory period starts running. Once it expires the assessment becomes final and the discussion is over, regardless of whether the client was right. We have seen substantial assessments become final because the document sat unopened in an inbox, or because the response was prepared at the last minute without the evidence it needed.

This practice concentrates all of the firm’s defence work before fiscal authorities, at the administrative stage and before the administrative courts. It covers national and local taxes, and also customs and exchange control penalty proceedings, because they share the same authority, procedural structure and evidentiary logic.

Preventive advice and structuring are handled by Tax Planning. This practice begins once there is an act of the authority, or once it is clear there is going to be one.

Audit and administrative stage

Handling audit programmes from the initial summons and information requests, with an evidentiary strategy defined from the first filing. What is said and produced at that stage frames everything that follows.
Response to the formal assessment notice, the single most important document in Colombian tax procedure and the one that defines the scope of the dispute.
Administrative appeal (recurso de reconsideración) against official assessments and penalty resolutions.
Appeals before departmental and district treasury authorities on local taxes: industry and commerce tax, property tax, stamp duties and registry tax.
Direct revocation requests where the act suffers from manifest defects and the ordinary route is no longer available.

Judicial review

Nullity and reinstatement of rights actions against assessments that have exhausted the administrative stage, before the administrative tribunals and the Council of State.
Interim relief, including provisional suspension of the effects of the act where the requirements are met.
Simple nullity actions against rulings, resolutions and general acts of the DIAN or local authorities.
Extraordinary review and unification appeals where the case warrants them.
Settlement and mutual-agreement termination where the law enables these mechanisms, with a prior assessment of whether they are worth taking. Settling is not always right and litigating is not always right. The decision should be made with the numbers on the table.

Penalty regime

We defend against the penalties most frequently imposed, and most frequently imposed badly:

Inaccuracy penalty, where the debate usually turns on difference of legal criterion and on the burden of proof.
Failure to file, late filing and correction penalties.
Penalty for failure to submit information or submitting it with errors, one of the most onerous relative to the actual harm caused and one of the most contestable.
Accounting records and invoicing penalties, including electronic invoicing.
Customs penalties: seizure and forfeiture proceedings, penalties against declarants and customs users, and disputes over valuation and tariff classification once the authority has issued its act.
Exchange control penalty regime administered by the DIAN, for improper channelling, failure to channel, late registration and errors in exchange declarations.
Application of favourability, graduation and proportionality principles, and of the penalty reduction regimes in force.

Preventive advice in customs and exchange control matters is provided by Customs Law and Foreign Exchange.

Coercive collection and recovery

Defence in coercive collection proceedings: objections to the payment order, challenges to the enforceability of the title, and action against precautionary measures.
Release of attachments over bank accounts, real property and business establishments.
Payment facilities and arrangements, with assessment of guarantees and their real cost against the alternative of litigating.
Refunds and offsets: applications, defence where they are denied or partially rejected, and claims for interest.
Statute of limitations and finality: analysis of time limits, which in more cases than expected resolves the matter without reaching the merits.

Contingency assessment

For companies that want to know where they stand before the authority tells them, or that are in a sale process or bringing in an investor, we review the tax positions taken, quantify the exposure by open year, assess the probability of success of each position, and recommend whether to correct voluntarily or hold the line.

What this practice does not cover

Structuring and planning before the transaction → Tax Planning
Tariff classification, customs regimes and foreign trade advice → Customs Law
Currency channelling and investment registration → Foreign Exchange
Non-fiscal administrative proceedings, for example before the Superintendency of Companies or the Ministry of Labour → Corporate Law

Frequently asked questions

I received an assessment notice. How long do I have? The Tax Code sets a strict period to respond and it does not extend. The first thing we do on receiving a case is verify the notification date and calculate the real deadline, because a defective notification can change the picture entirely. Call us the day it arrives, not the week before it expires.

Is it worth disputing, or should I just pay? It depends on the amount, the strength of the position, the cost of litigating and the time involved. We run that calculation explicitly and give it to the client in numbers, including a reasonable probability of success. There are cases where the honest recommendation is to correct and pay with a reduced penalty, and we say so.

How long does a case before the administrative courts take? The administrative stage is measured in months. The judicial process is measured in years, and duration varies significantly between courts. That is why the cost-benefit analysis has to include the financial cost of time and not only the amount in dispute.

The DIAN attached my bank accounts. What can I do? There are immediate steps available depending on the stage of the proceeding: objections to the payment order, challenges to the enforceability of the title, substitution of the measure, or a payment facility with a guarantee. The route depends on where the collection stands. This is not a matter that tolerates waiting.

My penalty for failing to submit information is disproportionate to the error I made. Can it be reduced? Frequently yes. There are graduation and reduction rules, and there is relevant case law on proportionality and on the requirement of actual harm. It is one of the penalties most often imposed automatically and most often successfully challenged.

Do you also handle municipal and departmental taxes? Yes. Industry and commerce tax, property tax, stamp duties and registry tax, before the relevant treasury authorities and before the courts. The procedural structure differs from the national one in material respects and should not be assumed to be identical.

Let’s discuss your matter

If you already have a notified act, send it to us together with the proof of notification. That is the first thing we need to see.

Email: evilardy@vaabogados.com.co WhatsApp: +57 300 612 1685 Location: Barranquilla, Colombia

This page is informational and does not constitute legal advice for any specific case.