Every payroll filed. Every contribution on time.

You can engage genuine independent contractors, but the arrangement has to be genuine. Where a contractor works fixed hours under direction and looks like an employee, the relationship can be reclassified, with back contributions and benefits owed. Contractors must also evidence their own social security contributions, and that evidence is the first thing checked in a review.

Roughly 50% on top of the salary once benefits, social security, occupational risk and the family compensation fund are counted, plus transport allowance for lower salaries. We model the loaded cost for the specific role before you make an offer, because the difference between salary and cost is where foreign employers are most often surprised.

The options are to incorporate and employ directly, to engage the person as a genuine independent contractor, or to use an employer of record. Each has a different cost, a different risk profile and different tax consequences for the foreign entity, including whether it creates a taxable presence in Colombia. We map the three against your plans before you choose.

A monthly transmission of payroll data to the tax authority, separate from paying contributions. It must be filed within the first ten business days of the following month. When it is not filed, the company loses the deduction for those salaries in its income tax return, so the cost of missing it is a multiple of the payroll itself.