Double taxation: the questions an American buyer settles before buying in Manzanillo del Mar

A property in Colombia can carry tax consequences in two countries at once, and neither is settled at the sales office. What follows are not answers: they are the questions an American buyer needs settled before signing, and who to put them to.

We do not state here which countries have a treaty with Colombia, nor what anyone is required to declare, and the reason is practical: those lists and rules get amended, and one wrong assertion would repeat across every page. What can be set out is how the problem is built. There are two tax administrations with their own rules; there are two moments treated differently —holding the property, with its rental income, and selling it, with its ganancia ocasional (the gain taxed on sale)— and there is a personal condition, tax residence, which is not chosen but determined by rules and which changes what is withheld and what is filed. The DIAN is the authority on the Colombian side; the other side needs an accountant in that country; and the Cancillería explains the apostille of the certificates each administration will ask the other for. The seller substitutes for none of those three conversations.

Moving the money is not a formality. Funds leaving a US account have to enter Colombia through the regulated foreign-exchange market with a declaración de cambio, the exchange declaration, and the Banco de la República is the body that explains how the operation is recorded as foreign investment and in whose name, because whoever sends the money and whoever appears on the escritura, the deed, must be the same person or the same company. Signing from abroad has two routes that are not interchangeable: a poder, a power of attorney, granted before a Colombian consul where you live, or one granted before a notary public and then apostilled. Which one the Cartagena notaría will accept is a question for that notaría and for the Cancillería before you pay for a translation. Visas and the cédula de extranjería, the foreigner ID card, are a separate matter from the purchase and belong to Migración Colombia: buying does not stand in for the immigration process, nor the reverse. On tax, the question to settle is whether a treaty exists between Colombia and your country and what it says about rental income and about ganancia ocasional, the gain taxed on sale. Confirm that with an accountant in each country, not with the seller.

In Manzanillo del Mar the difficulty is not reading a registry record: often there is none to read. Much of what is offered never entered the registry at all, and what the counterparty holds is possession documented in private papers, with an acta de colindantes, a neighbors' boundary statement, and sometimes a sworn declaration before a notary, none of which is title of ownership. That moves the process to authorities absent in the other sectors: the Agencia Nacional de Tierras, the national land agency, where the soil belongs to the Nation; IGAC, the cadastral institute, and the district cadastre to identify the parcel; and the corregidor or the police inspector when occupation is disputed. Verification becomes a matter of fieldwork and mapping before notarial work: comparing the survey against the cadastral record and against what is actually fenced, because the same lot has been sold under different descriptions. The counterparty is usually a local family or a go-between with no written mandate, and that mandate has to be requested. Infrastructure is not handled by any single utility: a well or tanker water, a septic pit, and a side road whose upkeep is not always assigned to anyone.

What is specific to Manzanillo del Mar

What to verify, step by step

1. Ask the DIAN, about your own case, how tax residence is determined, what is reported in Colombia for holding the property and what is reported on its sale, and which withholdings apply to someone who is not a tax resident.
2. The questions an American buyer has to settle before closing: which channel the transfer has to use, and how the foreign investment gets registered with the Banco de la República, before the first peso moves; whether the Cartagena notaría accepts an apostilled power of attorney or insists on one granted before a Colombian consul, and who does the official translation and whether a treaty exists between Colombia and your country, and what it says about rental income and about ganancia ocasional, with an accountant in each country.
3. Take those same questions to an accountant in your own country and ask in writing whether a treaty exists between Colombia and that country and, if it does, what it says about rental income and about ganancia ocasional. That answer is theirs to give, not the DIAN's and not ours.
4. Ask the Cancillería which tax-residence certificates and which documents need an apostille or legalisation for one administration to accept them from the other.
5. Before transferring, confirm with the Banco de la República how the investment ends up registered, because the exchange registration is what later supports moving funds out, and the tax question is asked on that basis.
6. Decide with your accountant, before the promesa and not after, whether you buy personally or through a company, because the titleholder does not change without another deed.

Mistakes that cost money

• Asking about tax after signing. The structure of the purchase is decided beforehand, and it is the only part still open to choice.
• Assuming a treaty exists because someone said so in a buyers' group. Whether one exists, and what it says, is confirmed in writing by an accountant in each country.
• Believing that if tax was withheld in Colombia there is nothing left to do at home. There are two administrations and two separate filings; how they interact is exactly the question to settle.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a treaty between Colombia and my country?

We neither assert nor deny it here: the list is amended and a stale answer would cost you money. Ask the DIAN and an accountant in your own country, and get the answer in writing.

Will I pay twice on the same thing?

That is the right question and it has no general answer: it depends on your tax residence, on each country's rules and on whether a treaty exists. It is the conversation to have with an accountant in each country before signing.

Can an American buyer handle this without an accountant?

The DIAN explains the Colombian side, but neither administration resolves the combination of the two for you. That is what the accountant in each country is for.

Where to check it

• DIAN — the tax ID, withholding on sale and the capital gains tax
• Cancillería de Colombia — current visa requirements and the apostille of foreign documents
• Banco de la República — registration of foreign investment and the official exchange rate
• Cartagena de Indias — the rules of the municipality Manzanillo del Mar belongs to

Official bodies. Specific figures are requested there, not copied from a listing.

Updated 2026-11-06