DIAN regulated the Sole Registry of Beneficial Owners - RUB.

Regulation of the Registry of Beneficial Owners - RUB

On December 27th, 2021, Colombian Tax Authority - DIAN issued Official Ruling 164 of 2021, whereby regulated sections 631-5 and 631-6 of Colombian Tax Code (CTC), referring to beneficial owners and its registration at RUB.

Related to the Official Ruling, we highlight the following information:

• The Registry of Beneficial Owners - RUB will be part of Colombian Tax ID - RUT, so the administration of RUB will be in charge of DIAN.
• Will be obliged to provide the information at RUB the following entities:
  • Corporations and national for-profit or non-profit entities, including those whose shares are listed on the stock exchange.
  • Permanent establishments.
  • Structures without legal status.
  • Foreign legal entities and structures without legal status whose assets value located in Colombia represents more than 50% of the assets owned by the entity.

• In the same way, the following entities are not obliged to provide information about RUB:
  • Public entities, establishments or agencies, decentralized entities and national corporations where 100% of its shareholding is public.
  • Embassies, diplomatic missions, consular offices, and international organizations accredited by the national government.

• The obligated to provide information at RUB must indicate the following information related to beneficial owners:
  • Document type.
  • Identification number and country of issuance.
  • NIT of company ID and country of issuance.
  • Names and surnames.
  • Date and country of birth.
  • Nationality.
  • Location (country of residence, department or state, city, address, zip code, e-mail).
  • Criteria for determining the beneficial owners.
  • Percentage of participation in the capital of the legal entity.
  • Percentage of benefit in the yields, results or profits of the legal entity, or structure without legal status.
  • Date since has the quality of beneficial owner.
  • Date since ceases the status of beneficial owner.

• The information must be provided through DIAN's electronic system.
• Entities obliged to register at RUT and are also obliged to register at RUB must update their RUT including the responsibility "Beneficial Owners Informant".
• If legal entities were incorporated prior to January 15th, 2022, the initial provision of information to RUB must be made through DIAN's electronic systems, no until September 30th, 2022.
• If the legal entity was incorporated since January 15th, 2022, RUB information must be provided until two months after registration at RUT or in the Structures Without Legal Status Identification System - SIESPJ.
• In case of modification of RUB information, the cut-off date will be the first day of January, April, July or October of each year. The update must be made electronically within the following month since the cut-off date.
• Structures without legal status created prior January 15th, 2022 that not require to be registered at RUT must registered at SIESPJ until September 30th, 2022.
• If the entity without legal status is incorporated since January 15th, 2022, the registration at SIESPJ must be made within the month following its creation.
• In case of modifications of the information at SIESPJ, the entity will be obliged to update it electronically, within the month following the event that generates the update.
• SIESPJ must contain the following information:
  • Type of structure without legal status.
  • Name and alphanumeric code assigned for the identification of the structure.
  • Date of creation.
  • Date of liquidation.
  • SIESPJ code assigned by DIAN.
  • Beginning date of administration of the structure.
  • Finalization date of the administration.
  • Manager change.

• The obliged to provide information at RUB must keep the support documents for five years, since January 1st of the following year which the information was provided.
• In case of an electronic contingency, there will be five working days to send the information since the date which the contingency is solved.
• In case of the information is not provided, provided with mistakes, incompletely, or is not updated, the penalty established in section 658-3 of CTC will apply. The penalty will be 1 UVT (COP $38,004 by year 2022) for each day of delay in the registration or update of the information, or 100UVT (COP $3.800.400), if false, incomplete or erroneous information is reported.
• If the information is requested by the tax administration, and it is not provided within the deadline, or with mistakes, the penalties of section 651 of CTC could apply. The penalty will be 5% of the information not provided or 4% of the information provided with mistakes or 3% of the information submitted extemporaneously.
• If the information provided is false, civil and criminal penalties will apply to the managers of the corporations or entities.