Video · From Colombia
US Company from Colombia: Where It's Run Decides the Tax (2026)
Running a US company from Colombia? A company whose day-to-day management decisions are taken in Colombia is Colombian for tax and pays 35% on its worldwide income. 4:46 long, published .
Transcript
What the video says
0:00Can a Colombian resident own a US LLC?
It's evening in Bogota, and Camila has just sent a software licence to a customer abroad. Her next customers want to pay by card, and the big card processor doesn't take Colombian businesses. So she's looking at a US company. On the American side, she can have one. No social security number, and no trip to the US. We're BaseAcross. We set up US companies for founders outside America, so we'll be straight with you. From Colombia, the harder part is the tax at home. Run day to day from here, the company can count as Colombian.
And income from licensing software can be taxed to her as it's earned, even if it stays in the US.
0:38Do you need a US company for Stripe in Colombia?
Does she need one at all? It depends on what she sells, and to whom. For card payments from customers worldwide, a Wyoming LLC usually fits. A US company with an EIN and a US bank account can apply for a US account with the card processor, which reviews each application and can decline. US investors usually want a Delaware C-Corp. For software or licences, the guide says check Colombia's rules on controlled foreign entities first.
Camila wants card payments and sells licences, so she checks first.
1:11Residence, foreign assets and wealth tax in Colombia
Colombia's rules start with residence. You're resident if you spend more than a set number of days in Colombia in any three hundred and sixty-five consecutive days, counting the days you arrive and leave. Some Colombian nationals are resident through family, income or assets. Then there's the first of January. If your assets abroad on that day are above a set threshold, you file the annual declaration of foreign assets. And at a set net worth or more, you pay wealth tax.
How your bank registers the investment is for your bank and your accountant.
1:43Wyoming LLC or Delaware C-Corp, and an EIN without an SSN
The American part is simpler. A Wyoming LLC suits an owner-run business selling to US customers or needing the card processor. A Delaware C-Corp suits raising from US investors. The company needs a registered agent, an address in that state for legal papers, not where you work. Then the EIN, the company's US tax number. Without a social security number or an ITIN, the application goes on a separate IRS form instead of the online tool. You don't need a Colombian SAS to form the US company.
Prices are in US dollars, so check your card's exchange rate and fees.
2:19Can you open a Mercury or Wise account from Colombia?
The bank is the easier side from Colombia. Founders who live here can apply to a US fintech bank, because Colombia isn't on its list of countries it doesn't serve. It decides each application. A multi-currency account can give a US company run from Colombia US dollar account details. It reviews each business. Another US bank doesn't bar Colombia, but it asks every owner for a physical US address.
Each provider decides for itself.
2:46Can Colombia tax your US company as Colombian?
Then Colombian tax. A company is Colombian for tax where its day-to-day commercial and management decisions are materially taken, looking at where its managers usually work. And a resident with a large enough share of a foreign entity controlled from Colombia, transparent or not, is taxed on its passive income in the year it's earned. Licensing software is on that list. Here's the guide's illustration. Camila's Wyoming LLC licenses software to customers abroad and makes two hundred million pesos of profit. She owns all of it. Run day to day from Bogota, it's a Colombian company, taxed at thirty-five percent, or seventy million pesos. Run from abroad instead, licensing is over eighty percent of its income, so all of it is passive and taxed to her in the year it's earned. Either way, the profit doesn't wait in the US until she takes it out.
That's an illustration, not a quote.
3:39Do you pay US tax, and is there a US–Colombia treaty?
In America, there's no income tax treaty with Colombia in force. US-source dividends, interest and royalties paid to you are withheld at a set rate, unless a US exemption applies. Pay for work you do in Colombia generally isn't US income, so nothing is withheld on it. A single-owner LLC with no US office or staff often owes no US income tax on it. It still files a report with the IRS when it has reportable transactions with you, and missing it is expensive.
For a calendar-year company, it's usually due in mid-April.
4:12What to do first, in order
The order runs like this. Start with your accountant: where the company will be run day to day, whether its income is passive, and how your bank registers the investment. Then form the company, get the EIN, and apply for the account you'll use. Split the company's income by type in its books. Put the IRS report, the foreign assets declaration and your Colombian return on one calendar. The full guide, with every source and a checklist for your adviser, is linked below.
Camila's first call is to her accountant, about where her company is run.
The founder in the video is an example, not a customer. The rules in it were checked when it was made; the guide carries the current sources.
The guide
Costs, documents, timelines and the rules in Colombia, with sources.
Read the guide for ColombiaWatch on YouTube