On August 11, 2026, Colombia's Ministerio de Hacienda y Crédito Público (MinHacienda) published a Proyecto de Decreto postponing income tax and withholding deadlines for taxpayers affected by the earthquake of August 10, 2026. The draft adds transitory paragraphs to Articles 1.6.1.13.2.15 and 1.6.1.13.2.33 of Decreto 1625 of 2016, the Único Reglamentario en Materia Tributaria, establishing special filing and payment deadlines for natural persons, sucesiones ilíquidas and withholding agents whose fiscal domicile sits in the affected DIAN seccionales.
The move lands the day before the ordinary renta calendar for natural persons was due to open on August 12, 2026. MinHacienda opened the public comment window same-day, August 11, closing at 19:00. The instrument is a draft decreto reglamentario, not yet signed: until it is, the ordinary calendar technically remains in force, but the speed of the consultation signals that signing is expected within days, not weeks.
Who has to comply with the postponed deadlines?
The draft scopes relief by fiscal domicile, not by where the taxpayer physically files. It targets three categories of obligors registered in the DIAN seccionales of Cali, Palmira, Tuluá, Buenaventura, Pereira, Armenia, Manizales, Quibdó and Popayán, covering the departments of Valle del Cauca, Risaralda, Quindío, Caldas, Chocó and Cauca:
- Natural persons (personas naturales) obliged to file the income tax return, declaración del impuesto sobre la renta y complementarios.
- Sucesiones ilíquidas of deceased natural persons.
- Agentes de retención en la fuente and autorretenedores.
Legal entities are not in scope of these transitory paragraphs, which amend the natural-person and withholding articles only. Multinational groups with operating subsidiaries in the affected regions should confirm with their local tax adviser whether the relief reaches a given entity, since the trigger is the fiscal domicilio recorded with DIAN, not the place of operations.
What changes for the renta and withholding calendar?
Under the ordinary Decreto 1625 calendar, the renta filing window for natural persons opens on August 12, 2026 and rolls out by the last two digits of the taxpayer's NIT (Número de Identificación Tributaria). The draft decree replaces those dates with a postponed, NIT-digit-driven ladder for obligors in the affected seccionales, and correspondingly shifts the retención en la fuente deadlines governed by Article 1.6.1.13.2.33. The structure preserves the NIT-digit sequencing but pushes each batch later in the calendar.
| Obligation | Ordinary trigger (2026) | Draft decree relief |
|---|---|---|
| Renta, personas naturales and sucesiones ilíquidas | Window opens August 12, 2026 | Postponed NIT-digit deadlines (special schedule) |
| Retención en la fuente and autorretención | Monthly cycle per Article 1.6.1.13.2.33 | Shifted deadlines for affected seccionales |
| Impuesto al patrimonio | Separate calendar, June to November 2026 | Not amended by this draft |
Portafolio estimated the postponement at a temporary cash-flow impact of roughly COP 624 billion, a figure that frames the fiscal cost of the relief and its materiality for treasury planning. The draft does not waive the tax: it moves the filing and payment dates, and the underlying obligation, rates and bases are unchanged. The full text of the draft is available in the official PDF document on the MinHacienda site.
Is the decree already binding, and what happens next?
No. The text published on August 11, 2026 is a Proyecto de Decreto, and the consultation closed the same evening. MinHacienda now consolidates comments and prepares the final decreto for presidential signature and publication in the Diario Oficial. Only on publication does it become binding. The two amended articles sit in the reglamentario layer, so no congressional action is required: the President can sign it directly as an executive decree.
Because the ordinary renta window was scheduled to open August 12, the gap between draft and signed decree is operationally narrow. Tax teams should treat the draft schedule as the working assumption and be ready to adjust the moment the final dates are published, rather than wait for confirmation before recalibrating August and September calendars.
What should tax and payroll teams do now?
First, verify whether each affected entity's fiscal domicile, as recorded with DIAN, falls in one of the nine listed seccionales, since that record, not the operational location, determines eligibility. Second, map the entity's NIT last two digits against both the ordinary calendar and the draft's special schedule, and flag any batch that crosses into the postponed window. Third, brief payroll and accounts payable teams so that retención en la fuente cycles for July and August 2026 are not filed under the standard dates if the entity is in scope. Fourth, monitor the Diario Oficial for the signed decree, since the final dates may differ from the draft.
Take advantage of this real-time watch
For most affected filers, the immediate next step is a single eligibility check against the seccional list and a NIT-digit mapping exercise this week. Brief the relevant tax, payroll and treasury contacts, confirm the draft schedule against the official text, and hold the filing calendar open until the signed decree fixes the final dates. Obsidian's continuous, per-jurisdiction real-time monitoring surfaces this kind of emergency calendar change the moment a ministry publishes it.
