VAT Tax Reimbursement - IVA-free shopping!

Dear Bogota Expats,

One of the great benefits of my husband's "diplomatic" status is that we exempt from paying IVA taxes.  In Colombia, there are different taxes - 5%, 8% and most common and worst of all, 16% tax for most non-food items and non-service items.  (Unfortunately if you go to a restaurant, it is counted as service and you cannot be reimbursed for any of those costs!)  Every quarter they collect taxes and after about 4 months, we will receive the reimbursement of each prior VAT tax submission.

So what information do you need?  Please see below the process and procedures to this:

• Keep all receipts that have IVA on them
• No need to keep the small credit card slips (ditafono)
• On each receipt, you will have find the following:
• Name of the company "sociedad anonima (S.A.S.)" which is often different than the name of the store/restaurant
• The company's NIT number
• Invoice number
• Address of the store
• Total amount of the receipt
• Total amount of the IVA

Other FAQs:

1. If it says "impuesto consumo" or "impuestos" on the receipts (mostly from restaurant receipts), do we include these?

- Please include the impuesto al consumo

2. On McDonald's receipt, for example, it doesn't explicitly say IVA, but it says "subtotal" then "Total aqui con IVA" - should I calculate the IVA amount myself?

- One of the requirements of DIAN is that the receipt should explicitly say IVA however please include those invoices, we will check if we can include  it. 

3.  What is the date from which you are able to claim VAT reimbursement from?  

- Ask your office administrator when you were issued your diplomatic number (though the physical card may not be in your hands just yet)

4.  Just to confirm, should any of the ditafono (credit card machine) receipts be submitted?  Should we keep them for our records?

- Credit card machine receipts are not necesary, 

5.  How should the receipts be organized, with a paperclip in order alphabetically?

- The receipts should be organized just as you said alphabetically with a paperclip

Happy reimbursements!

Avila