Which are the benefits that bring being located in a Free Trade Zone in Colombia?

These zones have a number of benefits in different aspects, which allow the companies located there to strengthen their national and international activity 

Free Trade Zones are geographical areas delimited inside the Colombian territory where industrial activities of goods and services or commercial activities are developed under special regulations in taxes, customs and foreign trade.

These zones have a number of benefits in different aspects, which allow the companies located there to strengthen their national and international activity while they bring development to the economy sectors they represent and the regions where they are located.

The aforementioned benefits can be classified in three types: tax, customs and foreign trade.

Tax benefits

• Companies located in a Free Trade Zone pay 40% less of income tax as the national tax is of 33%, while in these special zones is of 20%.
• Similarly, they go from having a surcharge in income tax of 4% to 0% for profits of more than $800 million.
• They are exempt from VAT for raw materials, supplies and finished goods purchased in the national territory.
• They have 0% VAT and 0% tariff for goods that come from abroad into the Free Trade Zone.
• Companies can decide if they monetize or not their foreign currencies; in case of doing so, they must comply with the regulations determined by the Central Bank.
• They can repatriate profits.
• They can have access to financing on behalf of their suppliers, without having to create a deposit. They just have to inform the Central Bank about the foreign debt acquired in a term of 6 months from the transportation document date.
• Sales of international goods among Free Trade Zones users do not cause VAT due to the fact that theoretically, they haven´t entered the country.
• They have the possibility to sell to the national territory the goods or services without fees or restrictions, or previous clearance of the goods, or payment of the respective customs duties.
• They are exempt of remittance tax (7%) over international wire taxes.

Customs benefits

• Companies located in a Free Trade Zone have a more favorable tax basis importing goods produced within Free Trade Zones.
• They pay a lower rate in import duties for the goods produced in Free Trade Zones as it is paid over the value of the foreign component.
• They have the possibility of having partial production processes with companies in Colombia and count with unlimited storage of goods without paying nationalization tax costs or VAT.
• They have the benefit of partial nationalization of raw products or finished goods.
• They can use their movement of goods forms as export documents (DEX), which facilitates the foreign sales process.
• They can previously verify their inventories before nationalization and pay just for the goods for sale and not for the faulty ones to be returned.
• Goods made or transformed there are considered national so they are treated as so when they comply the origin criteria.

Foreign trade benefits

• DIAN officials are at their disposal to meet and assist the users operations.

• A free-trade-zone user can classify and distribute its goods without having to pay nationalization costs. This benefit optimizes the selection and packaging process in order to deliver its products to its final customers under the best conditions.
• They can make use of the international logistics distribution for all the Americas from Colombia.

• They can use the free movement of goods coming from Free Trade Zones to free warehouses and ports.

With information taken from  www.inviertaencolombia.com.co and Zona Franca de Bogotá www.grupozfb.com