Colombia Payroll Services
Are an important and integral part of any corporation in Colombia. In this article you will find a description of the different employee benefits for Colombian employees. It’s important to understand your responsibilities to pay these obligations are strictly enforced by the Colombian Work Ministry. A failure to not understand the laws because you have a new corporation is not a valid excuse under Colombian law.
It’s important to have a certified accountant and experienced attorney correctly setup Colombian work contracts and employee benefits to eliminate risks of lawsuits, including everything from on the job injuries to workers, to employees who make legal claims upon termination of their contract with the employer.
As a complementary service our Colombian human resources department has extensive experience in hiring, employee screening, background checks, firing, payroll services, and on the job disciplinary reports. Our employee screening service offers home visits to job applicants homes, which is common for jobs in financial and security fields.
Here is a summary of the many payments and provisional benefits an employer must make during the course of having an employee in Colombia:
Abuse of Power of Attorney for Home Purchase
When the power of attorneys is very general and not specific, this gives the power to the opportunistic person to sign a property over to other persons, change prices, or even reroute payments to themselves or unknown third parties.
One example of out of many, a woman with a power of attorney for someone she was romantically involved with purchased a home and put the home in her name, which was not the agreement. Luckily, the person who sent the money had many conversations which established how the purchase was supposed to be conducted. A judge later forced the liquidation of the home and the US citizen was rewarded money from the sale a few years later.
Another example all too common is a girlfriend or wife asking for money to make property payments for a future or current home. Foreigners often trust their Colombian lover to faithfully make investments with the pretense of buildings a future together.
The reality is that many times the money is not being invested, and is being used to pay for a lavish lifestyle in Colombia, or money is being invested in one person’s name and once the couple ends the relationship the foreigner is left with nothing.
Unfortunately, open-hearted or overly nice persons are always get preyed upon by unscrupulous people in Colombia.
Understanding Colombian Payroll Taxes
For a Colombian labor contract you will be responsible for paying and keeping track of the following benefits:
A) Monthly Payments for Employee Benefits:
1) Salud – EPS Basic Colombian Health Insurance
2) Pension – Pension – Social Security
3) ARL – Professional Risk – Workers Insurance
4) Parafiscales – (taxes and parafiscal contributions)
4.1) SENA – Gov. Education Program – SENA educación institución
4.2) ICBF – Family Health Services Tax – Bien Estar Familiar
4.3) CCF – (Employee Benefit Fund – Caja de Compensación)
4.4) Fosyga – Fondo de solidaridad y garantia
4.5) Fondo de salud y eventos catastróficos – (Fund & Gaurantee for catastropic health events)
B) Provisional Costs – (Paid on termination of contract, beginning of the year, end of year & mid year)
B.1) Prima de Servicios – Minimum Employee Bonus Required by Law PAID by end of June 1/2 Monthly Salary, & end of December 1/2 Monthly Salary
B.2) Vacaciones – Vacation Pay 15 Business days in a year *(1st year)
B.3) Cesantías – (Serverence – forced goverment savings)
B.4) Intereses a las cesantías – Serverence – Interest on forced government savings. Pay before each january 31st to employee directly.
Payroll Certifications & Colombian Labor Contracts
The initial accountant payroll certification details exact value for benefits and where benefits will be paid for any new worker. Then last but not least, the workers employment contract (written by an attorney) are very important for any new employee/employer. Employees or independent contractors must declare their salaries with various government entities, and it is very important to do this correctly in order to avoid any legal problems with regulatory agencies. This is another reason an independent lawfirm like CL&A SAS should be in charge of making or overseeing these payments.
Call us today to receive a certified cost projection for hiring employees and managing payroll services in Colombia.
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