Tax Advice-Accidental Expat for 5 years in Colombia

[hi2u_uk]

Hi everyone, I hope you are all doing so well.

I am a US citizen, but was born in Colombia, South America. 5 years ago I came with the intention of staying a few short months, but most of my family is here and I accidentally ended up staying the past 5 years, since the work I do is all remote with companies in the US. I've had a lot of life things happening these past 5 years and never thought about looking into tax payments here, I just kept paying my US taxes every year.

This week, one of my cousins is studying finances, and brought up that I was probably supposed to have declared some sort of residency and pay taxes, and I have been reading about it and sure enough there are a bunch of laws about this. I am planning to hire an accountant this week to start the process of making this right, but wanted to see if anyone here could give me some advice, I feel terrible that I never thought about this and don't want to get into a lot of trouble, I'm also praying they can do some sort of payment plan. Anyone with any knowledge of the Colombian tax system, I would appreciate your input so much.

 

[nhungthientai]

@hi2u_uk Anyone who stays over 183 days in a year in Colombia is automatically a tax-resident. They have to file taxes - it doesn't mean they have to pay any tax, cos of double tax treaties, amount of earnings etc. But they have to file for taxes.
Pls talk to a specialist accountant regarding this. This rule has put me off from applying for the DN visa.

Question - how are you able to live in Colombia for 5 years? I assume you have a US passport so your tourist visa would have been for 90 days, extendible? Did you apply for another sort of visa?