The Colombian tax system is undergoing a substantial alteration in tax planning and strategy. By means of an order issued by the Fourth Section of the Council of State dated June 2, 2026, the various appeals filed within the framework of the litigation against Decree 572 of 2025 and its provisional suspension were resolved.
The Council of State revoked the precautionary measure of provisional suspension that weighed on articles 2 to 8 of the aforementioned decree. With this decision, the regulatory scheme of increased self-withholding rates and the reduction of minimum withholding bases designed by the National Government regains full force and legal mandatory nature. Therefore, companies must once again apply the higher percentages and thresholds.
Consequently, the temporary benefit of applying the previous ordinary regime (i.e., Decree 1625 of 2016), which companies had temporarily returned to by order of the DIAN, is no longer in effect.
To guarantee legal certainty and allow for the adjustment of accounting systems, the Council of State determined that the reactivation of the regulation does not operate immediately. This means that the revocation of the provisional suspension will take effect from the first calendar day of the month following the finality of the June 2, 2026 order.
This means that companies have a technical transition margin while the ruling takes material effect during the month of June. Consequently, the definitive return to increased percentages and reduced thresholds under Decree 572 of 2025 is subject to the completion of this legal deadline. It is an unavoidable operational reality; organizations have just the right window of time to adjust their parameters before mandatory enforcement begins.
It is worth reiterating that this pronouncement does not constitute a final ruling on Decree 572 of 2025, but exclusively on the appropriateness of its provisional suspension. In the field of administrative law, precautionary measures operate as restrictive tools of an exceptional nature.
Given that this is an evidentiary and economic examination of high complexity, the Council of State categorically determined that the analysis of the decree’s legality or illegality is reserved exclusively for the final judgment.
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