UK company hiring in Colombia: payroll, visas and time zones

A UK company hiring in Colombia first has to decide whose name goes on the employment contract, and headcount usually settles it. For one to a handful of people, building a Colombian company means a Cámara de Comercio registration, a tax number from DIAN, bank accounts and a monthly filing cycle before anyone is paid. For a team of twenty that will stay for years, those fixed costs spread thinly and a Sociedad por Acciones Simplificada (SAS) becomes worth the effort.

Between those two points, most UK firms use an employer of record. The EOR signs the Colombian contract as employer and carries the payroll, filings and affiliations, and the UK business keeps control of the work, the targets and the team culture. The split of duties is set out task by task in what an EOR covers in Colombia.

Timing also points towards a structure. A SAS needs its registration, bank account and employer affiliations in place before the first payroll, and setting up the foreign investment side from the UK adds its own steps. If the hire is due to start next month, that sequence is hard to compress; if the plan is a Colombian office in two years, it is worth starting early and perhaps employing through an EOR in the meantime.

A services contract with an individual is the third option UK firms reach for, often because it resembles a UK consultancy arrangement. In Colombia it is a weaker fit than it looks. Under article 24 of the Labour Code, personal service is treated as employment until the business shows otherwise. A full-time developer working your hours on your systems is hard to present as an independent contractor.

A Colombian pay run is monthly, in pesos, and spread across more bodies and deadlines than a UK finance team is used to. Where a UK employer reports pay and deductions to one tax authority, a Colombian employer pays social security through one form and income tax through another, and then sends DIAN a separate electronic record of the payroll itself.

• PILA: one form covers health, pension, occupational risk (ARL), the family compensation fund, SENA and ICBF, settled monthly on a date between business days 2 and 16 that depends on the NIT.
• Withholding (retención en la fuente): deducted from salary under article 383 of the Estatuto Tributario and declared on a return filed by business day 7 to 16, according to the NIT’s last digit.
• Electronic payroll (nómina electrónica): DIAN expects a support document for every payment by day 10 of the next month.
• Statutory extras: two prima instalments (mid-year and December), a January interest payment, and a fund deposit with a mid-February cut-off.

Two features have no UK parallel. The first is the prima, half a month’s pay twice a year, which by law is not salary and does not enter the contribution base. The second is the severance savings account: the employer deposits a month’s salary a year into a fund the employee chose, rather than paying a lump sum only when the job ends. Our guide to Colombian payroll follows one month’s run from start to finish.

Pay is set and paid in pesos. If you think about the budget in pounds, the exchange risk sits with you, not with the employee, because Colombian salary is paid in legal currency. Fix the offer in COP and review it at the annual pay round, when the minimum wage and the thresholds tied to it also move.

There is no employer year-end tax reconciliation of the UK kind. An employee whose gross 2026 income passes 1,400 UVT (COP 73,323,600), or who meets other thresholds, deals with DIAN personally through a 2027 return, paying or reclaiming the balance.

UK budgets for Colombian roles most often go wrong on two points: the prestaciones, which add about 17.67% to salary, and a threshold at 10 minimum wages that changes the employer’s contribution rate overnight.

Below 10 times the 2026 minimum wage, that is below COP 17,509,050 a month, an employer that files Colombian income tax pays no employer health contribution and no SENA or ICBF levy, under article 114-1 of the Estatuto Tributario. Its contribution bill is then about 16.522% of pay at the class I ARL rate, made up of 12 points of pension, 0.522 of ARL and 4 for the caja. From 10 SMMLV upwards the bill becomes 30.022%, as the employer’s 8.5% health share and the 5 points of SENA and ICBF return on every peso of salary. A senior offer that lands just over the line can cost more than one slightly below it.

For senior hires there is a further option, the all-inclusive salary (salario integral). The floor in 2026 is 13 SMMLV, COP 22,761,765 a month, and the arrangement needs a written agreement. Prima, cesantías, their interest and most overtime-type surcharges are folded into it; paid vacation survives. Social security is charged on 70% of the figure.

For a fully costed example at a mid-level salary, see our breakdown of employer cost in Colombia. Fees are separate from those statutory figures; the pricing page sets ours out from USD 560 per employee per month.

If the person you want to employ in Colombia is British rather than Colombian, they need a visa that permits the job before they can start, and the employer is part of the application. Visas are issued by the Cancillería under Resolución 5477 de 2022; Migración Colombia then handles entry, stay and the foreigner ID card.

The standard work route is the visa M trabajador. It is tied to the employer and job named in the application and lasts up to 3 years. Among the documents, the employing legal entity must show bank statements for the last 4 months with average monthly income of at least 100 minimum wages (COP 175,090,500 a month in 2026), plus a motivation letter on the choice of a foreign candidate. Family members can apply as beneficiaries. Holding the M visa for 5 years opens the door to a resident visa.

UK managers sometimes suggest the digital nomad visa as a shortcut. It does not fit: holders of the visa V nómada digital must work for companies outside Colombia, which by definition excludes a Colombian employment contract. A Briton on a Colombian payroll cannot rely on it.

After the visa, three reporting steps follow. Within 15 calendar days the Briton must request a cédula de extranjería. Whoever hires a foreigner reports the hiring, and later its end, to Migración Colombia within 15 calendar days under Decreto 1067 de 2015. And the employer registers the worker in the Ministry of Labour’s RUTEC within 120 calendar days. Missing any of these is a separate breach from the visa itself.

Bogotá sits five hours behind London from late October to late March and six hours behind during British Summer Time, because Colombia does not move its clocks. A Colombian team starting at 8:00 overlaps with the UK afternoon, which is enough for daily stand-ups and handovers but not for a full shared day.

Stretching the overlap has legal edges. Night work in Colombia now runs from 19:00 to 6:00, after Ley 2466 de 2025 moved the start from 21:00 with effect from 25 December 2025. Any ordinary hours before 6:00 or after 19:00 carry a 35% night surcharge, and overtime may not exceed 2 hours in a day or 12 in a week. A rota built so that Colombian staff log on at 5:00 to catch the London morning will cost more and may breach the limits.

Holidays differ as well. Colombia has 18 public holidays in 2026, with eight of them shifted onto Mondays by the Ley Emiliani, so a Colombian team will be away on dates when London works, and vice versa. Put both calendars into the team planner at the start of the year, and remember that asking someone to work a Colombian holiday carries a surcharge of 90% from 1 July 2026.

Working time is shorter than many UK contracts assume. Since 15 July 2026 the ordinary week tops out at 42 hours, and no single day may exceed 8 ordinary hours. Ley 2191 de 2022 obliges each employer to adopt a written digital disconnection policy, so expectations about answering messages from London in the Colombian evening belong in that policy, not in an informal habit.

Several Colombian rules look familiar to a UK manager but work differently in practice. The most common misreadings concern probation, sickness, dismissal and restrictive covenants.

• Probation is capped at 2 months and exists only if agreed in writing; a UK-style six-month probation is not available.
• Sick pay: days 1 and 2 of a certified illness fall on the employer, the EPS picks up the rest, and the benefit is two-thirds of salary for the first 90 days.
• Dismissal: no-fault exits are possible on permanent contracts, at a statutory price; below 10 SMMLV, article 64 sets a month’s pay for year one plus 20 days’ pay per extra year.
• Protected workers: dismissing a pregnant employee, or one within 18 weeks after the birth, needs prior Ministry of Labour authorisation.
• Restrictive covenants: UK-style post-termination restrictions on competing are void in Colombia.

Resignations also work on Colombian terms. Staff who resign owe a month’s notice, counted in calendar days, but the contract cannot attach a penalty to a shorter exit. Plan handovers so that a short exit does not leave a UK project stranded.

If you would like these points handled for you, Employer of Record Colombia holds the contract, runs each month’s payroll and answers your managers’ questions on Colombian rules, while your UK team keeps directing the work.

Q01Is a branch or SAS required before a British firm takes on Colombian staff?+

A.No. The Colombian employment contract can be held by an employer of record, which will register the employee for social security and run payroll in pesos while the UK company directs the work.

Q02How many hours separate London and Bogotá?+

A.Five hours in the UK winter and six hours during British Summer Time, with Colombia behind, because Colombia keeps the same clock all year. Bogotá mornings overlap with London afternoons.

Q03Can a British citizen work for a Colombian employer on a digital nomad visa?+

A.No. That visa covers remote work only for foreign companies and does not allow work for a Colombian employer. A worker visa (visa M trabajador) is the usual route for someone on a Colombian contract.

Q04Does a UK employer pay a thirteenth month in Colombia?+

A.The prima de servicios works like one, worth a month’s pay per year and paid half in June and half in December. Cesantías add another month’s pay a year, banked in a fund of the employee’s choice, and they earn 12% interest.

Q05What reporting follows when a foreign employee starts in Colombia?+

A.Three deadlines run at once: 15 calendar days for the employer’s report to Migración Colombia, 15 for the employee’s ID card request, and 120 for the RUTEC entry with the Ministry of Labour.