Australia and Colombia have never signed a tax treaty. Without one, the same superannuation drawdown can get taxed in full by both countries — and the fix isn't a form, it's a structure.

There's no reduced withholding, no formal residence tie-breaker, and no automatic foreign tax credit machinery on either side. Double taxation is a real risk you plan around, not one you can assume away.

It's still very much workable — Australians retire to Colombia successfully every year. The playbook just looks quite different from the Canadian version, because the Canadians have a treaty doing a lot of the work for them and you don't.

CGT Event I1 — Australia's Departure Tax

When you stop being an Australian tax resident, CGT Event I1 deems most of your capital assets sold at market value on that date. Gains are taxed on your final Australian return.

Included: shares (Australian and foreign), managed funds, foreign real estate, cryptocurrency.

Excluded: "taxable Australian property," mainly Australian real estate and business assets tied to an Australian permanent establishment. These stay in the Australian tax net whether you're resident or not.

The interesting choice: you can elect not to trigger CGT Event I1 on assets that aren't taxable Australian property. Make that election and the asset stays subject to Australian CGT until you actually sell it, years later if you like. For a retiree moving to a country with no CGT treaty relief, which includes Colombia, this election is often the better call.

Superannuation

Australian super is the big question mark in this file.

While you're an Australian tax resident, super is taxed under the ordinary regime: mostly concessional at 15% inside the fund, tax-free in the pension phase after age 60.

Once you're a Colombian tax resident, Colombia may treat super income as taxable pension income, or as "renta de capital" (investment income), depending on how it's characterised. Without a treaty, there's no cross-border rule to settle the question either way.

If Colombia treats your super pension as pension income: the 1,000 UVT monthly exemption shelters most retirees down to zero Colombian tax on that portion. At the confirmed 2026 UVT and current exchange rates, that exemption is worth roughly USD 16,800–16,900 a month — a wide berth for most drawdown levels.

If Colombia treats it as investment income instead: it's taxable at progressive rates up to 39%.

This characterisation is a genuine planning question, not a technicality. Structuring your drawdowns to look clearly like periodic pension payments, rather than lump sums, strengthens the case for pension treatment. If you run an SMSF, there's a second issue layered on top: the "central management and control" test can jeopardise the fund's Australian tax status if every trustee becomes non-resident.

Franking Credits

As an Australian tax resident, franked dividends from Australian shares came with a valuable franking credit attached, refundable in cash if your tax bill didn't use it all.

As a non-resident, franked dividends are exempt from Australian withholding tax entirely — but the franking credit refund disappears with your residency. Unfranked dividends attract 30% Australian withholding as a non-resident, or 15% under a treaty, which Australia and Colombia don't have.

Run a number through it. A AUD 500,000 portfolio of fully franked Australian shares yielding 4% cash pays out AUD 20,000 in dividends. At the 30% corporate tax rate, the attached franking credit is roughly AUD 8,571. As a resident with modest other income, that credit is often refunded in full — real cash. As a non-resident, the credit simply isn't refundable to you, so you lose it, even though the dividend itself now escapes Australian tax. That gap is what should drive the decision between holding Australian shares personally after you leave, or restructuring into a different portfolio before you go.

Australian Real Property

Australian real estate stays subject to Australian tax on income, and CGT on eventual sale, regardless of your residence.

Non-residents lose the 50% CGT discount on gains accrued from the date you leave. This is significant on any property held for years afterward.

The Foreign Resident Capital Gains Withholding regime also applies: 15% of the gross sale price, on every taxable Australian property transaction, with no dollar threshold. The AUD 750,000 threshold that used to exempt smaller sales was abolished from 1 January 2025 — every sale by a foreign resident now has withholding applied at settlement, regardless of value.

Your options: sell before departure and pay CGT under resident rules, keep the property and accept non-resident treatment, or in some cases structure the holding through an Australian entity that maintains its own tax residency.

Colombian Residency and Tax

Same rules as for any foreigner: 183 days in any rolling 365 makes you a Colombian tax resident, taxed on worldwide income.

The M-Pensionado visa income threshold is three times the Colombian minimum wage — COP 5,252,715 per month for 2026, roughly USD 1,380–1,460 depending on the exchange rate. The peso figure is what legally controls. Most Australians drawing on superannuation clear this without difficulty.

Formulario 160, the foreign asset declaration, is required once foreign assets exceed roughly USD 32,000 — and that includes your Australian super balance, not just cash and property.

The No-Treaty Problem in Practice

Without a treaty, both countries can theoretically tax the same income, and there's no formal mechanism stopping it.

In practice, Colombia grants a foreign tax credit under domestic law for Australian tax paid on Australian-source income — but the credit calculation runs on Colombia's terms, not through a coordinated treaty framework. Sometimes it works cleanly. Sometimes it doesn't, and small amounts of double taxation slip through the gap.

Planning around this means deliberately characterising income sources, timing large events carefully, and often preferring a Panama structure over direct personal ownership for the investment portfolio.

The Panama Layer

Because Australia and Colombia have no treaty, the Panama structure often earns its keep faster for Australians than it does for Canadians, who at least have treaty-reduced withholding to fall back on.

Not for tax deferral — Colombia's CFC rules still reach a Panamanian company's income and attribute it back to you as the Colombian resident.

But for USD denomination (Australians carry more AUD-COP volatility exposure than Canadians carry CAD-COP), for succession planning, and for a clean structural layer that separates Australian assets from Colombian ones, the Panama foundation-plus-SA setup is often the right answer. Combined with a well-timed CGT Event I1 election, deliberate super drawdown structuring, and careful Colombian pension-income characterisation, the total tax outcome can be very reasonable even without a treaty doing the work.

The Pre-Departure Checklist

• [ ] Model your CGT Event I1 exposure and decide on the opt-out election for non-taxable-Australian-property assets

• [ ] Decide the super strategy — lump sum before departure versus pension-phase drawdowns from abroad

• [ ] Resolve any SMSF residency issues before every trustee becomes non-resident

• [ ] Decide on Australian real property — sell, hold, or restructure through an entity

• [ ] Model Australian withholding on post-departure investment income, franked and unfranked separately

• [ ] De-register from Medicare, driver's licence, and the electoral roll

• [ ] Plan the FX transfer into Colombia through the official channel

• [ ] Model the Colombian pension-income characterisation question against your actual income mix

• [ ] Consider a Panama structure for the investment portfolio

• [ ] Get pension certificates apostilled for the M-Pensionado application

Planning From Here

Australia to Colombia is a technically demanding path because of the no-treaty gap, and it rewards planning done properly before you set a date. Book a scoping call: we'll model your CGT Event I1 exposure and the super-characterisation question first, then set a departure timeline around the answer.

General information as of 2026, not personal tax or legal advice. Australian and Colombian rules move independently of each other, there's no treaty coordinating them, and your specific facts (asset mix, super balance, timing) change the numbers. Confirm current figures with a qualified adviser before you commit to a departure date.