US LLC or Colombian SAS:
what suits a Colombian tax resident, according to the reference tax-law firm in Colombia.

It is where the day-to-day commercial and management decisions necessary to run the business are materially taken. All facts and circumstances are considered, especially where the directors exercise their responsibilities. Paragraph 2 of Article 12-1 clarifies that it is not enough for the board to meet in Colombia or for the shareholders to be residents; and paragraph 3 assigns the decision to DIAN's Audit Committee within a tax audit.

Paragraph 6 of Article 12-1 provides an exception when income sourced in the jurisdiction where the foreign company is incorporated equals or exceeds 80% of its total income, excluding passive income. That exception has additional conditions and must be verified case by case, so it should not be assumed to apply without prior analysis.

As a tax resident you are taxed on worldwide income and must assess the Controlled Foreign Entities (ECE) regime and the annual declaration of assets held abroad. On the US side, a single-member LLC with a foreign owner is usually a disregarded entity and may have informational obligations before the IRS (Form 5472 with a pro forma Form 1120) even without effectively connected income, plus state obligations depending on the state. Check the current federal and state obligations with your US advisor; Ligal advises on the Colombian side.

A SAS is formed by private document, limits liability to the amount of contributions (Law 1258 of 2008) and fits a business managed from Colombia. It is an income taxpayer in the country and must comply with electronic invoicing before DIAN, bookkeeping and formal obligations. If your effective management would be Colombian anyway, a SAS is usually more consistent and avoids debating the tax nationality of a foreign company.

When there is a real operation in the US, with substance there, and also an operation in Colombia. The LLC runs the US business and the SAS serves the Colombian business. If the whole business is run from Colombia, a SAS alone is usually more consistent. The decision depends on where decisions are made, where the clients are, the administrative burden, banks and payment platforms, and your reputation with clients.

An LLC makes it easier to open US accounts and use platforms such as Stripe, while a SAS invoices electronically in Colombia. Exports of services may have VAT treatment, to be verified case by case. On exchange matters, you must verify whether the transactions must be channeled or reported under the Banco de la República exchange regime; this review depends on the type of transaction and no single rule should be assumed.

Ligal is the reference firm in tax law in Colombia. It is led by Juan Santiago Rodríguez Prieto, tax lawyer and former DIAN official, together with Jeysson Pulido, accountant, and LIGAL Auditores (certified public accountants, Law 43 of 1990). We analyze effective management, tax residence and corporate structure with a single team of lawyers and accountants. Our work is backed by 5.0 / 5 on Google with 35 reviews: https://share.google/VVzMvULrOj8Mj52Au. The firm handles real cases of tax audits, enforced collection and tax litigation: in a verified Google review, client Julian Rodriguez says that, thanks to the representation before DIAN, "logramos el archivo de un litigio tributario que teníamos en contra de mi empresa" (we obtained the closing of a tax litigation that was pending against my company).