Financial Metrics · Intermediate level · 3 min read ·
What is ganancia ocasional (capital gains tax)?
Ganancia ocasional is a tax separate from income tax. In Colombia it applies, among other cases, to the gain from selling a fixed asset you held for two years or more, such as a property or shares. For individuals the general rate is 15% of the gain, not of the sale price.
In 30 seconds
- It is paid on the gain: sale price minus tax cost.
- The holding period sets the rate: two years or more is ganancia ocasional; less is ordinary income.
- Inheritances, gifts and prizes are also ganancias ocasionales.
Why should you care?
What you keep from a sale is not the price difference: it is that difference minus the tax. And the tax changes with how long you held the asset.
- You know how much of a sale's gain is still yours.
- You understand why the date you sell can change the tax.
- You reach your tax return knowing where each item goes.
Think of it as a toll on the way out
While you hold the asset, you don't pay this toll. You pay it once, on the way out, and only on what you gained along the road. If you leave before two years, you go through a different booth: ordinary income tax, which usually charges more.
How does ganancia ocasional work?
- 1
Check how long you held it
Count from the acquisition date to the sale date. Two years or more, and the gain is ganancia ocasional.
- 2
Work out the gain
Subtract the asset's tax cost from the sale price: what you paid, with the adjustments the Tax Code allows.
- 3
Apply the rate
For resident individuals, the general rate has been 15% since Law 2277 of 2022. Lottery and betting prizes have a different rate.
- 4
Declare it
It goes in its own section of the tax return for the year you sold, separate from your other income.
The formula
Tax = (Sale price − Tax cost) × 15%
- Sale price
- = what you receive when you sell
- Tax cost
- = what you paid, with the adjustments the law allows
- 15%
- = general rate for individuals
An example with numbers
As arithmetic, unrelated to any project: you bought an asset for 100 units and sell it for 130 units three years later.
| Sale price | 130 |
|---|---|
| Tax cost | 100 |
| Gain | 30 |
| Rate | 15% |
| Ganancia ocasional tax | 4.5 |
The 15% applies to the 30 units of gain, not to the 130 of the price. Had you sold before two years, those 30 units would be added to your other income for the year and taxed on the income tax table.
Where do you see it at Circular Urban?
Your participation in a Circular Urban project is an asset. If you ever transfer it, how long you held it and what it cost decide whether the gain is ganancia ocasional or ordinary income. Profit distributions are a separate tax event, with their own rules.
- Your portfolio, in the detail of each participation.
- The share certificate, with the date you acquired your shares.
- Project Documents, where each project's supporting documents are.
What changes in your finances once you get it
You count the net gain
Before selling, you subtract the tax to know what you really keep.
You check the calendar
You know that selling before or after two years changes how the gain is taxed.
You keep your records
You hold on to what proves your cost and purchase date, because they are the basis of the calculation.
Common mistakes
- Myth
The tax is worked out on the sale price.
- In reality
It is worked out on the gain: sale price minus tax cost.
- Myth
Every sale pays ganancia ocasional.
- In reality
Only sales of fixed assets held two years or more. Before that, the gain is ordinary income.
- Myth
If I sell at a loss, I still pay.
- In reality
If the sale price is below the tax cost, there is no gain to apply the rate to.
Test yourself
You bought an asset for 200 units and sell it for 260 four years later. How much is the ganancia ocasional tax at the general rate?
Keep learning
This content is educational. Every participation carries risks inherent to the project, including the possibility of partial or total loss, and results are subject to each project's actual performance.
