= Doing Business reform making it easier to do business. 
= Doing Business reform making it more difficult to do business.
DB2012:
Starting a Business:
Colombia reduced the costs associated with starting a business, by no longer requiring upfront payment of the commercial license fee.
Paying Taxes:
Colombia eased the administrative burden of paying taxes for firms by establishing mandatory electronic filing and payment for some of the major taxes.
Resolving Insolvency:
Colombia amended regulations governing insolvency proceedings to simplify the proceedings and reduce their time and cost
DB2011:
Dealing with Construction Permits:
Colombia eased construction permitting by improving the electronic verification of prebuilding certificates.
DB2010:
Starting a Business:
Business start-up was made easier by creating a public-private health provider that enables faster affiliation of employees and through a tool that allows online pre-enrollment with the social security office.
Dealing with Construction Permits:
The government eased the construction permit process with a new construction decree that categorizes building projects based on risk and allows electronic verification for certain documents.
Registering Property:
Property registration was made easier by making it possible to obtain required certificates online and by making standard preliminary sale agreements available free of charge.
Getting Credit:
Access to credit improved thanks to a new credit information law that guarantees the right of borrowers to inspect their own data and new rules that make it mandatory for credit providers to consult and share information with credit bureaus.
Protecting Investors:
An amendment to the Company Law strengthened investor protections by making it easier to sue directors in cases of prejudicial transactions between interested parties.
Paying Taxes:
The tax burden on businesses was eased with the introduction of electronic tax filing and payment, and some payments were reduced.
Trading Across Borders:
Implementation of an electronic declaration system has expedited customs clearance.
Resolving Insolvency:
Several decrees were passed continuing efforts to regulate the profession of insolvency administrators.
DB2009:
Starting a Business:
The time and cost to start a business were reduced by simplifying registration formalities, including speeding up processes at the registry and eliminating the need to obtain a certificate of compliance with zoning regulations.
Dealing with Construction Permits:
A silence-is-consent principle for building permits is now applied, reducing the total time for dealing with construction permits. A new unified application form was introduced.
Paying Taxes:
Colombia made electronic social security contributions mandatory for companies with more than 30 employees and created unified electronic forms for filing taxes.
Trading Across Borders:
Trading across borders was expedited: better banking services and the implementation of e-payments, electronic data interchange, and coordinated inspections in customs reduced the time to import and export.
Resolving Insolvency:
Authorities also introduced two new insolvency proceedings: a reorganization procedure to restructure insolvent companies and a mandatory liquidation procedure. Its new insolvency law tightens time limits for negotiating reorganization agreements. Before, the term allowed was six months, with a possible extension of eight months. The new law limits the term to four months, and the extension to two.
DB2008:
Protecting Investors:
Investor protection was strengthened by a decree requiring increasing disclosure requirements for related-party transactions.
Paying Taxes:
Paying taxes is now quicker and the corporate tax rate of 35% is progressively being reduced to 34% in 2007 and 33% in 2008. With the simplification of accounting rules, 188 hours were cut, a reduction of 41%.
Trading Across Borders:
By extending port operating hours, adopting more selective customs inspections, time for ports and terminal handling activities has been reduced.