Colombia Roundup: Tax dividends, COP 16, bullfighting bill, Olympics

Tax dividends

Colombia's constitutional court has upheld the country's tax on dividends, rejecting an appeal arguing it was confiscatory. The appeal, brought by lawyer Humberto Sierra Porto, failed to demonstrate the confiscatory nature of the tax increase. The withholding tax on outbound dividends increased to 20% from 10%, while inter-corporate dividends are taxed at 10%, Bloomberg reports.

COP 16

The 16th United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity of the Parties (COP16) will be hosted by the Colombian government in Cali, from October 21 to November 1, 2024. According to Climate Chance, the monitoring framework agreed at the previous conference to allow the progress of the countries towards national goals and targets under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to be evaluated.

Colombian gymnast represents at Olympics

North Texan Luisa Blanco, a gymnast, will represent Colombia at the Paris Olympics. She obtained dual citizenship to compete and earned her spot at the Colombian National Championship. Blanco is focused on representing her home country and having fun at the Olympics, NBC reports.

Bullfighting bill approved

Lawmakers in Colombia have approved a bill that seeks to ban one of the country's biggest and oldest traditional sports, bullfighting. The approval comes after 93 Congress members voted for ‘yes’ as opposed to the 2-member vote for ‘no’ during a debate on the bill. Congress on May 28 announced the approval of the last of four debates that were held in parliament to discuss the bill. The bill awaits presidential sanction to become a law in the country, GSW reports.

Transitional Justice process

A team of Nepali cross-party leaders is visiting Colombia to study its transitional justice process, specifically the performance of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (SJP). The SJP was created as part of a peace agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrilla group in 2016. According to The Kathmandu Post, the leaders hope to learn from Colombia's successful conclusion of the transitional justice process, particularly in implementing reduced sentencing for perpetrators who cooperate in revealing the truth. This visit comes at a time when Nepal's transitional justice process has been paralysed, with the government failing to find a meeting point in the amendment bill. The leaders believe that studying the Colombian model will be helpful in understanding how Nepal can adopt similar practices in its own transitional justice process. Colombia's constitutional court has upheld the country's tax on dividends, rejecting an appeal arguing it was confiscatory. The appeal, brought by lawyer Humberto Sierra Porto, failed to demonstrate the confiscatory nature of the tax increase. The withholding tax on outbound dividends increased to 20% from 10%, while inter-corporate dividends are taxed at 10%.