Plaza Mayor de Bogotá, 1846. Edward Walhouse Mark. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
For two generations, a Colombian family that wanted security abroad bought an apartment in Florida and, in time, applied for a green card. Madrid was the respectable second choice. In 2026 that order deserves to be reversed for a family that keeps its business in Colombia. For seven months of this year the United States suspended immigrant visas for Colombian nationals; it still has no income tax treaty with Colombia; and it taxes an American-born grandchild on worldwide income for life.
Madrid has not been traditionally attractive for colombian private clients, however, things have changed lately. The city council’s compilation of international rankings places it tenth in the Global Power City Index 2024 of the Mori Memorial Foundation, thirteenth in Kearney’s Global Cities Index 2024, seventh in Resonance’s World’s Best Cities 2025 and seventh in the InterNations Expat City Ranking 2024. The number of Colombians living in Spain was 978,041 on 1 January 2025, with or without Spanish nationality, against 532,266 four years earlier, and Colombians were the largest group of new arrivals between April and June 2026.
Spain also gives a Colombian national the shortest route to citizenship of the European Union. Spanish nationality is available after two years of legal residence under article 22.1 of the Código Civil, without giving up Colombian nationality under the Convenio de Doble Nacionalidad of 27 June 1979 (Ley 71 de 1979), and it carries the right to live, work and establish a business in any of the twenty-seven Member States under articles 21 and 49 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
On arrival, the impatriate regime of article 93 of Ley 35/2006, de 28 de noviembre, del Impuesto sobre la Renta de las Personas Físicas (LIRPF) keeps Colombian dividends, interest and capital gains outside the Spanish tax base for the year of arrival and the five following years, and taxes Spanish employment income at 24 per cent up to 600,000 euros. In the Comunidad de Madrid, net wealth up to 3,000,000 euros pays no wealth tax under the 100 per cent bonificación of article 20 of Decreto Legislativo 1/2010. Both steps work only if the family has first ceased to be resident in Colombia, and the Colombian residence rules and the treaty between Spain and Colombia are therefore examined first.
This article explains, for the Colombian reader, what a second residence in the United States or in Europe gives the family and what it takes from it. It starts with the point families overlook most: leaving Bogotá does not end Colombian taxation. It then weighs the United States and Spain on the same questions (access, tax on arrival, tax on death, the cost of daily life, civil liberties and the position of the next generation), looks briefly at London, Lisbon, Milan and Dublin, and ends with the kind of family each destination suits.
The short answer is that Miami suits the family ready to become American, and Madrid suits the family that wants a European base while its business stays in Colombia. The figures behind that answer are stated as at 18 October 2026, with Colombian thresholds converted at the UVT of $52.374 fixed for the 2026 taxable year by DIAN Resolución 000238 de 15 de diciembre de 2025.
Before choosing: what Colombia keeps taxing after departure
Article 10 of the Estatuto Tributario (ET) treats as resident anyone present in Colombia for more than 183 days in any period of 365 consecutive days. Colombian nationals remain resident on further tests that do not depend on presence: where the spouse, permanent companion or dependent minor children are tax resident in Colombia, where half or more of income is of Colombian source, where half or more of assets are administered or held in Colombia, or where the national fails to prove tax residence abroad when the DIAN asks. The tests were introduced by Ley 1607 de 2012, and the DIAN summarises them in its guidance ¿Eres residente en Colombia para efectos tributarios? A national who meets one of those tests is nevertheless not resident if half or more of annual income arises in the jurisdiction of the new domicile, or half or more of assets are located there, unless that jurisdiction is a non-cooperative or low-tax jurisdiction (article 10, paragraph 2 ET).
A family whose operating company, rental income and investments stay in Colombia therefore remains Colombian for tax, wherever it lives, until the balance of income or assets moves abroad, or until a treaty resolves the conflict on the strength of the other State’s certificate of residence. A Colombian resident is taxed on worldwide income, credits foreign tax under article 254 ET, and pays the impuesto al patrimonio on net worth of 72,000 UVT or more, at marginal rates from 0.5 per cent. A family that leaves without that planning faces two worldwide charges, and with the United States there is no treaty to decide between them. The treaty position with the United Kingdom is explained in UK Colombia Tax Residence: Key Double Tax Rules Explained, and the practical sequence of a change of residence in Changing your Tax Residency: Key steps to avoid costly mistakes.
Table 1. Colombian thresholds that follow the family abroad, 2026 taxable year (UVT $52.374)
| Rule | Estatuto Tributario | UVT | Pesos |
|---|---|---|---|
| Impuesto al patrimonio applies from net worth of | art 292-3 | 72,000 | $3.770.928.000 |
| Occasional gain exemption, deceased’s dwelling | art 307 | 13,000 | $680.862.000 |
| Occasional gain exemption, other immovables | art 307 | 6,500 | $340.431.000 |
| Occasional gain exemption, each heir, legatee or spouse | art 307 | 3,250 | $170.215.500 |
| Exempt part of each monthly pension payment, foreign pensions included | art 206.5 | 1,000 | $52.374.000 |
Inheritances, legacies and gifts above those exemptions are taxed in the recipient as an occasional gain at 15 per cent under article 314 ET, in the wording given by Ley 2277 de 2022. Colombian families using a fiducia should read Neither fiducia nor fideicomiso is a trust: a Colombian and Spanish perspective before any restructuring.
Going north: what the United States gives a Colombian family
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The United States offers the deepest capital market in the world, a dollar economy and a flight of under four hours from Bogotá to Miami. None of those depends on living there. A Colombian company sells to American buyers under the Trade Promotion Agreement in force since 15 May 2012, raises American capital through a Delaware subsidiary, and sends its executives on business visas or under the E-2; the family can do all of it from Madrid.
Residence in the United States adds something only where the founder must run the American operation in person, and it comes at the price of worldwide taxation for the founder and the next generation. Spain, with a passport two years away, adds a single market of about 450 million people, open to Colombian goods under the trade agreement with the European Union applied since 1 August 2013.
Colombia is an E-2 treaty country, so a Colombian national who invests a substantial amount in a business that the national directs may obtain treaty investor status under section 101(a)(15)(E)(ii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, without a statutory minimum; Colombia’s E-1 and E-2 classifications have applied since 10 June 1948 under the State Department’s treaty country list. Permanent residence by investment remains available through the EB-5 category of section 203(b)(5), as amended by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022, at 800,000 dollars in a targeted employment area or 1,050,000 dollars elsewhere.
Once the family is domiciled in the United States, an estate below the basic exclusion amount of 15,000,000 dollars per person for 2026 under section 2010(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) passes free of federal estate tax, and there is no forced heirship. Above that amount the charge is 40 per cent: an estate of 50,000,000 dollars pays about 14,000,000 dollars, or 8,000,000 dollars for a married couple using both exclusions, and a surviving spouse who is not an American citizen loses the unlimited marital deduction unless the assets pass through a qualified domestic trust under section 2056(d). The same estate passing to children in Madrid bears Impuesto sobre Sucesiones y Donaciones after a regional credit of 99 per cent of the tax, and shares in a family company qualify for the 95 per cent reduction of article 20.2.c of Ley 29/1987 and for exemption from wealth tax under article 4.Ocho of Ley 19/1991. The step-up in basis under section 1014 has a Spanish counterpart: article 33.3.b LIRPF treats no gain as arising on death, and the heirs take the inherited assets at their value at death. American trust law remains more flexible than the Código Civil, whose legítima binds the founder in Spain as the asignaciones forzosas do in Colombia, but a trust brings grantor trust, PFIC and CFC rules into the family’s affairs.
Going north: what the United States costs a Colombian family
Access has become uncertain. On 21 January 2026 the State Department paused the issue of immigrant visas at consulates abroad to nationals of 75 countries, Colombia among them, while it reviewed public-charge vetting; dual nationals applying on the passport of a country outside the list were exempt. The pause ended on 21 August 2026 under a court order in CLINIC et al. v. Rubio, and the State Department notice, updated on 28 August 2026, states that it is no longer in effect. A family whose EB-5 petition was approved in those seven months waited at the consular stage in Bogotá with no date. The episode does not bar a green card today, but it shows that the timetable for one depends on executive measures that can be reinstated or challenged again.
Once the card is issued, the family is taxed on its worldwide income from the residency starting date under section 7701(b) IRC, with no arrival regime; the State Department’s income tax guidance for foreign mission staff confirms that a green card holder is a United States resident for tax. Because Colombia has no income tax treaty with the United States, a family member resident in both countries has no tie-breaker rule to rely on, and relief from double taxation depends on the unilateral credit each system grants. Dividends paid by a United States company to a Colombian shareholder bear 30 per cent withholding under section 1441, with no treaty reduction.
The heaviest charge falls on families that own American assets without moving there. A Colombian who is not domiciled in the United States pays federal estate tax under sections 2101 and 2102(b)(1) of up to 40 per cent on United States situs assets above an exclusion of only 60,000 dollars. A Miami apartment worth 4,000,000 dollars held directly carries an estate tax of 1,532,800 dollars: the tentative tax of 1,545,800 dollars under section 2001(c), less the unified credit of 13,000 dollars.
Figure 1. Federal estate tax on a Miami property held directly by a Colombian who is neither a US citizen nor domiciled in the United States
| Property value (dollars) | Estate tax (dollars) | Share of value |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000,000 | 332,800 | 33% |
| 2,000,000 | 732,800 | 37% |
| 4,000,000 | 1,532,800 | 38% |
| 6,000,000 | 2,332,800 | 39% |
| 10,000,000 | 3,932,800 | 39% |
Computed under IRC ss 2001(c), 2101 and 2102(b)(1), before deductions. The effective charge rises towards the 40 per cent marginal rate because the 60,000 dollar exclusion is fixed.
For the family that does move, the cost passes to the next generation. A child born in the United States, or a family member who naturalises, is taxed on worldwide income for life wherever he lives, and a green card holder who leaves after holding the card in eight of fifteen years faces the expatriation charge of section 877A. In American hands, the family investment company becomes a passive foreign investment company and the Colombian operating company can become a controlled foreign corporation.
Going east: what Spain gives a Colombian family
Article 22.1 of the Código Civil requires two years of legal residence for nationals of Ibero-American countries, against ten years for most others, and the Convenio de Doble Nacionalidad allows the Colombian to keep Colombian nationality. Colombians already enter the Schengen area without a visa for short stays, so the family can test Madrid before committing to it; the ETIAS travel authorisation will apply from the last quarter of 2026 on the EEAS timetable. While the American pause applied, a dual national applying on a Spanish passport was outside it, so Spanish nationality also protects a later green card application against a measure of the same kind.
Spanish nationality also extends beyond the Union. Its holder may live and work in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway under the Agreement on the European Economic Area and in Switzerland under the Agreement on the Free Movement of Persons of 1999; pays home-student fees at any EU university under Directive 2004/38/EC; receives state healthcare across that area with the European Health Insurance Card; and is entitled abroad to the consular protection of any Member State under article 23 TFEU. The January 2026 edition of the Henley Passport Index gives the Spanish passport visa-free access to 186 destinations, against 179 for the American and 130 for the Colombian, and Spain’s membership of the Visa Waiver Program takes the family to Miami on an ESTA rather than a visa. Regional reliefs in the Impuesto sobre Sucesiones y Donaciones under Ley 29/1987, de 18 de diciembre reach 99 per cent between close relatives and have been open to residents of third States, Colombia included, since Ley 11/2021 followed Case C-127/12 Commission v Spain.
The six-year arrival regime of article 93 LIRPF, as amended by Ley 28/2022, de 21 de diciembre, is open to those not resident in Spain in the five preceding tax years. Its operation for internationally mobile clients is examined in The Beckham Rule and, against the British four-year regime, in Taxing Income or Taxing Wealth? The Real Arithmetic of an Anglo-Spanish Move.
Spain has a treaty with Colombia, the Convenio of 31 March 2005 (BOE núm 260, 28 October 2008), in force since 23 October 2008, which resolves dual residence and limits withholding; the Colombian Constitutional Court reviewed it in Sentencia C-383 de 2008. The ETVE regime of articles 107 and 108 of Ley 27/2014, de 27 de noviembre, del Impuesto sobre Sociedades allows a Spanish holding company to receive and distribute foreign dividends and gains free of Spanish tax.
Going east: what Spain costs a Colombian family
Spain charges an annual tax on wealth, but the region decides how much. The Comunidad de Madrid applies a 100 per cent bonificación to the Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio of Ley 19/1991, de 6 de junio, so net wealth up to 3,000,000 euros bears no wealth tax. Above that figure the Impuesto Temporal de Solidaridad de las Grandes Fortunas created by article 3 of Ley 38/2022, de 27 de diciembre charges 1.7, 2.1 and 3.5 per cent; since Ley 12/2023, Madrid collects the equivalent amount itself as Impuesto sobre el Patrimonio, and the ITSGF was extended without a fixed end date by Real Decreto-ley 8/2023, de 27 de diciembre. Shares in a family company that meet the conditions of article 4.Ocho of Ley 19/1991 are exempt from both. An impatriate under article 93 is charged on Spanish assets only, but Ley 38/2022 extended the charge to shares in non-resident companies whose assets consist as to half or more of Spanish real property. That rule reaches the Panamanian and Delaware companies through which Colombian families have held Madrid apartments, as explained in Rethinking the Spanish Property Corporate Shield.
Spain disregards the trust and the fiducia as separate taxpayers and attributes their income and assets to the settlor. A resident must report foreign assets above 50,000 euros per category on the Modelo 720 return and foreign-held crypto-assets on the Modelo 721, under the eighteenth additional provision of Ley 58/2003, de 17 de diciembre, General Tributaria. Once the six years under article 93 end, ordinary rates apply: savings income at 19 to 30 per cent, and general income at combined state and regional rates above 45 per cent at the top of the scale. A resident who leaves after ten of the last fifteen years holding shares worth more than 4,000,000 euros meets the exit charge of article 95 bis LIRPF. A Colombian family that later lets or sells Spanish property as non-residents is taxed under the rates published in the Agencia Tributaria’s Manual práctico de tributación de no residentes: 24 per cent on gross rent for residents outside the EU and EEA, and 19 per cent on dividends, interest and gains.
Spain sells no residence. The investor visa was repealed with effect from 3 April 2025 by Ley Orgánica 1/2025, de 2 de enero; the non-lucrative residence permit under Real Decreto 1155/2024, de 19 de noviembre does not allow work; and the entrepreneur and remote-work visas of articles 70 and 74 bis of Ley 14/2013, de 27 de septiembre require a qualifying project or employer. The ordinary routes are set out in Moving to Spain. Under Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 the succession of a Colombian habitually resident in Spain is governed by Spanish law, with its regional forced heirship rules, unless the will elects Colombian law as the law of nationality under article 22.
Daily life, public services and civil liberties
Daily life costs more in the United States, and it is paid for out of taxed income. Employer family health cover averaged 26,993 dollars a year in 2025 according to the KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey. A family without an American employer buys on the individual market, where benchmark premiums for 2026 rose by about 17 per cent in States running their own marketplaces and about 30 per cent in those using Healthcare.gov; KFF estimated that subsidised enrollees would pay on average more than twice as much if the enhanced premium tax credits expired. In Spain, a resident outside the social security system may join the National Health System through the convenio especial at 60 euros a month below 65 and 157 euros at 65 or over, after a year of residence. The public system has waiting times for non-urgent specialist care, and families that want faster access add private cover, which averaged 862 euros a year per policy in 2020 on Rastreator’s national data.
Public schooling is free in both countries; the difference is at university. Published tuition at private four-year American universities averaged 45,000 dollars for 2025/26 according to the College Board. Spanish public universities charged an average of 15.37 euros per credit in 2024/25, about 920 euros for a full year, on the Ministry’s statistics.
Social security follows the same pattern. The Convenio de Seguridad Social between Spain and Colombia, signed on 6 September 2005 and in force since 1 March 2008, aggregates Colombian and Spanish contribution periods for retirement, disability and survivor pensions. The United States has no totalisation agreement with Colombia: Colombia is absent from the Social Security Administration’s list, so Colombian contributions count for nothing towards an American pension.
Civil liberties belong in the same comparison, because a residence decision is made for the whole family. Since Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) the regulation of abortion has passed to the States: on Guttmacher’s count of 17 September 2026, 13 States enforce a total ban and four, Florida among them, a ban at six weeks. Executive Order 14168 of 20 January 2025 requires federal documents to record sex at birth, and in November 2025 the Supreme Court allowed the passport policy to take effect pending litigation in Trump v Orr; in United States v Skrmetti (2025) it upheld a State ban on gender-affirming treatment for minors. Immigration and Customs Enforcement held about 73,000 people in detention in mid-January 2026, a record, 53 per cent of them with no criminal charge or conviction (CBS News). Supporters of these measures present them as returning abortion policy to elected State legislatures and as the enforcement of existing immigration law. For a family choosing where to live, the point is the legal position its members, and above all its daughters and any member who is gay, transgender or not yet a citizen, would hold.
Spain has recognised same-sex marriage since Ley 13/2005 and protects gender self-determination under Ley 4/2023, de 28 de febrero. It permits abortion on request in the first fourteen weeks under Ley Orgánica 2/2010, as amended by Ley Orgánica 1/2023, and in April 2026 it opened an extraordinary regularisation for more than 500,000 migrants already living in the country. For a family deciding where its children and grandchildren will live, that difference weighs as much as the tax figures.
London and the rest of Europe for a Colombian national
London is the European choice for a family whose wealth is in financial assets and whose children are headed for British schools and universities. The United Kingdom exempts foreign income and gains for the first four years of residence for those not resident in the previous ten, under sections 845A to 845J of the Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005 and Schedule D1 to the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992, inserted by the Finance Act 2025. Residence itself follows the statutory residence test described in HMRC’s UK tax residence guidance. The United Kingdom has no annual wealth tax and has a treaty with Colombia signed on 2 November 2016 and in force since 13 December 2019. Inheritance tax at 40 per cent reaches worldwide assets only after ten years of residence in the previous twenty.
The cost for a Colombian is access. Colombian nationals have needed a visa to visit the United Kingdom since 26 November 2024. There is no investment route to residence, the Innovator Founder route requires an endorsed business plan, and the Home Office’s consultation A Fairer Pathway to Settlement proposes to raise the ordinary qualifying period for settlement from five to ten years; the proposal had not become a rule at the date of writing. The British passport arrives later than the Spanish one and carries no right to live in the Union.
Elsewhere in the Union the Colombian has no advantage over other third-country nationals. Portugal still grants residence for a subscription of 500,000 euros in a regulated fund, but nationality now requires ten years for a Colombian, the seven-year period being reserved to EU nationals and nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries, under the Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026, de 18 de maio, in force since 19 May 2026. Italy charges new residents a fixed 300,000 euros a year on foreign income from 1 January 2026 under article 24-bis of the Testo Unico delle Imposte sui Redditi (summary), a figure that pays only for very large foreign incomes. Ireland’s Start-up Entrepreneur Programme requires 50,000 euros and a high-potential start-up.
At a glance
| Question for the Colombian family | United States (Miami) | Spain (Madrid) | United Kingdom (London) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry for a short visit | B-1/B-2 visa | No visa, Schengen | Visitor visa since 26 November 2024 |
| Residence by investment | EB-5 from 800,000 dollars; immigrant visas for Colombians paused from 21 January to 21 August 2026 | None since 3 April 2025 | None |
| Passport | Five years after the green card; 179 visa-free destinations | Two years of residence, Colombian nationality kept; 186 visa-free destinations | About six years on current Rules |
| Treaty with Colombia | None | Yes, in force 23 October 2008 | Yes, in force 13 December 2019 |
| Arrival regime | None; worldwide tax from the first day | Six years, Colombian investment income outside the base | Four years, foreign income and gains exempt |
| Annual wealth tax | None | None in Madrid up to 3,000,000 euros; 1.7% to 3.5% above | None |
| Death of the founder, before integration | 40% on US assets above 60,000 dollars | ISD on Spanish assets, reliefs to 99% | 40% on UK assets above £325,000 |
| Death of the founder, once settled | 40% above 15,000,000 dollars | ISD on worldwide receipts, 99% regional credit in Madrid | 40% above £325,000 on worldwide assets |
| The grandchildren | Taxed by citizenship if born there | No consequence | No consequence |
| Health cover and university | About 27,000 dollars a year; 45,000 dollars tuition | 60 euros a month; about 920 euros a year | Private cover; international student fees |
Read row by row, the table favours Spain. The United States leads in two situations: where the founder must run an American operation in person, and where freedom of testation matters more than tax, since below the 15,000,000 dollar exclusion Madrid’s 99 per cent credit leaves the two systems close. Spain leads on the passport, the treaty with Colombia, the six-year arrival regime, wealth tax in Madrid below 3,000,000 euros, health cover, university fees and the position of the grandchildren, and above the American exclusion it taxes a family estate passing to children at a small fraction of the American charge. London offers the clearest four-year exemption for liquid foreign wealth, but no investment route to residence for a Colombian, and a passport after about six years that carries no right to live in the Union.
Figure 2. Minimum years of qualifying residence before a Colombian national can apply for nationality, as at 18 October 2026
| Country | Years | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Spain | 2 | Código Civil, art 22.1; from legal residence |
| United States | 5 | INA s 316; counted from the green card, not from arrival |
| United Kingdom | 6 | British Nationality Act 1981, Sch 1; current Rules, ten-year settlement baseline proposed |
| Portugal | 10 | Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026, de 18 de maio; in force 19 May 2026 |
| Italy | 10 | Legge 5 febbraio 1992, n. 91, art 9; non-EU nationals |
Conclusion: which family should go which way
The decision turns less on tax rates than on how far the family is prepared to commit to the new country, and on what it wants that country to give its children.
Miami suits a family that is ready to make the United States its permanent home and whose founder must run an American business in person. For that family the 15,000,000 dollar exclusion, freedom of testation and the flexibility of American trust law are real advantages. The conditions are demanding. The family must restructure its Colombian companies before its residency starting date under section 7701(b)(2)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code. From that date, sections 951 and 951A attribute the undistributed profits of controlled foreign corporations to their US shareholders every year. The estate has to stay within the federal basic exclusion amount, set at 15,000,000 dollars for 2026 by Public Law 119-21, or be planned in advance. A US domiciliary pays estate tax at 40% on worldwide assets above that figure. Health cover and university fees are paid out of income that has already been taxed: about 26,993 dollars a year for a family health policy and about 45,000 dollars a year at a private university. Children born in the United States are citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment. They stay taxable on their worldwide income wherever they live, and can end that only by renouncing citizenship under the expatriation rules of section 877A. Miami is about three and a half hours from Bogotá and gives access to the largest capital market in the world. A family resident in Madrid can reach that market through a non-US fund or holding company without becoming a US tax resident.
Madrid suits a family that wants a secure residence, a European passport for its children and a lower cost of living, while keeping its operating company in Colombia. The case for Spain rests on:
- two years to nationality, with the right to live and work across the Union, the EEA and Switzerland, and a passport with visa-free access to 186 destinations;
- six years in which Colombian investment income stays outside the Spanish base;
- a tax treaty with Colombia, and a social security convention that counts Colombian contributions;
- public health and university at a fraction of American prices;
- in Madrid, no wealth tax up to 3,000,000 euros, and inheritance tax reliefs that leave a family estate passing to children largely untaxed;
- a city that now ranks among the ten most attractive in the world on several international indices.
Spain has costs too, and they are known in advance: wealth tax above 3,000,000 euros, reporting of foreign assets on the Modelo 720, ordinary income tax rates once the six years end, a legítima that limits freedom of testation, and no residence by investment. Each can be planned before arrival.
The family that buys in Miami without moving there is in the weakest position. Under sections 2101 and 2102 of the Internal Revenue Code, its US assets above 60,000 dollars bear federal estate tax at rates rising to 40 per cent. No estate tax treaty with Colombia or Spain reduces that charge. Any later move to Miami depends on a green card timetable that executive measures can interrupt, as the pause on immigrant visas for Colombian nationals showed between January and August 2026. For that family the order of the work matters more than the destination. Spanish nationality comes first. Article 22.1 of the Código Civil grants it to Colombians after two years of legal residence in Spain, and a Spanish passport gives visa-free entry to the United States through ESTA. The Miami property is then held through a non-US company, which takes it out of the US taxable estate, or covered by life insurance sized to the tax. Last, the family makes a will in each country. The Spanish will chooses the law of nationality under article 22 of Regulation (EU) No 650/2012. A Florida will or a revocable trust deals only with the Florida property and keeps the Florida administration short.
Beyond tax, the choice concerns the legal protection the family will live under, in health, education, social security and civil liberties, where the two systems now diverge.
Before comparing rates, a Colombian family should ask which of these commitments it is prepared to make, not for the founder, but for the grandchildren who will live with the result. For a wider view of practising across these systems from Bogotá, see Colombia, sin dar nada por entendido.
León Fernando Del Canto is a barrister of Lincoln’s Inn, a tenant at Outline Chambers, and an abogado of the Ilustre Colegio de la Abogacía de Madrid, advising Colombian families on cross-border tax, immigration and succession between Colombia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. This article states the position as at 18 October 2026, reflects a personal opinion and does not constitute legal advice. American immigration and tax questions require advice from lawyers admitted in the United States.
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