Owners of electric and hybrid vehicles who obtained the UPME certification after purchase can claim the VAT paid. The deadline is five years from the invoice, according to Concept 12670 of 2026 from the Dian.
Buyers of electric and hybrid vehicles in Colombia who have paid VAT and subsequently obtained the certification from the Mineral Energy Planning Unit (UPME) can request a refund of that tax from the Dian. The agency specified in Concept 12670 of 2026 that the process is governed by the tax refund procedure and that the deadline for submitting the request is counted from the date of issuance of the sales invoice, as reported by pulzo.com.
The origin of this situation lies in the gap between the purchase and the certification. When the dealer invoices the vehicle without the buyer having the UPME certificate yet, VAT is applied. If that document is obtained later, the buyer can prove that the transaction met the conditions for exemption from the tax.
María Alejandra Pedraza, an associate at Holland & Knight, explains that the deadline is five years from the date of issuance of the sales invoice. This precision is relevant when the UPME certification arrives after the vehicle's acquisition.
“When the UPME certification is obtained after the vehicle purchase, the VAT was correctly invoiced by the dealer at the time of sale, as without certification the exemption does not apply. However, the subsequent issuance of the certificate proves that the transaction met the conditions for VAT exemption, which turns the VAT paid into an overpayment. From that moment, the buyer can request the refund directly from the Dian,” Pedraza points out.
The five-year term is established in Article 1.6.1.21.22 of the Unified Regulatory Decree on tax matters, which refers to Article 2536 of the Civil Code. The Dian itself confirms in Concept 12670 that the request must be submitted within those five years from the sales invoice.
For the buyer, this means that the key date is not only the issuance date of the UPME certificate but also the date of the invoice. If the certificate was obtained late, the five-year period continues to run from the original invoice.
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