Tax audit defence before the DIAN and local tax offices

How these matters usually start

Almost no file starts with the news of an assessment. It starts with something quieter, and what is done in those first days shapes everything after.

• An ordinary information request about one item or one tax year.
• An audit visit at the premises or a tax inspection.
• A notice to correct or to file.
• An assessment notice proposing changes to what was filed.
• A statement of charges for a penalty.
• A cross-check with third-party reporting that does not match what the company declared.

Evidence that does not enter the administrative stage is hard to recover afterwards. That is why the answer is not a routine filing: it is the construction of the file the case will be argued on all the way to the end.

What we do at each stage

1. Deadline check. We confirm the date and manner of service and the deadline that is actually running, before anything else.
2. Reconstruction of the case. We establish the facts with the teams involved and review contracts, accounting support, invoices and the returns under challenge, so the defence is not built on an incomplete version.
3. Requests and audit visits. We define the real scope of what is being asked, prepare the information and attend the visit, recording what is handed over.
4. Reply to the assessment notice or statement of charges. With the substantive argument, the taxpayer's position and the evidence that supports it.
5. Administrative appeal. Against official assessments, penalty decisions and other tax acts that admit it.
6. Close of the administrative route. A written opinion on whether to go to the administrative courts, with what is at stake and what is needed to sustain it.

Correcting in time is also a technical decision

Not every assessment is worth fighting. Where the taxpayer's position is weak, assessing a voluntary correction before the authority formalises the dispute is often the best option available, and it has to be taken with the figures in view. Where the position is solid, we say so just as clearly and we hold it. What we do not do is promise an outcome: we put the scenarios and the risk of each in writing so the client decides.

Refunds and offsets of tax credits

The other side of tax procedure is not defensive: it is recovering what was already overpaid. These claims are almost always lost on incomplete support rather than on the merits.

• Preparation of the refund or offset claim and of the documentation that goes with it.
• Answers to the requests that arise during the procedure.
• Action where the claim is not admitted, is rejected or is granted only in part.

The local front as well

The same work applies before municipal tax offices, with their own procedural rules and their own acts. We answer information requests, reply to acts proposing to amend the return and file the available appeals before the local authority.

What the client receives

• A map of the file: what is being disputed, at what stage, which deadlines are running and what scenarios exist.
• The submissions filed with the DIAN or the local tax office, with their evidence and annexes.
• Attendance at audit visits and at any procedural steps taken.
• A written analysis of the options available, with the risk of each, before the decision is made.
• The appeals against the authority's acts and an opinion on the court stage.

Typical situations we handle

• An assessment notice has arrived and the company has to decide whether to correct or to argue.
• An audit visit is under way and it is unclear what should be handed over.
• An official assessment or a penalty decision has been served.
• A refund claim has been stuck for months behind successive information requests.
• The taxpayer suspects a position taken in earlier years does not hold and wants to weigh the options before the authority asks.