Colombia’s music law, Ley 2615 of 2026, removes 19 percent VAT from music software, instruments and online distribution, but only for non-mainstream artists.
Signed on 29 July 2026 and published in Diario Oficial 53.568, it applies from promulgation. Its tax article is the part most coverage simplified.
What Article 16 rewrites
Article 16 replaces Article 478 of the Estatuto Tributario, Colombia’s tax code, which sets the general rate at 19 percent in Article 468. VAT means value-added tax, IVA in Colombia. The new text does three things:
- Exempts musical works. Compositions, scores, arrangements and original phonograms, physical or digital, are treated like books. This sentence carries no non-mainstream condition.
- Excludes the tools and the pipe. Instruments, specialised software and hardware for sound editing and creation, and “intermediation services by licence for making phonograms available on the internet”, which is what a digital distributor sells. The condition: these must belong to non-mainstream artists, “as qualified by the national government”.
- Excludes luthier inputs. Parts and tools used only to build or repair instruments, for makers registered in SIMUS, the state’s music information system.
Exempt and excluded are different regimes in Colombian VAT. The difference is whether a seller can recover the VAT on its own costs.
The condition sits in Article 3
Article 3 defines an “artista no masivo” as an act outside the mass market that builds its career independently or with other non-mass partners. The government must regulate how to accredit that status, “taking into account criteria such as the level of income” from artistic activity.
Until that regulation exists, no seller can verify a buyer’s status. The Senate’s official compilation of the law, updated 30 September 2026, lists no implementing decree. At passage, Radio Nacional de Colombia described a plain VAT exemption on instruments, software and hardware. The enacted text is narrower.
The fund has a registry gate
Article 4 creates the Fondo Cuenta Especial del Sector de la Música, a ring-fenced account attached to the Ministry of Cultures:
- At least 40 percent goes to creation, production and circulation for non-mainstream artists.
- At least 70 percent of each year’s appropriation must be spent that fiscal year; the rest rolls over.
- Money goes out mainly through open calls, only to recipients registered in SIMUS, with in-person sign-up where connectivity is poor.
That is a grant rail, like Argentina’s INAMU or Brazil’s music editais, not a royalty rail.
Three rules already in force
- Paid placement must be labelled. Under Article 19, anyone paid to favour a song or recording on media, platforms or digital channels must tell the public it is sponsored. On its wording, that covers a curator paid to add a track to a playlist.
- Unverifiable licences are void. Article 20 calls anyone licensing public performance a “fraudulent manager” unless they are a collecting society, or the rightsholder or representative naming the repertoire and use. Their receipts have no legal effect, and a deceived venue can claim damages.
- Instruments fly as baggage. Article 17 lets a registered, certified musician swap an instrument for cabin luggage up to 55 x 35 x 25 cm and 10 kg, or for a checked bag up to 158 linear cm and 23 kg.
What to do now
Register on SIMUS before you need it
Fund access, the airline rule and the luthier exclusion all run through SIMUS. Registration costs nothing.
Keep income records by source
The non-mainstream test will weigh artistic income. Yearly statements separating streaming, live and sync income are the evidence. Line-level reporting by release and territory, which InterSpace Distribution provides in its royalty dashboard, covers the streaming side of that file.
Do not budget for VAT-free invoices yet
Until the ministry issues qualification rules, expect software and distribution invoices to keep the 19 percent line.
If you license venues yourself, name the works
Individual management is legal, so SAYCO and ACINPRO are not the only route. An authorisation that does not list the repertoire and type of use is now worthless to the venue holding it.
The tax relief is already law. Who receives it is a ministry decision, and the ministry must report on the whole law’s impact after three years.
