New economic activities ISIC 2021 code in Colombia

What are the ISIC economic activities?

ISIC is the abbreviation for International Standard Industrial Classification and, as its name indicates, it is a classification that refers to all productive activities. In other words, it is a list of codes that relate to a specific economic activity.

What are they used for?

In principle, its purpose is to provide a set of categories of activities that can be used for the compilation and presentation of statistical reports according to these activities. For this purpose, the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) prepared the ISIC Rev. 4 BC, which is the adaptation of the United Nations classification to the Colombian context.

The Special Administrative Unit of the National Tax and Customs Directorate – DIAN adopted the ISIC Rev. 4 A.C. taking into account that the Single Tax Registry is the mechanism by which the different groups of taxpayers and non-taxpayers are identified, located and classified in Resolution 000139 of 2012.

However, DANE updated the ISIC for Colombia through Resolution 0549 of 2020. And in this order of ideas, the DIAN issued Resolution 000114 of 2020 by means of which this update is adopted and integrates other economic activities not contemplated in the ISIC Rev. 4 B.C. that are necessary for proper tax administration.

The following is the ISIC Rev. 4 BC which became effective on January 1, 2021:

Information provided by: https://dianhoy.com/listado-de-las-actividades-economicas/

In addition to the above list, the DIAN established a list of additional activities that it called “Other classifications”. The list is as follows:

Information provided by: https://dianhoy.com/listado-de-las-actividades-economicas/

What changes or what is new compared to the previous classification or activity codes?

It is important to note that the changes consist mainly of:

1. Reclassification of ice production, shoe parts manufacturing, capitalization, permanent makeup and some education-related activities.
2. Opening of three classes aimed at demonstrating the activities of health insurance, family risk management and day care centers for boys and girls.
3. Separation of architectural and engineering activities giving rise to class 7111 for those related to architecture and 7112 for those related to engineering.
4. Adjustment of the title descriptions of 17 categories and of the explanatory notes of 95 categories.

Additionally, the DIAN adds other classifications that are not initially contemplated in ISIC Rev. 4 BC (2020), i.e., the activities in the last table.

In this sense, the following economic activities disappear and are replaced by these others:

Also, the name or explanatory note of these economic activities was changed:

Finally, these activities were reclassified:

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Information provided by: https://www.dian.gov.co/impuestos/Documents/Abece-Actividades-Economicas.pdf

Why were these changes made?

On the one hand, DANE expects that with the update of ISIC Rev. 4 A.C. to facilitate its application by users by providing greater clarity in the process of classifying economic activities.

On the other hand, the DIAN adopts this new classification due to the obligation established in Article 7 of DANE Resolution 0549 of 2020. In addition, because it adds other groups of economic activities that are not covered by ISIC Rev. 4 B.C. (2020) and represent a source of income.

For more information we invite you to review the guide on “Updating the classification of economic activities” of the DIAN by clicking here.