Impuesto sobre la renta: dime cómo opera y te diré cómo redistribuye

This paper examines the characteristics of the Colombian income tax and the way they shape its distributive potential. It draws attention to the importance of distinguishing between the distribution of the tax burden and the effect thereof on the distribution of income. It shows that the version of the alternative minimum tax introduced in the country discriminates between categories of labor and capital incomes. It also explores the distributional features of different integration systems between the personal and corporate income tax, in a situation where income is highly concentrated. The likely repercussions of the so-called flat tax, whose adoption was promoted by the national government in the first decade of the 21st century, are discussed. The nominal rates are seen primarily as part of the statutory tax machinery, but their role as institutional signals is not overlooked. The paper provides some estimates of effective tax rates, contrasting them with those obtained by other studies.