Every legal form in Colombia, each with its abbreviation, the kind of entity it is, liability and typical use where they are well established, and the values the Prometiam company object returns.
This guide lists the 8 legal forms the Prometiam dictionary knows for Colombia: what each is called, how it is abbreviated, what kind of entity it is and how it appears in the company object. Use it to read the legal_form of a company registered in Colombia, or to decode a form you meet in a contract or on an invoice. It is a general reference, not legal advice.
Coverage and limits for Colombia: company records only (no officers or legal representatives, no registry-compliance signal, no address, share capital, contacts or activity description, no VAT number, no insolvency notices); companies of the commercial register only (S.A.S., Ltda., S.A., S. en C., S.C.A., collective companies, single-person companies and branches of foreign companies), natural persons, non-profit entities, cooperatives and public bodies are never served; the register has no liquidation state, so liquidation, judicial liquidation and reorganisation are read from the company name and served as the status. The Colombian records are offered under CC BY-SA 4.0 (share-alike). Contains data from Confecámaras (Registro Único Empresarial y Social, RUES), via the Portal de Datos Abiertos www.datos.gov.co, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Modified by Prometiam.
| Form | Abbreviation | Kind | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sociedad por acciones simplificada | S.A.S. | Private limited company | Sociedad por acciones simplificada, the simplified joint-stock company, abbreviated S.A.S. |
| Sociedad limitada | Ltda. | Private limited company | Sociedad limitada, the limited liability company, abbreviated Ltda. |
| Sociedad anónima | S.A. | Public limited company (joint-stock company) | Sociedad anónima, the corporation, abbreviated S.A. |
| Sociedad colectiva | - | General partnership | Sociedad colectiva, a general partnership. |
| Sociedad en comandita simple | S. en C. | Limited partnership | Sociedad en comandita simple, a limited partnership, abbreviated S. en C. |
| Sociedad en comandita por acciones | S.C.A. | Partnership limited by shares | Sociedad en comandita por acciones, a partnership limited by shares, abbreviated S.C.A. |
| Sociedad extranjera (sucursal) | - | Branch of a foreign company | A branch of a foreign company in Colombia. |
| Empresa unipersonal | E.U. | Private limited company | Empresa unipersonal, a single-person company, abbreviated E.U. |
Every company object carries four legal-form fields: legal_form (the standard abbreviation, null when the form is not mapped), legal_form_family (the cross-country family, so a private limited company compares across countries), local_legal_form (the register’s own value or code as stored) and local_legal_form_name (the register’s name for it, where it publishes one). Each form below shows the values the API returns for it.
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer rk_live_..." \ "https://api.prometiam.com/functions/v1/risk-api/companies/search?country=CO&name=<company name>" # each result carries, for example: # "legal_form": "S.A.S." # "legal_form_family": "private_limited_company"
Private limited company: a company with its own legal personality whose owners are, as a rule, not personally liable for its debts and whose shares are not offered to the public.
Sociedad por acciones simplificada, the simplified joint-stock company, abbreviated S.A.S.
S.A.S.legal_form S.A.S., legal_form_family private_limited_company, local_legal_form 16Sociedad limitada, the limited liability company, abbreviated Ltda.
Ltda.legal_form Ltda., legal_form_family private_limited_company, local_legal_form 03Empresa unipersonal, a single-person company, abbreviated E.U.
E.U.legal_form E.U., legal_form_family private_limited_company, local_legal_form 10Public limited company (joint-stock company): a company with its own legal personality and share capital whose owners are, as a rule, not personally liable; the family of forms that can usually raise money from the public.
Sociedad anónima, the corporation, abbreviated S.A.
S.A.legal_form S.A., legal_form_family public_limited_company, local_legal_form 04General partnership: the owners run the business together and, as a rule, answer personally for its debts.
Sociedad colectiva, a general partnership.
legal_form General partnership, legal_form_family general_partnership, local_legal_form 05Limited partnership: at least one partner answers without limit for the debts, the others only up to what they contributed.
Sociedad en comandita simple, a limited partnership, abbreviated S. en C.
S. en C.legal_form S. en C., legal_form_family limited_partnership, local_legal_form 06Partnership limited by shares: a hybrid in which the managing partners are liable without limit and the other owners hold shares.
Sociedad en comandita por acciones, a partnership limited by shares, abbreviated S.C.A.
S.C.A.legal_form S.C.A., legal_form_family partnership_limited_by_shares, local_legal_form 07Branch of a foreign company: an establishment or registration of a company incorporated abroad.
A branch of a foreign company in Colombia.
legal_form Branch of a foreign company, legal_form_family branch_of_foreign_company, local_legal_form 08See the Colombia company data API guide for the register behind these records and the free NIT lookup to try an identifier. For the register states that go with these forms, read company status in Colombia. All countries: company legal forms.
Search by name or identifier and read legal_form, legal_form_family and local_legal_form on every result, or filter a bulk list by family.
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