Colorado Paycheck Calculator

Most states start from federal adjusted gross income and then apply their own deductions. Colorado starts from federal taxable income — the figure after the federal standard or itemised deduction has already been subtracted.

The effect is significant. A single filer on $75,000 has federal taxable income of roughly $58,900 for 2026 once the standard deduction is applied, and Colorado's 4.4% applies to that figure rather than to the full salary. It is the equivalent of Colorado granting a $16,100 standard deduction without calling it one.

It also means anything that reduces your federal taxable income — a traditional 401(k), HSA contributions, itemised deductions — reduces your Colorado tax automatically. The two calculations move together, which makes Colorado unusually easy to estimate.

Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, adopted in 1992, caps how much revenue the state may retain and requires the surplus to be refunded. In practice this has produced refunds in most recent years, distributed either as flat sums per taxpayer or through a temporary reduction in the income tax rate itself.

Because of that mechanism, the rate has moved several times — 4.55% was reduced to 4.4% by ballot measure in 2022, and temporary further reductions have applied in individual surplus years. Refunds arrive at filing time rather than through payroll, so they do not affect withholding, but they do mean Coloradans frequently pay less than the headline rate implies.

When comparing Colorado with other states, this is worth factoring in: the statutory 4.4% overstates what many residents ultimately pay in a surplus year.

Colorado launched Family and Medical Leave Insurance benefits in 2024, funded by a premium split between employer and employee. The employee share is a small percentage of wages up to the Social Security wage base and appears on payslips as FAMLI.

No Colorado city levies an income tax in the conventional sense. Several — including Denver, Aurora, Greenwood Village and a handful of others — charge an Occupational Privilege Tax, a flat monthly amount rather than a percentage. It is a few dollars a month, paid by both employee and employer, and applies to anyone earning above a low monthly threshold in that city. It is small enough not to change a take-home estimate meaningfully, but it explains an otherwise puzzling line on a Denver payslip.

Colorado does not tax Social Security for taxpayers aged 65 and over, and offers a substantial pension and annuity subtraction for those 55 and over.