Colorado Income Tax Calculator (2026)
Estimate your 2026 Colorado income tax at the flat 4.40% rate — no brackets, no local income tax, one simple calculation. No sign-up, no cost.
Estimate Your Colorado Tax
Colorado starts from federal taxable income. If your itemized deductions beat the 2026 federal standard deduction ($16,100 single / $32,200 joint / $24,100 head of household), enter them here and the larger amount is used.
Take-home here is after Colorado state tax only. Federal income tax and FICA (Social Security and Medicare) are separate — use our paycheck calculator for your full take-home pay. Estimates only — your actual return may differ.
How Colorado Income Tax Works
Colorado is refreshingly simple: a flat 4.40% on Colorado taxable income, with no brackets, no local income taxes, and no marriage penalty in the rate itself. The only real work is figuring out your taxable income — and Colorado borrows that number from your federal return.
- Flat rate: 4.40%. Every dollar of Colorado taxable income is taxed at 4.40%, from the first to the last. Your marginal rate and your average rate on taxable income are the same — only the deduction makes your effective rate on gross income lower.
- Starts from federal taxable income. Colorado takes your federal taxable income and applies its own additions and subtractions. That is why this calculator subtracts the 2026 federal standard deduction ($16,100 single, $32,200 joint, $24,100 head of household) unless you enter larger itemized deductions.
- No local income tax. Colorado cities and counties do not levy income taxes, so the state return is the whole story.
- Rate history. Colorado voters cut the rate from 4.63% to 4.55% in 2020 (Proposition 116) and then to 4.40% in 2022 (Proposition 121). Further cuts would require another vote.
- TABOR refunds. Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights sometimes returns surplus revenue to taxpayers through refunds or rate mechanisms — those are separate from the 4.40% calculation and are not modeled here.
CO tax = CO taxable income × 4.40%
Worked Example: Single, $80,000
Take a single filer earning $80,000 with no itemized deductions:
| Calculation | Amount | |
|---|---|---|
| Federal standard deduction (single, 2026) | $16,100 | |
| Colorado taxable income | $80,000 − $16,100 | $63,900 |
| Colorado tax | $63,900 × 4.40% | $2,811.60 |
| Effective rate | $2,811.60 ÷ $80,000 | 3.51% |
At $80,000, Colorado’s bill is $2,811.60 — roughly half what the same earner would owe in Oregon ($5,725.88 with no federal subtraction) and well below most graduated-rate states. The flat rate is the reason: there is no bracket creep as income rises.
Frequently Asked Questions
