Enter a few numbers and get an itemized breakdown of the taxes you pay in a year, and what the federal government, the state, your county and your city spend them on.
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Sales tax isn't included yet.
A rough estimate to show where tax money goes, not tax advice. Your actual taxes depend on deductions, credits and other income.
Enter your income to see where your taxes go.
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Each section above lists who decides. The next step is your ballot: see who and what you'll be voting on, check your registration, and find where to vote.
See what's on your ballot ↗Tax money goes into shared pots, so no one can trace your exact dollars. Each line shows your share of what that government spends, in proportion to its budget.
Where you live: the breakdown uses one place, your main home. If you have two homes, each home's property tax goes to that home's local governments, and sales tax goes to wherever you shop. In Indiana, county income tax goes to the county you lived in on January 1.
Tax year: pick 2025 if you're using last year's tax return, or 2026 to estimate this year. The tax math uses that year's brackets, deductions and rates, including local rates that changed partway through 2025 (averaged over the year). Federal spending is that year's actual spending (the federal year runs October to September). State and local spending follows each government's current budget for both years. Budgets usually shift only a few percent from year to year.
Federal: tax brackets and standard deduction for the year you pick, including the extra deductions for people 65 and older, the child tax credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit. It assumes you take the standard deduction and have no other income (like interest, dividends or capital gains) or other credits. Up to 85% of Social Security benefits can be taxed, depending on your other income. Self-employment income pays both halves of Social Security and Medicare tax, minus the usual deductions for it. Social Security and Medicare taxes are shown going to those programs. Refundable credits that come back to you as a refund are shown separately, not subtracted from your total. Income tax is split by what the government actually spent on everything except Social Security, which is paid from its own tax, in the federal year you pick (fiscal 2025 or 2026), by area and by program, from the U.S. Treasury's final Monthly Treasury Statement for that year. The government also borrows, so total spending is larger than taxes collected.
Gas: gas spending is turned into gallons using an average pump price for the year you pick, then taxed per gallon. Every gallon includes the 18.4-cent federal gas tax, which goes to the federal Highway Trust Fund for highway and transit grants to states. Gas isn't charged regular sales tax, so leave it out of your shopping.
Colorado income tax: a flat 4.4% for 2025 and 2026. Colorado starts from your federal taxable income. People 65 and older subtract all of their Social Security, plus pensions, annuities and IRA withdrawals up to $24,000 minus that Social Security. People 55 to 64 subtract Social Security (all of it if federal income is $75,000 or less, $95,000 joint; otherwise up to $20,000) and pensions up to $20,000 minus that Social Security. People under 55 subtract no Social Security or pensions, except military retirement, up to $15,000 a person (2022 through 2028); someone under 55 who gets a pension or Social Security because the person who earned it died subtracts like someone 55 to 64. This page treats adults under 65 as 55 to 64 unless you say someone is under 55, and splits the household's income evenly between the adults. At $300,000 of income or more, Colorado adds back the part of the federal deduction over $12,000 ($16,000 joint) for 2025. For 2026 that drops to $1,000 ($2,000 joint), after voters passed Proposition MM in 2025. Above $500,000 ($1 million joint) it adds back the federal small-business (QBI) deduction. Itemized deductions and the state income tax add-back aren't modeled.
Credits and refunds: Colorado's Earned Income Tax Credit is 50% of the federal credit for 2025 and 25% for 2026. The Family Affordability Tax Credit pays up to $2,455 for each child 6 to 16 on 2025 returns ($3,273 under 6), less as income rises, and none above $85,000 ($96,000 joint); this page assumes each child is 6 to 16, so families with younger children get more. The state paused it for 2026 because revenue grew too slowly. The Colorado Child Tax Credit for children under 6 isn't counted. These credits are refundable: what's left after your tax is paid comes back as a refund.
TABOR refund: Colorado's constitution (the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights) caps how much the state can keep each year; money above the cap goes back to taxpayers unless voters say otherwise. For 2025 returns the surplus was small ($296 million, about two-thirds of it used for the senior and veteran property tax exemption), so the sales tax refund is $19 to $59 a person depending on income ($38 to $118 joint). It's taken off the state income tax here, with anything left over shown as a refund. State economists expect no TABOR refund on 2026 returns, so none is counted for 2026.
Where state taxes go: Colorado's income tax and the 2.9% state sales tax go into the General Fund, split here by the $17.5 billion of General Fund the Legislature appropriated for July 2026 to June 2027 (Joint Budget Committee's Appropriations Report), department by department. Medicaid and K-12 schools take more than 60%. By the constitution, state sales tax is credited first to the Old Age Pension fund for low-income seniors; most of it then flows on to the General Fund, which this page shows.
Sales tax: the state's 2.9% plus county, city and district taxes. City, county and district rates come from the Colorado Department of Revenue's DR 1002 rate list for January 2026, with the changes during 2025 and 2026 applied (2026 is a yearly average): Westminster went from 3.85% to 4.25%, Larimer County from 0.8% to 1.05%, Aspen from 2.4% (our estimate) to 2.7%, and Boulder County to 1.335%; new fire, ambulance and early childhood district taxes started in July 2025 or January 2026. For 8 places that changed in January 2026 (such as Timnath, Fort Morgan and La Plata County) the old rate wasn't found, so 2025 uses the new rate, marked "2025 rate estimated." Hugo and San Luis changed their rates in July 2026 and the new rates weren't found. RTD's 1% applies in Denver, Boulder, Jefferson and Broomfield, in the RTD cities of Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties, and in the Weld County parts of Erie and Longmont; the 0.1% cultural facilities tax applies in the seven metro counties except Castle Rock and Larkspur. Unincorporated Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties are counted inside RTD, which is true for most of their residents. A city or town in more than one county is listed once for each county, with that county's rate and districts. Small shopping-area districts (public improvement fees, local improvement districts, metropolitan districts such as Pueblo West) and partial-county health districts (Ute Pass, South Park) aren't included. Food for home is exempt from state sales tax; many cities and towns tax it, often at their full rate.
Occupational privilege taxes: Denver charges $5.75 a month for each worker paid at least $500 that month, Glendale $5 (over $750), Sheridan $3 and Greenwood Village $2 (at least $250). Employers pay a matching amount. The tax is owed where you work; this page assumes you work where you live, and counts both adults in a married couple when wages are high enough for two. Aurora repealed its $2 tax on January 1, 2025.
Cities and counties: Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and Lakewood are split by their 2026 General Fund, department by department, from each city's adopted budget book. Denver: the final 2026 budget, $1.68 billion, including the council's changes (the city expects about $13 million of it to go unspent). Colorado Springs: $427 million. Lakewood: $173 million, including $10 million moved to the voter-approved TABOR Fund. Fort Collins adopts a two-year budget; its 2026 General Fund ($251.5 million) is added up from the budget's funded spending offers by department, and the last $16 million (debt, insurance, retirement and similar costs) is one line. Aurora uses its 2026 adopted General Fund by department, from the city's budget book. Other cities, towns and counties are split by what they actually spent, as reported to the U.S. Census Bureau (2022 or 2024), leaving out utilities and other services paid by fees. Denver and Broomfield are cities and counties in one, so there's no separate county section there. Newer budgets have been proposed but not adopted yet (Denver 2027, Lakewood 2027, Fort Collins 2027-28), so they aren't used.
Property tax: Colorado has no state property tax; it's all local. Your bill is your home's taxable value times the tax rates (mill levies) of the governments where you live; one mill is $1 for every $1,000 of taxable value. Bills are paid a year behind, so 2025 here means the 2024 tax bill (paid in 2025) and 2026 means the 2025 bill (paid in 2026). For 2024 bills the taxable value of a home was 6.7% of its value after taking off $55,000. For 2025 bills it's 7.05% of the value for schools and 6.25% for everyone else, with nothing taken off first. The tax rates are your county's 2024 averages for schools, the county, special districts and any college district (each type's property tax revenue divided by the county's total taxable value), plus your own city's or town's 2024 rate, all from the state Division of Property Taxation's 2024 annual report. Unincorporated areas have no city rate. The 2025 rates weren't in that report, so 2026 uses the 2024 rates; many local governments changed their rates a little for 2025. Your own school and special districts can be well above or below your county's average. As a check, the 2024 figures come out close to the typical bills the U.S. Census reports for most counties (2019-2023 surveys; about the same in the median county, within about 30% in most).
Colorado gas taxes: 22 cents a gallon, plus the road usage fee from 2021, which rises each July: 4 cents until June 2025, 5 cents from July 2025 and 6 cents from July 2026 (about 4.5 cents on average in 2025 and 5.5 cents in 2026). Both go to the Highway Users Tax Fund. After the State Patrol's and the Department of Revenue's share comes off the top, the first 7 cents is shared 65% to CDOT, 26% to counties and 9% to cities, and the rest 60% / 22% / 18%. Gas isn't charged sales tax. Average gas prices used: $3.03 a gallon for 2025 and $3.80 for 2026 (federal EIA prices for the Rocky Mountain region, January to October 2026).
Still estimated: the 2025 rates for 8 places that changed in 2026, Aspen's and Boulder County's 2025 rates, the July 2026 rates in Hugo and San Luis, district boundaries in unincorporated areas, property tax (county average rates instead of your own districts' rates, and 2024 rates used for 2026 bills), the ages of children and adults, Aurora's department amounts (third-party source), Fort Collins' last budget line (debt, insurance and similar costs, figured from the totals), and the average gas prices.
Not included: the Colorado Child Tax Credit, itemized deductions, the paid family leave (FAMLI) premium, specific ownership tax and registration on vehicles, lodging and marijuana taxes, retail delivery fees, and Cortez's temporary 0% sales tax for late 2026.
Colorado sources: 2025 income tax guide (104 Book) · Deduction add-back (Individual Income Tax Guide, Part 3) · 2025 Form 104 (TABOR refund table) · EITC and family credits · Family Affordability Tax Credit · TABOR refund forecast · 2026-27 state budget (JBC Appropriations Report) · Sales tax rates, DR 1002 (January 2026) · DR 1002 (DOR) · 2026 rate changes · July 2026 changes · Aspen · Greenwood Village OPT · Colorado OPT rates · Aurora OPT repeal · Property tax rates and revenue (Division of Property Taxation 2024 annual report) · Assessment rates for 2025 bills (Boulder County Assessor) · Road usage fee (C.R.S. 43-4-217) · Highway Users Tax Fund split (CDOT) · Rocky Mountain gas prices (EIA via FRED) · U.S. Census local government finances · Budgets: Denver · Colorado Springs · Fort Collins · Lakewood · Aurora budget
Federal sources: U.S. Treasury Monthly Treasury Statement, FY2025 and FY2026 · 2025 IRS brackets · 2026 IRS brackets · Federal gas tax (FHWA)
A married couple with two kids under 17. They earn $80,000 a year from work, spend $25,000 a year on shopping (not counting groceries) and $1,500 on gas, and rent their home. These are their 2026 taxes.
They pay about $11,670 a year in taxes. Here's where it goes.
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and interest on the debt run on existing laws, so they change only when Congress changes those laws. Most other spending is voted on every year.
An estimate to show where tax money goes, not tax advice. Use the calculator above to see your own numbers.