Your Share Colorado is part of Colorado Tradeoffs, a nonpartisan collaboration built to help Coloradans see how the state raises and spends their tax dollars.

Your Share is a virtual tax receipt that shows what your income, sales and gas taxes pay for. It does not cover the whole state budget. Several big areas run mostly on other revenue and so appear small or not at all: transportation also draws on vehicle fees and federal funds beyond the gas tax shown here; police, fire, local roads, and much of K-12 are funded locally through property and sales taxes; and most housing and college costs come from federal dollars, tuition, and dedicated programs.

Weigh In is a public benefit corporation that designs tools to help residents understand public budgets and weigh the tradeoffs their governments face. Weigh In built and powers this receipt.

COLab, the Colorado News Collaborative, is a statewide network of newsrooms working together to strengthen local journalism. COLab brings this tool to the public through its partner media outlets across Colorado.

The University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs contributes public-finance and policy expertise, helping ground the tool's data and methods in independent research.

Together we share one goal: giving Coloradans clear, trustworthy information about where their money goes — without telling them what to think.

Methodology & sources

This receipt estimates your share of the Colorado state taxes that fund the services shown. It's an estimate based on the income, age and filing status you entered — not your actual tax bill. Here's how we get the numbers.

Source

The figures in this tool are based on the Colorado Joint Budget Committee's FY 2026-27 Budget Package and Long Bill Narrative (House Bill 26-1410), published April 6, 2026. Because that narrative reflects the budget as introduced, these allocations will be reviewed and updated when the state's final appropriations report becomes available.

What we mean by "median"

The default setting we use, the "median," is a household income of $97,000, an adult age, and a filing status of married, filing jointly.

Income tax

Colorado's income tax is a flat 4.4%, but it applies to your income after the standard deduction — the same starting point as your federal return — not to your full income. Based on the filing status and age you give us, we subtract the standard deduction, then apply the rate to what's left. We don't account for other deductions, individual credits, or TABOR refunds, so your actual amount may be lower, especially if you are retired. Lower-income households often owe little or no state income tax as a result.

Sales tax

We estimate your spending using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Survey, which tracks what households spend by income and age. We then apply Colorado's 2.9% state sales tax rate — but only to what the state actually taxes. Under Colorado law, groceries, prescription drugs, and services aren't subject to state sales tax, so we leave them out. This is state sales tax only; city and county sales taxes aren't included, since this receipt is about the state budget.

Gas Tax

This line works a little differently from the two above. Instead of estimating it from your own income or spending, we use the Colorado Department of Revenue's figure for the average state gas tax paid by households at your income — the Department reports these averages by income group in its Tax Profile Study. Higher-income households tend to drive more, so the average is higher for higher incomes, but within an income level it's a single average rather than a calculation based on your own driving. That's why it's applied the same whether or not you drive: it reflects what a typical household at your income pays, not your personal fuel use. As with sales tax, this is the Colorado state gas tax only — federal fuel taxes aren't included, and the revenue funds roads and transportation rather than the General Fund.

Contact

Have a question about how this receipt was created? Get in touch!