Sales Tax in Colorado
Colorado's sales tax is genuinely NOT one statewide number: a low 2.90% state base rate sits inside one of the most fragmented local sales tax systems in the country, with dozens of self-administering "home-rule" municipalities setting their own rates and producing a combined range from 2.90% up to roughly 11.2% depending on the exact address.
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Learn moreA low state base rate, complicated by real local fragmentation
Colorado's 2.90% state base sales tax rate is one of the lowest state base rates in the country -- but Colorado has dozens of "home-rule" municipalities that set and administer their own local sales tax independent of the state, a genuinely more fragmented system than most states in this dataset. The result is a combined range from 2.90% (jurisdictions with no local add-on) up to roughly 11.2% (Winter Park, the highest cited individual combined rate), with a statewide average combined rate cited around 7.89%.
Denver's own combined rate, as a concrete example
Denver's combined sales tax rate is 9.15% (2.9% state + 5.15% city + 1.0% RTD + 0.10% SCFD), applying to standard Denver zip codes and running above Colorado's roughly 7.89% statewide average -- with special taxing districts able to push specific addresses even higher. This is a useful, concrete illustration of why a single statewide figure understates real, address-specific variation.
Where Colorado's average sits relative to other states in this dataset
Colorado's roughly 7.89% statewide average combined rate sits in a genuinely ambiguous middle zone against other states built in this project -- below Arizona's roughly 8.17%-8.4% average (tagged as a high-sales-tax state) but above Georgia's roughly 7.4% (not tagged). Given the width of Colorado's range and its jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction variability, this dataset does not apply a low- or high-sales-tax label to Colorado at the state level.
Confirm your specific target address before budgeting
Because Colorado's combined rate depends on the exact city, county, and any special taxing district your address falls into, confirm your specific target location's current combined rate directly (via the Colorado Department of Revenue's rate lookup) rather than relying on a single statewide number.
Key takeaways
- Colorado's 2.90% state base sales tax rate is one of the lowest in the country, but dozens of home-rule municipalities set their own local add-on independently.
- Combined rates range from 2.90% up to roughly 11.2% (Winter Park), with a statewide average around 7.89% -- Denver itself combines to 9.15%.
- Colorado's statewide average sits in a genuinely ambiguous middle zone relative to other states in this dataset -- no low- or high-sales-tax label is applied at the state level.
- Confirm your specific target address's current combined rate directly; Colorado's fragmented home-rule system makes a single statewide figure unreliable for budgeting.
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