Where Did I Come From?

You are probably familiar with other types of taxes like sales tax. In 1930, Kentucky was the first state to pass a tax levied exclusively on retailers. Colorado established a general sales tax in 1935. Currently, Colorado sales tax is at 2.9 percent.

There are sources other than Income and Sales Tax that fund the budget for our state.

Types of Colorado Tax

Other funding resources include:

Check out the “Where Do I Go” webpage to see what happens to the revenue collected from taxes and other resources.

Taxes have been part of human history for a long time.

The earliest known tax was implemented in Mesopotamia over 4,500 years ago. In the United States the tax system has evolved dramatically throughout the nation’s history. Federal income tax was implemented on a permanent basis in 1913 by the Sixteenth Amendment although it was first collected in 1861 to help finance the Civil War.

Colorado implemented the first state income tax in 1937. It was a graduated system based on your income. The more income, the higher the tax rate. Colorado moved to a single tax rate of 5% in 1987 and later that was reduced to 4.63%. The current Colorado Constitution requires that all taxable income be at one rate,  sometimes referred to as a flat tax rate.

A graph demonstrating that Colorado income tax was much more complex and based on personal income until simplified to a single tax rate in 1987, and subsequently lowered to the current rate of 4.55%.

Colorado
Income Tax Rate
Timeline