How the Colorado TABOR Refund Works and What Residents Are Actually Getting in 2026
The state is returning excess tax revenue again. Here's how the trigger formula works, what changed about distribution, and why Denver renters and gig workers shouldn't assume the money arrives on …
The state is returning excess tax revenue again. Here’s how the trigger formula works, what changed about distribution, and why Denver renters and gig workers shouldn’t assume the money arrives on its own.
What You Are Getting and When
Colorado’s nonpartisan Legislative Council Staff projects a TABOR surplus for fiscal year 2024–25, which means residents who file a 2025 Colorado state income tax return are in line for a refund. The final per-filer amounts get confirmed after the state fiscal year closes June 30, 2025.
Editor’s note: CityDesk Denver is publishing this based on the current legislative and fiscal framework. The Colorado Department of Revenue will publish the final certified per-filer amounts once the fiscal year closes. Confirm the exact dollar figure at tax.colorado.gov before filing or budgeting around it. Our reporter has a request in with the CDOR press office and will update this piece when the number is certified.
For most Denver filers, the refund arrives as a refundable income tax credit claimed on Form DR 0104 — the standard Colorado individual return. There’s no separate check in the mail. The credit reduces your state tax liability to zero, and anything left over comes back as part of your state refund, by direct deposit or paper check depending on how you filed.
The practical calendar: Colorado returns for tax year 2025 are due April 15, 2026. The Department of Revenue typically turns around refunds within two to three weeks for electronic filers, four to six for paper. File in late February or early March and you’ll likely see the money by mid-spring.
What TABOR Actually Is and Why Colorado Has It
Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights — Article X, Section 20 of the state constitution — passed by voters in 1992. It caps how much revenue state government can retain and spend in any given fiscal year. The ceiling is set by a formula: the prior year’s cap, adjusted upward for inflation plus population growth. Any revenue collected above that cap — from income taxes, sales taxes, severance taxes, fees, whatever — cannot be kept by the state. It goes back to taxpayers.
This isn’t something the legislature can cancel in a tight budget year. It’s a constitutional obligation. The General Assembly can ask voters to waive or suspend the requirement, but without voter approval, the state must return the excess.
The political debate around TABOR has run for three decades through courts, ballot fights, and legislative sessions. It’s genuinely contested. But the mechanics for individual taxpayers are simple: if the state collected more than the cap allows, you get money back. That part isn’t up for debate.
How the State Decides Whether a Refund Is Owed
Two parallel processes run before any number becomes official. The Colorado Office of State Planning and Budgeting — the executive branch’s fiscal shop — produces revenue forecasts several times a year, typically in March, June, and December, modeling expected collections against the constitutional spending limit. Separately, the nonpartisan Colorado Legislative Council Staff runs its own forecast on the same schedule. The LCS operates under the legislature and isn’t beholden to the governor’s budget priorities. Both offices brief the Joint Budget Committee, and both forecasts are publicly posted at leg.colorado.gov — worth bookmarking if you want to track this before the final number drops.
After June 30, actual collections get compared against the actual TABOR limit for that year. If collections exceeded the cap, the surplus is divided by the number of eligible filers. That produces the per-filer amounts that end up on your DR 0104.
Here’s what makes the annual figure genuinely hard to predict: Colorado’s income tax collections rise with wage growth and investment gains, and when capital gains realizations spike — a hot stock market, a wave of tech liquidity events — collections can outrun the inflation-plus-population cap by a lot. The TABOR cap itself moves with population and inflation data that shifts from forecast to forecast. One significant economic disruption, a major employer moving in or out, or a national tax policy change can swing the refund substantially with no legislative action at all. Don’t assume this year’s number looks like last year’s.
What the 2025 Legislative Session Changed
The 2025 Colorado General Assembly continued operating under the tiered TABOR refund framework established in 2023 under Senate Bill 23-303 and House Bill 23-1311. Those measures moved Colorado away from the old flat structure — where every qualifying filer got the same dollar amount regardless of income — toward a graduated model that weights refunds toward lower- and middle-income filers.
Under the tiered structure, filers are grouped into income brackets and the per-filer amount decreases as income rises. A single filer earning $30,000 gets a larger refund than one earning $300,000. Both still get something — the constitutional obligation applies to all filers. The law simply gives proportionally more to earners for whom the money represents a larger share of what they actually have. Whether you think that’s the right approach probably depends on your broader view of tax policy. It’s what the statute requires.
Whether the 2025 session passed anything that altered this framework is something our reporter is confirming at leg.colorado.gov. We’ll update this article with specific bill numbers when verified.
This isn’t an abstract distributional question in Denver. The Colorado Fiscal Institute and the Bell Policy Center — both Denver-based nonprofits that track state fiscal policy — have analyzed how flat versus tiered distribution affects different income groups. In a city where a hotel housekeeper and a tech manager can work three blocks apart and have wildly different relationships to a few hundred dollars, the structure of the refund has real consequences for who benefits most.
What You Need to Do to Claim It
You must file a Colorado state income tax return — Form DR 0104. No separate claim form, no application, no opt-in. Filing the return is the entire action required.
If you’re a W-2 employee with Colorado income tax withheld from your paycheck, you’re already in the system. The refund shows up as a credit on your DR 0104, offsets any tax owed, and the remainder comes out as your state refund. Nothing special required — just file the return you’d file anyway.
Self-employed workers and gig economy participants face a different situation, and it’s worth being direct about it. Ride-share drivers, delivery workers, freelance designers, software contractors billing clients from a home office in RiNo — if you earn income without withholding, you have a quarterly estimated tax obligation. But what matters for TABOR purposes is the annual DR 0104. Self-employed filers sometimes skip state filing when they think their net income after deductions is minimal. Understandable, but a mistake here. The TABOR credit doesn’t flow through estimated payments. It appears only when you file the annual return. File it.
Low-income or zero-income Denver residents who’ve never filed a state return because they have no tax liability can still file a DR 0104 with zero income to claim the TABOR credit. This is legal, it’s intended, and it’s underused. VITA volunteers — more below — can walk you through it.
One persistent misconception worth correcting plainly: renters qualify. The TABOR refund has nothing to do with property ownership. It’s tied to state taxpayer status. Full stop.
Part-Year Residents and Other Edge Cases
Denver has absorbed a significant number of people who relocated during 2025 — for a job at the Denver Tech Center, graduate school at DU, or because remote work made the move possible without the financial risk it used to carry. If you established Colorado residency sometime during 2025 but weren’t here for the full year, you file as a part-year resident using DR 0104 with the part-year resident schedule. The specific proration rules for the 2025 tax year are worth confirming directly with the Colorado Department of Revenue before you file, since our reporter is still verifying those details.
If you itemized deductions on your 2025 federal return, the federal tax treatment of your TABOR refund may have implications for your 2026 federal filing. A one-hour conversation with a CPA is worth it. This is one of those situations where the cost of professional advice is a lot less than the cost of getting it wrong.
Don’t confuse the state TABOR refund with Denver city-level programs. Denver operates renter assistance and utility relief through the Department of Housing Stability and other agencies. Those have separate applications, separate eligibility rules, and separate funding. The TABOR refund runs entirely through the state tax system. The City and County of Denver has no administrative role in it.
Where to Get Help Filing in Denver
The most reliable free help in Denver is Mile High United Way’s VITA program — Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, staffed by IRS-certified volunteers who prepare federal and state returns at no cost for qualifying households. Mile High United Way coordinates multiple VITA sites across the city, typically opening in late January or early February of filing season. Locate the nearest site through the IRS VITA locator tool.
VITA is particularly useful for the people most likely to miss the TABOR refund: gig workers without employer-provided tax prep, recent arrivals still figuring out Colorado’s system, seniors on fixed incomes, and very low-income residents who’ve never filed a state return and don’t know they qualify. If any of that describes someone you know, pass this along.
The Colorado Department of Revenue’s taxpayer services office is at 1375 Sherman Street, Denver — on the north end of the Capitol complex. The department’s online filing platform lets most people complete the DR 0104 directly without third-party software. The TABOR credit is calculated automatically based on filing status and income tier. The form itself isn’t complicated.
What This Money Is Actually Worth in Denver
The final certified refund figure won’t exist until after June 30, 2025. Once it’s out, it’s worth holding against real costs. An RTD monthly pass for local and regional service runs about $114. A typical Xcel Energy combined gas and electric bill is a regular fixed hit for most households. Whether the refund covers one of those or both of those depends on the certified amount — but it’s real money.
For context: for tax year 2023 (returns filed spring 2024), the refund was $800 for single filers, $1,600 for joint filers, distributed flat. For tax year 2022, it was $750 single/$1,500 joint, mailed as checks or deposited for electronic filers. The 2026 figure could be meaningfully different in either direction, depending on collections and how the tiered methodology shakes out. Don’t budget around those old numbers. Check tax.colorado.gov when the certified amount posts.
The TABOR refund isn’t a benefit program with eligibility windows or application deadlines. It’s money the state collected and constitutionally cannot keep. The only thing standing between you and receiving it is whether you file the return. In Denver, where a significant share of the workforce earns income through arrangements that create real friction around tax filing — no withholding, no employer-provided tax prep, no HR department sending reminders — that friction actually matters. Don’t let it cost you. File the DR 0104.
Key Facts at a Glance
2026 TABOR Refund (Tax Year 2025 Returns)
- Final certified amounts confirmed after June 30, 2025 fiscal year close
- Check tax.colorado.gov for the certified figure
- Reference: tax year 2023 was $800 single/$1,600 joint (flat rate); tax year 2022 was $750 single/$1,500 joint
Distribution Method
- Refundable credit on Form DR 0104 — not a separate check for most filers
- Tiered (income-based) structure under SB 23-303/HB 23-1311 framework; 2025 session changes subject to reporter confirmation at leg.colorado.gov
When It Arrives
- Returns due April 15, 2026
- Electronic filers: typically 2–3 weeks after filing
- Paper filers: 4–6 weeks
The One Thing You Must Do
- File Colorado Form DR 0104. No separate claim. Renters eligible. Zero-income filers can file solely to claim the credit.
Free Filing Help in Denver
- Mile High United Way VITA: IRS VITA locator tool or contact Mile High United Way directly
- Colorado Department of Revenue: 1375 Sherman St., Denver | tax.colorado.gov
Filing Deadline
- April 15, 2026
