Get your tax IDs in Colorado

An EIN, if you need one, takes minutes online. Colorado then adds a sales tax license if you sell taxable goods, withholding and FAMLI if you have employees, and unemployment once you meet the wage test.

What’s different in Colorado

• State sales tax is 2.9%, and the local rate is the rest. The total depends on the address. Some cities collect their own tax.
• The license fee steps down over two years. The July through December 2026 fee is $12, plus a $50 deposit on a new account’s first location.
• A delivery can add a fee on top of tax. Through June 2027 that retail delivery fee is $0.31.
• The state stopped letting retailers keep a slice of state sales tax on January 1, 2026. One Department page still tells you to claim that fee. The two pages are below.
• 2026 income tax is not on the Department’s rate table. The published table stops at 2025.

Do this

1. Get an EIN from the IRS if you need one. The IRS requires one if you have employees and for partnerships, corporations, nonprofits, and most LLCs. It is free and, if approved, issued immediately online. Form the LLC or corporation first. Don’t pay a website to apply for you.
2. Apply for a sales tax license if you will sell taxable goods. Use MyBizColorado, or form CR 0100, the Sales Tax / Wage Withholding Account Application. One location can start in MyBizColorado. Two or more locations use CR 0100. a retail sales tax license also covers wholesale sales. You do not add a separate wholesale license. The standard retail license page has the fee table.
3. Add the deposit if the account is new. It is $50, and it is refunded automatically after the business has paid $50 in state sales tax, and only required for the first location. In July through December 2026 the license fee itself is $12. The other windows are $16 (January through June of an even year), $8 (January through June of an odd year), and $4 (July through December of an odd year). A charitable license is $8 and needs a copy of the 501(c)(3) determination. The page’s sample total of $66 matches the $16 window plus the deposit.* Use the row for the month you apply.
4. Look up the rate for the address. State tax is 2.9% on most goods, with the exemptions the forecast names, and on a small collection of services. Separately, the Department says the state generally does not tax services, and some home-rule cities do. Those two descriptions are not the same sentence.* Use the address lookup for the place of the sale. Use tax is 2.9 percent, when sales tax was owed and was not collected at the sale.
5. File on the schedule the Department assigns. At $50 or less a month, you may file yearly, due January 20. Under $1,100 a month, you may file quarterly. At $1,100 or more a month, returns are monthly, due the 20th day of the month after the period. If the 20th is a weekend or holiday, the due date is the next business day. You must file a return for every period, even with no sales. Above $75,000 a year in state sales tax, pay by electronic funds transfer. SUTS is a filing path for state-collected sales tax and for participating home-rule cities.
6. Do not keep the state service fee. January 1, 2026, for the state fee. A local fee may still apply. The service fee page is the one that says the state fee ended. the filing-information page still says to claim the service fee on form DR 0100.* Follow the service fee page for the state fee, and read the return for any local fee that remains.
7. File electronically once you are required to. The penalty is the greater of $50 or 5% of the tax due. For 2026 that requirement starts with retailers whose prior-year gross sales were $500,000 or more, starting January 2026. The sales and use tax page has the later years, when the threshold drops and then covers every retail return.
8. Add the retail delivery fee if you deliver taxable goods by motor vehicle. It is a fee on a motor-vehicle delivery into Colorado that includes at least one item subject to state sales or use tax. The July 2026 through June 2027 total is $0.31. It may change each July. You are exempt if last year’s Colorado retail sales were $500,000 or less. A business with no Colorado retail sales last year stays exempt until the filing period that starts at least 90 days after this year's sales pass $500,000. The fee is not subject to state or state-administered local sales tax, though a self-collecting home-rule city might tax it. Ask the city, or use the address lookup.
9. Register for withholding on the same application when you hire. CR 0100 is the wage withholding application as well as the sales tax application. The pages we read do not state the withholding deposit schedule or whether Colorado accepts the federal W-4.* Check the withholding section of the Department’s new-business page, and the form, before the first payroll.
10. Open FAMLI and unemployment when they apply. Any business with at least one qualified employee registers. A self-employed person with no employees does not have to register. The 2026 rate is 0.88%, with 0.44% from the employer and the same from the employee. A business with nine or fewer employees sends in 0.44% and still files the wage reports. A larger employer has ten or more employees who worked 20 or more weeks in the prior year, and that employer pays the full 0.88%. Count employees nationwide, not only the ones in Colorado. Update the headcount by February 28 each year or the state will charge the full premium, because a missing headcount is treated as 10 or more employees. Premiums stop at $184,500 of wages. Unemployment starts at $1,500 in a quarter, or 20 weeks, not necessarily the same person or consecutive weeks. Report new hires within 20 calendar days of the hire, or by the next regular payroll if that payroll is later. The hiring guide covers the federal side.

The 2026 income tax rate

The individual income tax guide lists 4.4% for tax year 2025. The table ends there. It does not list 2026.* Check that guide, and the corporate guide if you are a C corporation, before you file.

Legislative Council’s September 2026 forecast is a different document. It says no TABOR refund obligation for FY 2025-26, and no refunds for tax year 2026. A temporary rate cut is one way the state refunds a surplus. The forecast says that cut would take the rate from 4.40 percent to 4.36 percent in 2029, and the forecast does not expect the temporary rate cut in 2027 or 2028. It does not print a 2026 rate on a return. Use the figure the Department prints for the year you are filing.

The same forecast says House Bill 26-1223 narrows the software sales tax exemption beginning January 1, 2027. That is the forecast’s description of the bill, not the bill text.* Read the bill or the Department’s notice before you treat software as taxable or exempt.

By structure

• LLC and partnership: owners generally pay Colorado income tax on their own returns. The flow-through election, sometimes called SALT parity, is a Department page we did not read line by line.* Ask a tax professional before you elect anything.
• Corporation: a C corporation pays Colorado income tax. Confirm the year’s rate on the Department’s corporate guide. Stay compliant has the other yearly dates.
• Nonprofit: a charitable sales tax license is $8. Income tax exemption is a separate question for the IRS and the Department.
• Sole proprietor: you pay Colorado income tax on your own return. Sales tax, FAMLI, and unemployment still apply when the activity does.

What you get back

• EIN: a nine-digit federal tax ID, shown on screen when approved. Print the confirmation letter.
• Sales tax license and Colorado account number: the account number can show online if you applied online. The license itself arrives by mail.
• Withholding account: from the same application, if you asked for it.
• FAMLI and unemployment accounts: once you register and the agencies accept you.

Not selling taxable goods and not hiring yet? You may need nothing more for now.