Five Twenties: who takes a share of your pay

Five households, and who takes a share of their pay

Who takes a share of a Colorado paycheck before the household spends any of it? Five Twenties is a series of five short episodes. Each one follows one kind of household and accounts for every claim on its money.

What is left of a typical household's pay after every tax and fee? Episode 1: The Everyday Wallet adds up each one, from federal and payroll tax to state and local charges.

What costs press on a Colorado farm or ranch in the same season? Episode 2: What's Stacked Against the Operation follows labor rules, water, fuel and inspection fees.

Why does keeping the lights on cost more, and who pays the larger share? Episode 3: The Price of Keeping the Lights On shows energy prices across fuels, for households and for businesses.

What does a first paycheck cover once rent takes its share? Episode 4: What's Actually Left follows a new graduate's first year of pay. Colorado taxes income at one flat rate, 4.4% in 2025, so a first paycheck pays the same rate as every other one.

Why do many Colorado seniors still fall short of basic costs, when the state gives them a large tax break? Episode 5: Aging Out of Affordability sets the two side by side.

Each figure in the series names its source, and each episode shows how it was worked out.

More to explore

Where do your state taxes go? Follow Your Dollar starts from your ZIP code or county. It shows where the money goes, and the projects it pays for.

What happened to a bill you heard about? Bills and Laws lets you find a bill and see how it ended.

Each city has its own week in this brief

See this week for one city: Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, or Lakewood.

The city view shows only what changed in that city's records, and the State items for the counties the city is in. The two are not added together.

Corrections

The corrections log lists each mistake we find on this site and what we did about it. It has two new entries for Colorado, both in the Five Twenties series.

Episode 4 said how much a new graduate has left after rent, but it did not take out federal income tax or payroll tax. The page now takes out both, and the amount left is lower.

Episode 1 rounded its federal tax rate. So it showed a little more tax and a little less left over than its own model gives. The page now shows the exact figures.

The legislature is not in session

The General Assembly is between sessions. The next session starts on 11 January 2027.

The General Assembly recorded no votes between 30 October 2026 and 5 November 2026. Its most recent recorded vote was on 13 May 2026.

Every recorded vote since 2016 is at Bills and Laws.

Where these figures come from

Every figure above is one of two kinds, and this is which. FACT means a publisher printed the figure and we read it there. CALC means we worked it out from figures a publisher printed, and the arithmetic is on the methodology page. Nothing here is our own estimate.

• FACT Colorado income tax rate · 2025 · Colorado Department of Revenue, Taxation Division, Individual Income Tax Guide (revised January 2026) Back to the sentence