Charles Trautman, EA · Since 1969
Not a person, but a 1992 amendment, the man who wrote it, and three decades of refunds.
TABOR stands for the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. It is a section of the Colorado Constitution that voters added in 1992, and it shapes almost everything about Colorado taxes: why there is one flat income tax rate, why every tax increase goes to a vote, and why some years you get a refund from the state that has nothing to do with what you paid. Here is what it says, who wrote it, and how the refunds have shown up on Colorado tax returns since the 1990s.
Current as of October 2026. Part of our Colorado income tax series.
Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution. It applies to the state and to every city, county, school district and special district.
No new tax, higher tax rate or new debt without approval from voters. The legislature can cut taxes on its own; it can’t raise them.
State revenue can grow each year only by inflation plus population growth. Federal money, gifts and a few other sources don’t count toward the cap.
Revenue above the cap must be refunded to taxpayers the next year, unless voters agree to let the state keep it. The legislature decides how to refund it.
Any change to the income tax must tax all income at a single rate. That’s why Colorado has a flat tax, and why the November 2026 Amendment 87 has to amend the constitution to create brackets.
New or higher taxes on the transfer of real property are banned, and there is no statewide property tax. Local property taxes still exist, but rate increases need a local vote.
Local governments can ask voters to let them keep revenue above the cap. Colorado calls this de-Brucing, after TABOR’s author. Many Colorado cities, counties and school districts have done it; the state as a whole has not.
Douglas Bruce was born in Los Angeles in 1949, worked as a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney in the 1970s, and became a landlord. He moved to Colorado Springs in 1986 and turned his attention to limiting government taxing and spending.
His idea didn’t pass the first time, or the second. His measure won 42% of the vote in 1988. A revised version won 49% in 1990. The third try, Amendment 1, passed on November 3, 1992, with just over 53% of the vote, and became part of the constitution.
Bruce later served one year in the Colorado House (2008), where he was censured for kicking a newspaper photographer on the day he was sworn in. In 2011 he was convicted of tax evasion, money laundering and related charges and served jail time. His amendment has outlasted all of it: more than three decades later, it is still the most important rule in Colorado public finance, and his name lives on in “de-Brucing.”
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1992 | Voters approve TABOR (Amendment 1). |
| 1997–2001 | A booming economy produces the first big surpluses. The state refunds about $1 billion in the peak year (fiscal 1999–2000) through sales tax refunds and a long list of temporary credits and deductions written into the income tax return. |
| 2001–2003 | Recession. Revenue falls, and the cap falls with it. When the economy recovers, the state can’t climb back to its old spending level. This is the “ratchet effect.” |
| 2005 | Voters approve Referendum C: a five-year “timeout” in which the state keeps everything it collects, and a permanently higher cap after that. Through fiscal 2022–23 the state kept about $33.75 billion it would otherwise have refunded, spent on health care, schools, higher education and transportation. |
| 2010 | SB10-212 repeals most of the old refund credits and makes one of them a permanent part of the tax code: the charitable subtraction for people who don’t itemize. |
| 2013 | SB13-001 makes the state earned income credit, another former refund mechanism, permanent starting with 2016 returns. |
| 2019 | Proposition CC, which would have let the state keep all future surpluses for schools and roads, is rejected by voters. |
| 2022 | Record surplus. The Colorado Cash Back checks, $750 per filer ($1,500 joint), arrive in September. |
| 2023 | Proposition HH, which would have used refund money for property tax relief, is rejected. Refunds on 2023 returns are the same for everyone: $800 per filer ($1,600 joint). |
| 2026 | Revenue comes in under the cap. No refund on 2026 returns. Proposition NN on the November ballot would let the state keep about $500 million more in its first year for schools. |
Ballotpedia counts 36 statewide TABOR-related measures from 1993 to 2023; voters rejected about 69% of them.
TABOR says the money goes back. The legislature decides how, and it has used a lot of different ways.
The most common method. Everyone who files gets a refund, and people with more income get more, in six income tiers. It’s called a sales tax refund, but it is claimed on the income tax return.
Used in big years: the $750 Cash Back checks in 2022 and the $800 refund on 2023 returns. Also used automatically when the refund would be very small.
The income tax rate drops for one year: 4.63% to 4.50% for 2019, and 4.40% to 4.25% for 2024. Everyone who pays income tax benefits, in proportion to income.
In the late 1990s the refund came partly through special credits and subtractions that only applied in surplus years: the earned income credit, a child care credit, deductions for capital gains and interest, and the charitable subtraction. Some of those became permanent.
Before anyone gets a check, the state reimburses counties for the homestead exemption that cuts property taxes for seniors and disabled veterans. In a small surplus year that takes most of the money, which is why the 2025 refund was so small.
| Tax year | How the surplus came back | Per person |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Rate cut from 4.63% to 4.50% | Varies with income |
| 2020 | No surplus | — |
| 2021 | Rate cut and six-tier sales tax refund | Varies with income |
| 2022 | Cash Back checks, plus six-tier refund | $750 + tier |
| 2023 | Identical refund | $800 |
| 2024 | Rate cut to 4.25% and six-tier refund | $177–$565 |
| 2025 | Six-tier refund | $19–$59 |
| 2026 | No surplus | None |
Joint filers get double the per-person amounts. Full 2025 tier table on how Colorado income tax works.
The refund goes to people who file a Colorado return, even if they had little or no income. In a refund year, filing can be worth hundreds of dollars to someone who wouldn’t otherwise need to.
Someone who paid no Colorado income tax can still get the sales tax refund. It’s a share of the state’s surplus, not money you overpaid, which is also why it doesn’t appear on the Form 1099-G the state sends itemizers.
The state earned income credit and the subtraction for charitable gifts above $500 for people who don’t itemize both began as temporary ways to pay out surpluses (1999 and 2000) and became permanent. See charitable giving over $300,000.
Under the six-tier method, a family with higher income gets a bigger sales tax refund on the theory that it spent more. Under the identical method, everyone gets the same. The method can change every year.
Revenue for fiscal 2025–26 came in about $176 million under the cap. Forecasters expect surpluses, and refunds, to return on 2027 returns.
Proposition NN would let the state keep about $500 million more in its first year for schools. Amendment 87 would replace the flat tax with brackets, which means changing TABOR’s single-rate rule. Details on the 2026 page.
HB26-1419 recovers refunds that turned out too large for 2024–25 by shrinking future refunds. A legal challenge is expected.
We prepare federal and Colorado returns together, year round, in Lone Tree.
These pages are general information, current as of October 2026, and are not advice about your situation. Colorado law changes every session, and the Department of Revenue updates its publications through the year. Confirm anything that matters to you at tax.colorado.gov or call us.