Lone Tree, Colorado
The question on the Colorado return that everybody answered “zero.”
Starting with 2025 returns the question is gone. The tax is not.
For years the Colorado income tax return carried a schedule, the DR 0104US, asking how much you had bought during the year without paying sales tax, so the state could collect its 2.9% on the income return. Almost nobody reported anything, the state knew it, and for 2025 the schedule was dropped. That does not repeal the tax. It moves it to a separate return that most people have never heard of. Here is what the tax is, who still owes it after the internet retailers started collecting, and what we do about it at the desk.
Sales tax is paid by the buyer and collected by the seller. When the seller does not collect it, because the seller is in another state and had no obligation to, or is a private party, or simply did not, the buyer owes the same amount directly to the state, under a different name. That is use tax: the tax on using, storing or consuming in Colorado something you bought without paying Colorado sales tax on it. Every state with a sales tax has one. It exists so that buying from an out-of-state catalog, and later an out-of-state website, does not become a way around the tax your neighbor pays at the store on Lincoln Avenue.
It applies to tangible things: furniture, electronics, clothing, books, equipment, supplies. It does not apply to services, and it does not apply to anything Colorado exempts from sales tax, which includes most groceries, prescription drugs and, since 2023, diapers and menstrual products. If you paid another state’s sales tax on the item, Colorado gives you credit for it and you owe only the difference, if Colorado’s rate is higher.
↑ Back to topUntil 2018, a retailer with no store or warehouse in Colorado could not be made to collect Colorado sales tax, and use tax was the only way the state could reach the purchase. The Supreme Court changed that in South Dakota v. Wayfair, and Colorado followed in 2019: any retailer with more than $100,000 of Colorado sales must collect, and marketplaces like Amazon, eBay and Etsy must collect on behalf of the small sellers who use them. Look at a recent Amazon receipt and you will find the state, RTD and county tax on it. For most households, that took care of most of the problem.
What is left is a short list:
A seller who does not collect may still be required to send you an annual summary of what you bought, by January 31, and to tell the state the same thing. If one of those arrives, it is the state’s way of saying it already knows.
↑ Back to topThe state use tax is 2.9% of the purchase price, the same as the state sales tax. On top of that, the special districts that charge sales tax also charge use tax, at the same rates: in the Denver metro area that is RTD at 1.0% and the cultural facilities district at 0.1%, so a Lone Tree or Highlands Ranch household owes 4.0% on an untaxed purchase (verify current district rates). Counties and home-rule cities have their own use taxes, but for individuals those generally reach only vehicles and building materials, which are collected at the county clerk or the permit counter, not on a return.
↑ Back to topThrough tax year 2024, an individual could report the year’s use tax on the DR 0104US and pay it with the income tax return. For 2025 and later the schedule is discontinued. The year’s consumer use tax is now reported either on Form DR 0252, a short standalone return, or online in your Revenue Online account, and it is due by April 15 for the previous calendar year, the same day as the income return but filed separately from it (verify the 2025 filing instructions). There is no minimum; the return is due if any tax is owed. The special-district tax goes on the same return, and the RTA taxes for Pikes Peak, Roaring Fork and the South Platte Valley have their own schedule, the DR 0251, which Revenue Online folds in automatically.
The practical effect is that use tax has gone from a line everyone saw and ignored to a form nobody sees. The obligation is the same. So is the enforcement, which for individuals has always been light and driven by the annual seller reports and by audits of businesses.
↑ Back to topThe use tax the state cares about is on the things it can see. A car bought from a private party, or from a dealer in another state, has the state, county, city and district use tax collected by the county clerk when you register it; you cannot get plates without paying. Boats and off-road vehicles work the same way at registration. Building materials for a project in a home-rule city are taxed through the building permit, which is why the permit fee for a basement finish in Lone Tree or Castle Rock includes a use-tax deposit. None of these go on the DR 0252; they are already paid.
↑ Back to topWe ask. The honest answer for most households since 2019 is that there is nothing to report, because the receipts show the tax was collected. When there is something, a piece of furniture delivered from a small out-of-state maker, a purchase on a trip, a seller’s annual summary in the client’s file, we total it, apply the state and district rates, and file the DR 0252 or enter it in Revenue Online with the April 15 payment. It is usually a small number. What we do not do is put down a made-up figure or a guess at a percentage of income; Colorado has no safe-harbor table, and the return is signed under penalty of perjury like any other.
I have prepared Colorado returns for a long time and I can count on one hand the clients who had a real use-tax number before the internet retailers started collecting. Since then it is rarer still. The question still gets asked, because the one year it matters is the year the client bought a $9,000 dining set from a cabinetmaker in Pennsylvania.
↑ Back to topAlmost certainly not. Amazon has collected Colorado state and district tax on everything it sells, and on everything third-party sellers sell through it, since 2019. Check a receipt; the tax is itemized.
No. They got rid of the schedule, the DR 0104US, starting with 2025 returns. If you owe use tax it now goes on a separate return, the DR 0252, or into Revenue Online, due April 15.
You don’t; the county clerk collects it when you register the car, on the purchase price you declare on the title paperwork. It is paid before you get plates.
For a typical household, in practice, nothing, because the state has no way to see a $400 purchase from a small seller in another state. The exception is the seller who files the annual report with the Department; those get matched, and a notice follows with penalty and interest on a small number. The tax is owed either way, and we file it when there is something to file.
For the Tax Shop desk · forms, code sections, and the things that get missed
Look at the receipts. If the seller collected Colorado tax, and nearly all of them do now, there is nothing to report. If you bought something substantial from a small seller in another state, from a private party, or on a trip, tell us the amount and we will file the DR 0252 with the April 15 payment. It is usually a few dollars, and it is cheaper than the notice.
Call 303-734-1040 or stop by the office in Lone Tree. We’ve been reading the footnotes for Douglas County and the Denver area since 1969.
Figures reflect the 2025 and 2026 tax years as currently published. Items marked (verify) are to be confirmed against Colorado DOR sources before the figures freeze in December. Last updated October 25, 2026.