Filing sales and use tax in Colorado is uniquely complex for businesses operating across multiple jurisdictions in the state, due to its system of tax administration. That’s because unlike most states, Colorado has a combination of state-administered localities and home rule cities, each with its own requirements.
1. Home rule cities
Colorado has more than 70 home rule cities, which collect and administer their own sales taxes independently from the state. These cities:
Set their own tax rates and rules (which may differ from the state’s).
Require separate registration and filing.
Large cities in this category include Denver, Boulder, Aurora, Fort Collins, and Colorado Springs.
If your business has nexus in a home rule city, you may need to register and file directly with that city, unless it participates in Colorado’s Sales and Use Tax System (SUTS).
2. SUTS (Sales and Use Tax System)
To simplify the registration and filing process, Colorado offers the SUTS portal — a centralized system where businesses can:
File and remit sales taxes for both state-administered jurisdictions and the majority of participating home rule cities.
Upload filing data for efficiency.
Not all home rule cities participate in SUTS, so businesses may still need to file separately with certain jurisdictions. The known non-participating jurisdictions are Telluride and Delta. The Colorado Department of Revenue (DOR) provides this list of participating jurisdictions.
3. State-administered localities
For most cities and counties, sales tax is administered by the Colorado DOR. Businesses register once with the state and file via the DOR’s online portal for all state-administered areas.
Filing frequency (monthly, quarterly, or annually) depends on your business’s sales volume and is assigned by the DOR. The state can change your frequency if it deems a change necessary.
4. How can Numeral help?
Numeral simplifies your Colorado sales and use tax compliance by filing your returns through the SUTS portal. This ensures streamlined compliance across the vast majority of Colorado’s state-administered and participating home rule jurisdictions.
It’s important to note that SUTS is a centralized filing platform, but each municipality receives funds and filing confirmations on a delayed schedule. It’s not uncommon for businesses to receive letters from a home rule city stating that a return hasn’t been filed, even though it has been submitted through SUTS. This discrepancy is a known issue and is typically due to the delay (often up to three weeks) between filing in SUTS and the funds arriving in the city’s account. You can verify submission status directly in the SUTS portal.
If your business isn’t yet registered in SUTS when you onboard with Numeral, our team will begin the setup process to ensure that you’re compliant as soon as possible.
Please note: Numeral does not file directly via individual home rule city portals, unless otherwise specified.
5. Understanding Colorado Department of Revenue portal discrepancies
If you log into the Colorado DOR portal, you may notice that the amount listed for your Colorado return does not match the amount debited from your bank account. This is expected!
The DOR portal reflects only the state-administered portion of your sales tax return. It does not include amounts allocated to home rule jurisdictions through SUTS, so it presents only a partial view of your total Colorado tax liability.
Example:
You log into the DOR portal and see that your March 2025 return shows a payment of $80. However, your Numeral dashboard reflects a total Colorado tax return of $125. The additional $45 is being distributed by SUTS to participating home rule localities, based on your customers’ locations.
We appreciate that this is a complex subject, so please contact us if you have any questions! Log in to the Numeral dashboard and send us a message from the widget on the bottom right-hand side of your screen.