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Denver Paycheck Calculator (2026)

Enter your annual salary below to see your Denver take-home pay after federal, FICA, and Colorado state tax for 2026.

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Denver applies Colorado's flat 4.4% state income tax to wages. Colorado FAMLI also applies as a small employee payroll deduction. At $85,000 single in Denver, the state line resolves to $3,740 and Colorado FAMLI totals $383, leaving take-home of $64,505 per year.

Denver sits at the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains and anchors one of the fastest-growing US metros of the past decade. Aerospace runs deep here: Lockheed Martin Space, United Launch Alliance, Ball Aerospace, and Sierra Nevada Corporation all maintain major Denver-area operations, building rockets, satellites, and crewed-space hardware. DISH Network and Lumen Technologies headquarter downtown, anchoring a regional telecom base. The outdoor recreation industry — gear manufacturers, apparel companies, and retail headquarters — concentrates along the Front Range. Colorado applies a flat 4.4% state income tax to all wages, with no bracket schedule. Colorado FAMLI (Family and Medical Leave Insurance) also runs as a state-administered employee payroll program; the employee share is half of the 0.9% combined premium, capped at the Social Security wage base. At $85,000, the Colorado FAMLI line totals $383 per year. Median rent in Denver runs roughly $1,950 monthly. Federal tax resolves to $9,870, Colorado state to $3,740, FICA combined to $6,503, leaving take-home of $64,505.

$85,000 single filer take-home comparison

Denver

$64,500

Colorado (no city tax)

$64,500

Texas (no income tax)

$68,600

Denver take-home is $0 vs the state-only figure and -$4,100 vs the no-income-tax baseline.

How Colorado tax applies in Denver

Denver does not levy a separate municipal income tax. Your paycheck math runs the Colorado state schedule on top of federal tax and FICA. The Colorado state page covers the full bracket detail and any state-administered programs (such as SDI or paid leave) that apply uniformly to every resident of the state.

Open the Colorado paycheck calculator

What this estimate includes

This calculator computes Denver take-home pay using 2026 federal brackets after the standard deduction, FICA contributions (Social Security up to the annual wage base, Medicare on all wages, plus the Additional Medicare Tax above the filing-status threshold), and Colorado's state income tax schedule, alongside state-administered payroll programs (Colorado FAMLI). No municipal income tax applies in Denver. The calculator excludes employer-side payroll taxes, custom W-4 elections, supplemental-wage handling for bonuses or equity vesting, and income from sources other than W-2 wages.

Denver paycheck FAQ

How much state tax does Denver pay?
Colorado applies a flat 4.4% rate to every wage dollar, with no bracket schedule. Denver residents at $85,000 single see a state tax line of $3,740. Marginal and effective rates collapse to the same number under a flat schedule, so a $50,000 paycheck and a $250,000 paycheck face identical state percentages.
What state-administered payroll programs apply in Denver?
Colorado FAMLI is the state-administered employee payroll program. The employee share is half of the 0.9% combined premium, applied to wages up to the Social Security wage base. At $85,000, the Colorado FAMLI line totals $383 per year. FAMLI funds paid family and medical leave benefits for Colorado workers.
What changes for married filing jointly, head of household, or filing separately at $85,000 in Denver?
Colorado's flat-rate schedule treats every filing status identically on the state line — Single, MFJ, HoH, and MFS all pay 4.4% of taxable wages. Filing-status take-home differences in Denver therefore come almost entirely from federal mechanics. At $85,000, MFJ take-home reaches $68,535 ($4,030 more than single). Head of household clears $67,427. Married filing separately lands at $64,505. Colorado FAMLI is filing-status-neutral, so the only state-side filing variation comes through federal pass-through.
Does Denver have a city income tax?
Denver charges a flat Occupational Privilege Tax of $5.75 per month for any employee earning at least $500 in the city — a fixed dollar amount, not a percentage. The calculator models Colorado state tax and FAMLI; the OPT is small enough that most users subtract it separately. There is no broader city income tax.
How does Denver compare to Boulder for paycheck taxes?
Boulder shares Denver's Colorado state-tax framework precisely — same flat 4.4%, same Colorado FAMLI rate. Take-home at $85,000 is identical for a Denver and a Boulder resident; housing and commute distance are the practical wedges. Boulder rents run roughly 15-20% above Denver's.
Where does Denver differ from Phoenix or Salt Lake City for paycheck taxes?
Phoenix applies Arizona's flat 2.5%, the lowest broad-based state rate among Western metros — a Phoenix paycheck at $85,000 takes home meaningfully more than Denver. Salt Lake City applies Utah's flat 4.55%, close to Denver's rate. Phoenix and Salt Lake have no state-administered payroll programs; Denver's FAMLI deduction is the practical wedge from those two.

See also

Run the full Colorado paycheck calculatorBrowse all city paycheck calculatorsBrowse paycheck calculators by statePaycheck and tax glossaryHow we calculate paycheck taxes

Reviewed

How This Page Is Reviewed

The Denver paycheck page is reviewed against primary federal, state, and city sources before each major tax-year update. Source links below are the references used to validate brackets, wage bases, and supported local taxes.

Reviewed by

PaycheckCalc Research Desk

Last reviewed

2026-05-28