Live in Colorado, work in Texas
State income tax on wages · single filer · tax year 2026
Texas takes
$0
on wages earned there
Colorado takes
$1,932
after the credit it gives
Both together
$1,932
state tax for the year
Cost of the line
$0
a year, above working at home
What crossing the line costs
no work-state taxTexas has no income tax, so only Colorado taxes this pay. Solid is what you actually pay; the faded part of the Colorado bar is the credit it hands back. State income tax only — federal and payroll tax apply on top, and a city wage tax may too.
Which state taxes you, and what it costs
- People move jobs to Texas expecting the tax to disappear. It does not, not while you live in Colorado. Your home state taxes what you earn anywhere, and Texas charging nothing simply means there is nothing to set against it. The year comes to $1,932, all of it to Colorado.
- Plenty of states feed workers into Texas — 9 of them at this scale. Colorado is number 8, with 5,837 jobs. You will not be the first person at your employer to have filed as an out-of-state worker.
- Texas levies no individual income tax, so a commuter into it is taxed by Colorado alone, on the whole of the wages, at $1,932 for the reference salary. ⛔ The common expectation — that working in a state without an income tax removes the tax — is exactly backwards for a commuter: residence is what gives Colorado its claim, and that claim reaches income wherever it is earned. There is no work-state liability to credit against it, so nothing offsets the Colorado bill. The only version of this that changes the answer is moving.
- Texas draws commuters of this scale from 9 states, and Colorado ranks number 8 among them with 5,837 jobs. A work state pulling from that many directions tends to have a well-established non-resident filing routine, which is a practical convenience rather than a tax saving.
Where the money goes
A $75,000 salary
- Federal income tax$7,670
- Social Security and Medicare$5,738
- State income tax$2,592
- Yours$59,001
| Federal income tax10.23% | $7,670 |
|---|---|
| Social Security and Medicare7.65% | $5,738 |
| State income tax3.46% | $2,592 |
| Yours78.67% | $59,001 |
Which rung you are on
A $75,000 salary
| This rung starts at | $66,500 |
|---|---|
| Next rung starts at | $121,800 |
| Room before it | $46,800 |
Federal only, measured on gross pay — so the first rung is what the standard deduction covers.
The arithmetic, step by step
| Texas takes, on wages earned there | $0 |
|---|---|
| Colorado charges its residents | $1,932 |
| Less the credit Colorado gives | $0 |
| Total state tax | $1,932 |
| If you also worked in Colorado | $1,932 |
| Difference | $0 |
On a reference salary of $60,000 a year, single filer. Both states run progressive schedules, so the figures do not simply scale — use the tool above for your own salary.
What this page does not cover
- What you see here is state tax between Colorado and Texas. Cities can charge their own tax on top, and a handful do. That layer is not modeled on this page, so treat these figures as the floor rather than the final bill.
- These numbers assume the job in Texas is your only income, and that you actually go there to work. Both matter. If you earn money in more than one state, the credit Colorado gives is worked out as a share rather than the simple cap used here. And if you work from home some days, some states have rules that treat those days as worked at the office anyway.
- The dollars rest on one assumed salary of sixty thousand. Double your pay and they do not simply double, because both states charge more on higher slices of income. What tends to stay put is which side of the Colorado and Texas comparison you are on.
- These figures cover the STATE layer only. City and municipal wage taxes sit on top of them and are not included: a commuter into Philadelphia pays its wage tax on top of anything here, and Ohio's municipalities run their own credit system, which this site models in its own families. New York City, by contrast, taxes only its residents, so a commuter into it adds nothing at the city level. Whether Texas or Colorado carries a local layer is a separate question from the state arithmetic above.
- The arithmetic assumes all wages are earned in Texas and that there is no other income. That matters for the credit: where income comes from several states, Colorado limits the credit to the share of its own tax attributable to the Texas portion, computed as a ratio rather than the straightforward cap used above. It also assumes days are worked in Texas rather than remotely — several states tax a non-resident's remote days as though they were worked at the employer's location, which reverses the usual expectation and is handled on this site's reciprocity pages.
- Dollar amounts are computed at a stated reference salary of sixty thousand rather than a corridor wage average, which no published source provides per state pair. Because both states' liabilities and the credit between them are functions of the same income, the direction of the Colorado to Texas comparison holds at other salaries even though the amounts do not — with one qualification worth stating, that a progressive schedule can change the SIZE of the gap at higher incomes, and in Texas's case a bracket crossed on one side and not the other is exactly where that happens.
Questions people ask
Do I pay state tax twice, to Colorado and Texas?
Both states tax the same wages, and then one of them backs off. Texas taxes what you earn inside it. Colorado taxes you on everything, then subtracts what Texas already took, up to the size of its own bill. You end up paying the larger of the two, which is $1,932 a year on this route.
Does working in Texas cost me anything extra?
Nothing extra, on this route. You end the year owing $1,932, exactly what you would owe if the job were in Colorado. That is not true of every crossing — plenty of them do cost money — but this one does not. What it does cost you is time at tax filing, because two states may each want a return.
Do I have to file tax returns in both Colorado and Texas?
Two returns is the normal outcome here, even when only one state ends up taking anything. Texas generally wants to see a non-resident return from people who work there, and Colorado wants your whole picture. It is paperwork rather than extra tax.
What if I work from home in Colorado some days instead of going to Texas?
Working from home usually moves that day's pay out of Texas and into Colorado alone. A handful of states disagree and tax remote days as if you had commuted. This page assumes you actually travel to Texas, so if a lot of your week is at home the split will differ from what you see here.
How is liability allocated between residence and work state on the same wages?
Both jurisdictions assert a claim on the same wages — Texas on a source basis, Colorado on residence. The residence state grants a credit for tax paid to the source state, limited to the residence state's own liability on that income. Net combined liability therefore equals the greater of the two liabilities rather than their sum, $1,932 at the reference salary, and the split between the two treasuries is the only thing the credit changes.
Why is the marginal state-tax cost of this crossing zero?
Marginal cost is zero because the binding liability is the residence state's. Colorado's own charge on this income equals or exceeds Texas's, so the resident credit absorbs the source-state tax entirely and combined liability equals residence-only liability, $1,932. ⚠️ Zero marginal tax is not zero obligation: a non-resident return may still be required in Texas.
What filing obligations arise in each state on this corridor?
Generally two. Colorado requires a resident return reporting all income; Texas requires a non-resident return reporting the income sourced to it, which is also the mechanism by which the resident credit is substantiated. ⚠️ A filing obligation is distinct from a liability: a reciprocity exemption or a zero net position removes tax without necessarily removing the return, and the non-resident return is frequently what establishes the credit claimed on the resident one.
How do remote working days affect sourcing between these two states?
Ordinarily wages are sourced to where the services are performed, so days worked remotely from Colorado fall outside Texas's jurisdiction and the source-state apportionment shrinks accordingly. ⛔ The exception is the "convenience of the employer" rule, which several states apply: a non-resident's remote days are sourced to the employer's location unless the remote work is required by the employer rather than chosen by the employee. The figures on this page model in-person attendance in Texas throughout.