Sales & Use Tax System (SUTS) | Frequently Asked Questions

SUTS is the Department's new Sales & Use Tax System. For more information, visit the SUTS Information web page. 

Visit the Sales & Use Tax System (SUTS) Help web page for more information on how to sign up.

Yes. Every business will need to have a Colorado State Sale Tax License. If you do not have a state sales tax license, you may register for the license through the SUTS System.

Payments can be made using ACH Credit, Bank Account/E-Check, or Credit Card. The taxpayer will need to cover any applicable processing fees.   

Department of Revenue rules provide that a taxpayer with an average monthly tax of $300 or more must file monthly. Taxpayers with an average monthly tax less than $300 may file quarterly. If a taxpayer’s average monthly tax liability is $15 or less, and filing monthly or quarterly would prove a hardship, the taxpayer may request permission to file annually.

Retailers engaged in a seasonal business may request permission to file only for the months during which they operate. Also, retailers who structure their accounting periods on a basis other than a calendar month (e.g. retailers who account in 13 four-week cycles) may request permission to file according to their accounting schedule. The rule also provides for changes to the filing schedule after it is approved.

Your return and payment will not show up on your Revenue Online account until the funds have cleared with SUTS, which is usually three (3) business days after payment.

Taxpayers will be able to report use tax to self-collecting home-rule municipalities that utilize a combined sales and use tax return. For a list of home-rule, self-collecting municipalities that have a combined return and can accept use tax return via SUTS, visit Tax.Colorado.gov/SUTS-Jurisdictions.

SUTS will not request the use tax details that are typically found on Schedule B. Taxpayers should maintain such detail in their records as required by local rules.

Taxpayers will not be able to file consumer’s use tax returns (forms DR 0251 and DR 0252) for the state or any state-administered jurisdictions through SUTS. Visit the Consumer Use Tax and the Use Tax for Businesses web page for more information. 

Currently, SUTS is only set up to collect sales and use taxes. Other local taxes collected must be remitted directly to home-rule, self-collecting tax jurisdictions. Other taxes for the state and state-administered jurisdictions can be filed and paid online using Revenue Online.  

Yes, businesses could file just their home-rule filings in SUTS and their state filings in Revenue Online if they chose to do so. The system is flexible, so that each business can use SUTS as it best suits their needs.

Please reach out to the home-rule jurisdiction directly with licensing requirement questions. Each self-collecting home-rule jurisdiction establishes their own tax laws, rules and regulations. 

Yes, this is a new system.

Visit the SUTS Participating Jurisdictions web page to see which jurisdictions are participating. 

No, there are other electronic filing methods available.

No, participation in SUTS is voluntary for the home-rule, self-collecting jurisdictions. 

While there are plans to add this feature in the future, at this time you can add locations (sites) to your account by using your Revenue Online account (if you have set one up) or by emailing DOR_multilocations@state.co.us.

The Sales & Use Tax System (SUTS) does not currently support amended returns. To amend a sales tax return for a participating, home rule, self-collecting tax jurisdiction, please reach out to the jurisdiction directly for additional information and instructions. Contact information for all home rule, self-collecting jurisdictions can be found in the DR 1002 publication. For state and state-administered jurisdictions, information about how to amend a retail sales tax return can be found on the Sales Tax Filing Information web page.

SUTS (Sales and Use Tax System) is the name for the combination of the GIS (Geographic Information System) and the new Sales Tax Remittance Portal. For more information on these systems, visit the SUTS Information web page. 

The Geographic Information System (GIS) allows businesses to look up the specific sales tax rate for an individual address. The GIS not only shows state sales tax information, but it also includes sales tax information for counties, municipalities, and special taxation districts. This system allows for a complete tax rate to be determined so the correct tax is collected from customers in real-time. 

Also, if your internal point of sale system supports it, the GIS information can be accessed through an Application Programming Interface (API). This API can automatically reference current tax information directly from the CDOR. Please note that the Department will need to verify that you have registered for an account for the Remittance Portal before using the API. Additionally, in some instances, the base map from Google cannot resolve some queries where, for example, “county road” is abbreviated as C.R. This issue is being investigated by Google Maps staff and should be resolved shortly.

The new GIS includes an API, which is short for "application programming interface," which is a software intermediary that allows two systems to talk to one another. An API assists you in automating your point of sale (POS) system. The API automatically retrieves sales tax rate calculation information from the GIS database. It can also help integrate GIS database information into your online ordering and point of sale systems.

Retailers using third-party databases previously certified by the Department will need to ensure that their providers are using the most recent SUTS data in order to continue to be held harmless for errors and omissions in the jurisdictions returned by an address search.

Sales tax collection for the State of Colorado changed in 2019. At that time, exceptions to destination sourcing were given to small businesses. Destination sourcing means that sales tax is calculated based on the address where the taxable product or service is delivered to the consumer, not on your business location. 

Now that the Geographic Information System (GIS) is online and available for everyone to use, state statute requires Colorado-based businesses using the temporary origin sourcing exception to transition to destination sourcing by 90 days from the date the Department announced that the system was live.

For more information, visit the Transition to Destination Sourcing web page.

These rules will apply to sales occurring on or after October 1, 2022. A sale occurs when a seller transfers goods to a buyer for consideration. The Department generally relies on the invoice date as establishing the date when the good is transferred to the buyer. This means that, in general, to sales invoiced on or after October 1, 2022, but not to sales invoiced prior to October 1, 2022.

In each scenario, the sale is sourced to the customer’s home, because that is where the customer takes possession of the property. You would use the tax rate for their home address to determine what tax rate to use. The Geographic Information System (GIS) can assist you in determining the tax rate.

Possession by a shipping company on behalf of the customer does not constitute receipt, so the tangible personal property would not be considered received at your facility. The sales tax due will depend on where the customer takes possession of the tangible personal property, which in this case, is at their delivery location.

Motor vehicles are tangible personal property and are subject to Colorado sales and use taxes. However, special rules apply to the taxation of motor vehicles in Colorado. Additionally, the manner in which a motor vehicle is taxed varies depending on whether it is leased or purchased. Review the Motor Vehicles - Sales Tax Topic guidance publication for more information.

Transactions that take place within your store, where the customer receives the product at the time of purchase, are handled the same way as before. You would use your store’s physical location to determine the sales tax rate.