Nonresident Disaster Relief Worker Exemption/Subtraction

Disaster relief work includes repairing, renovating, installing, building, or rendering services that relate to infrastructure that has been damaged, impaired, or destroyed by a declared state disaster emergency or providing emergency medical, firefighting, law enforcement, hazardous material, search and rescue, or other emergency service related to a state declared disaster emergency. The Governor has declared a disaster emergency due to the presence of COVID-19 in Colorado.

In the event any nonresidents perform disaster-related work in Colorado during a declared state disaster emergency, their wages for such work would be exempt from Colorado taxation. The exemption would likely be achieved in most cases without the nonresident emergency worker having to file a Colorado income tax return.

Employers should not withhold Colorado income tax from any wages paid to any nonresident for disaster-related work. The wage withholding exemption does not apply to any Colorado resident employees. More information can be found in the Wage Withholding Guide.

Nonresidents who perform disaster-related work during a declared state disaster emergency should not file a Colorado income tax return unless (1) they have other Colorado-source income or (2) Colorado income tax was withheld (erroneously) from their wages for the disaster-related work.

If Colorado income tax was withheld for the disaster-related work during a declared state disaster emergency, the nonresident worker should enter the amount of income (compensation earned) while working in Colorado on line 15 of the Subtraction from Income Schedule (DR 0104AD). This schedule should be included with the Nonresident Tax Calculation Schedule (DR 0104PN) and the Individual Income Tax Return (DR 0104) when submitting a return. Forms can be printed/downloaded from the Individual Income Tax Forms web page. Nonresidents can also file online using an Accepted Third Party Software.

This subtraction is only available to nonresident individuals. If you are a resident of Colorado, you are not eligible for this subtraction.