Does Colorado have a real estate transfer tax?
Not at the state level. Colorado charges a documentary fee under C.R.S. 39-13-102 when a deed conveying Colorado real property is offered for recording with the county clerk and recorder. If the consideration is more than $500, the fee is one cent for each $100 of consideration, counting any major fraction of $100. At $500 or less, or with no consideration, nothing is due.
One cent per $100 works out to 0.01% of the price. A $5,000,000 sale pays $500. For a building that size, the escrow fee will usually be bigger.
The base is broad, though. Consideration includes the amount of any lien or encumbrance on the property and the charges required to complete the conveyance, so a buyer who takes title subject to your loan doesn’t shrink the fee. For commercial property, the full sales price is treated as paid for the real estate unless evidence of separate consideration for personal property is filed with the declaration or a use tax return.
The county clerk collects the fee along with ordinary recording charges. Weld County, for example, lists a flat $43 recording fee for a standard letter- or legal-size document, on top of the documentary fee.
Who pays transfer tax in Colorado?
The statute puts the documentary fee on whoever offers the deed for recording. Beyond that, the purchase contract decides whose side of the settlement statement carries it. At $200 on a $2 million building, it’s rarely worth a line of negotiation.
Local transfer taxes are different, and each town writes its own rule. Aspen’s finance department says its transfer taxes are the responsibility of the purchasing party. Breckenridge puts the burden on the buyer or grantee. Vail’s ordinance says each person involved in the transfer is jointly responsible for payment, which means a seller isn’t fully off the hook if a buyer walks away from the bill.
So the honest answer for a Colorado seller is: the state charge is tiny and negotiable, and a town tax, where one exists, usually falls on the buyer by code. You still feel it. A buyer who owes 1% to 3% to the town at closing prices that into the offer.
Colorado towns with a real estate transfer tax
Colorado’s real transfer taxes are municipal. Voters in a dozen mountain communities approved them in the 1970s and 1980s, according to Colorado Sun reporting, and the towns spend the money on open space, workforce housing and capital projects. Communities collecting RETT revenue include Aspen, Avon, Breckenridge, Crested Butte, Frisco, Gypsum, Snowmass Village, Telluride, Vail and Winter Park.
Then the door closed. TABOR, Article X, Section 20(8)(a) of the Colorado Constitution, states that new or increased transfer tax rates on real property are prohibited, and no Colorado community has approved a tax on property sales since 1992. If your building sits in Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs or any other town without a pre-1992 RETT, no city can add one before you sell.
The table shows the towns whose rates we confirmed on the town’s own website. For the others, ask the town finance office for the current rate and exemption form.
| Town | Transfer tax rate | Who the town says pays |
|---|---|---|
| Aspen | 1.0% housing RETT (first $100,000 excluded) plus 0.5% Wheeler RETT | Purchasing party |
| Breckenridge | 1% of gross consideration | Buyer or grantee |
| Vail | 1% | All parties jointly responsible |
| Crested Butte | 3% land transfer excise tax | Not stated on the town page |
The TD-1000 declaration and its penalty
Every deed presented for recording in Colorado must come with a Real Property Transfer Declaration, form TD-1000, signed by the grantor or grantee under C.R.S. 39-14-102. The form tells the county assessor what sold, for how much and on what terms.
The clerk records a deed even without it, then notifies the assessor, who mails the grantee a notice with 30 days to respond. Miss that and the assessor can charge the greater of $25 or 0.025% of the sale price, and repeat it each year until the property sells again. On a $2,000,000 building that’s $500 a year, more than double the documentary fee.
Sellers care about the TD-1000 for a different reason. It’s the assessor’s record of your sale price, and a buyer underwriting next year’s tax bill will assume the assessor reads it.
Exemptions that matter to Colorado investors
C.R.S. 39-13-104 lists the deeds that owe no documentary fee, and the exemption has to be claimed when the deed is offered for recording. The ones apartment owners run into most:
- Gift deeds, where the property is conveyed as a gift.
- Public trustee’s deeds from foreclosure, plus sheriff’s and treasurer’s deeds.
- Documents needed to transfer title because an owner died, and court decrees vesting title.
- Instruments that only confirm or correct a deed already recorded.
- Security documents, leases and lease assignments.
LLCs, entity sales and 1031 exchanges in Colorado
Deeding your building into an LLC you own for no consideration owes no fee, because the fee only attaches above $500 of consideration. If the deed recites a price or the entity takes over a loan, have the title company confirm the figure, since liens count toward consideration.
Colorado has no state controlling-interest transfer tax. The documentary fee is triggered by a deed offered for recording, so a sale of the membership interests in the LLC that holds title doesn’t record a deed and doesn’t pay the state fee. Towns with a RETT write their own rules, so check the town code before you structure an entity sale in Aspen, Vail or Breckenridge.
A 1031 exchange isn’t on the exemption list. The deed for the building you sell and the deed for the one you buy each pay the fee. In Colorado that costs a few hundred dollars, so it never shapes the exchange decision the way it can in Delaware or Washington.
Worked example: Colorado transfer costs on a $2M and $5M apartment sale
Start with a 24-unit building in Denver selling for $2,000,000. The documentary fee is $2,000,000 divided by $100, times one cent: $200. Denver has no RETT, so $200 is the entire transfer charge.
Move the same $2,000,000 building to Aspen. The housing RETT excludes the first $100,000, so it’s 1% of $1,900,000, or $19,000. The Wheeler RETT adds 0.5% of $2,000,000, or $10,000. Local tax totals $29,000, plus the $200 state fee, for $29,200.
A $2,000,000 sale in Crested Butte at 3% carries $60,000 of town tax, or $60,200 with the state fee. A $5,000,000 building in Breckenridge pays a $500 state fee and $50,000 of town tax at 1%, for $50,500.
Now compare the item that actually hits an out-of-state seller. If you live outside Colorado, the closing agent withholds 2% of the price or your net proceeds, whichever is less, on a sale over $100,000 under C.R.S. 39-22-604.5. On $2,000,000 that’s $40,000, 200 times the documentary fee, unless you qualify for an exemption by written affirmation. It’s a prepayment of Colorado income tax, not a transfer tax, but it comes out of your wire.
| Scenario | State documentary fee | Town RETT | Total transfer charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Denver, $2,000,000 | $200 | $0 | $200 |
| Aspen, $2,000,000 | $200 | $29,000 | $29,200 |
| Crested Butte, $2,000,000 | $200 | $60,000 | $60,200 |
| Breckenridge, $5,000,000 | $500 | $50,000 | $50,500 |
| Nonresident withholding on $2,000,000 (not a transfer tax) | n/a | n/a | $40,000 withheld |
Colorado transfer tax compared with neighboring states
Colorado’s state charge is a fraction of its neighbors’. Nebraska’s documentary stamp tax is $2.25 per $1,000 and the grantor pays it. Oklahoma charges $0.75 per $500. On a $2,000,000 sale those come to $4,500 and $3,000, against Colorado’s $200.
If you’re trading out of a Colorado building into another state through a 1031 exchange, the transfer tax on the replacement deed can easily be the larger of the two.
| State | State transfer tax | On a $2,000,000 sale |
|---|---|---|
| Colorado | $0.01 per $100 (0.01%) | $200 |
| Nebraska | $2.25 per $1,000 (0.225%) | $4,500 |
| Oklahoma | $0.75 per $500 (0.15%) | $3,000 |
Where the transfer tax fits in your total Colorado selling costs
For most Colorado apartment sellers, the documentary fee is a rounding error. The costs that move your net are federal capital gains tax, depreciation recapture taxed at up to 25%, Colorado income tax on the gain, the 3.8% net investment income tax for higher earners, and loan payoff costs such as prepayment penalties or defeasance.
A 1031 exchange defers the federal and state income tax on the gain, including recapture, if you buy qualifying replacement property within the 45-day identification and 180-day closing windows. It does nothing for the documentary fee or a town RETT, which are due when each deed records.
In a RETT town, the buyer’s 1% to 3% shows up in the price even when the code makes it the buyer’s bill. A buyer looking at a Crested Butte building is pricing that 3% in. Have your title company or CPA run the full closing statement early, with withholding, payoffs and town tax as separate lines.
Selling your Colorado apartment building to Skyline
Skyline Capital Investments buys apartment buildings with five or more units across Colorado, from Front Range cities to mountain towns. We buy directly, so there’s no listing period, and we can offer seller-carry terms or work inside your 1031 timeline.
Send us the property address and unit count through the form on this page, or call (469) 660-2977. We typically respond within 48 hours, and we’ll show you how the documentary fee, any town RETT and your other closing costs fit into the number we offer.
