About

Need to Know Tax is the online companion to Income Tax 2026 · Need to Know · Federal & Colorado, a 64-page printed booklet about the income tax topics that touch nearly every Colorado household.

The booklet

It is written to be read at leisure, a few pages at a time. It is not a tax code and does not try to be one. Each article covers one subject in plain English, explains the terms the first time they appear, and stops. The figures are for tax year 2026, the return filed in early 2027, with 2027 figures where they have been published. It is dated on purpose and will be replaced next year.

The booklet is independent. No firm is named inside its pages or inside the articles on this site. Whoever handed you the booklet put their name on the cover, and the body is the same for every reader. Where an article says “ask your preparer,” it means whoever prepares your return.

This site

Each booklet article runs about 450 words. The version here runs three or four times that, with room for a worked example in real dollars, the Colorado side of the topic, a “what to bring your preparer” list and links to the forms and official pages the article mentions. The booklet is for reading; the site is for looking something up before an appointment.

Sponsor editions

Credit unions and tax practitioners distribute the booklet with their own cover. Each edition has its own doorway on this site: a page carrying the sponsor’s name and a short welcome, leading to the same articles everyone else reads. Practitioner editions can carry the firm’s name and phone number on every page a reader opens from that doorway. The articles themselves never change.

To ask about sponsoring an edition, contact the publisher below.

Corrections

Tax rules are detailed and the people who write about them make mistakes. If you find one, write to editor@needtoknowtax.com with the article name and the sentence in question. Corrections are logged on the updates page and fixed in place.

Publisher

The Tax Shop, Lone Tree, Colorado. Charles Trautman, EA, publisher and editor. The Tax Shop has prepared income tax returns in Colorado since 1969.

General information, not advice about your situation. Confirm anything that matters with a professional who knows your facts.