Victory for Coloradans! TABOR Refunds Will Not Be Taxed by IRS

Confirmation was received from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that TABOR refunds will not be taxed this tax season. This announcement follows a year-long campaign led by Congresswoman Boebert and the bipartisan Colorado delegation urging the IRS to adhere to a 30-year precedent of not taxing TABOR refunds.

Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (CO-03) said, “For the better part of a year, the bipartisan Colorado delegation and I have been fighting to protect Colorado taxpayer TABOR refunds from being seized by the IRS. Major victory today as TABOR refunds will not be the next victim of a tyrannical IRS that was seeking to ignore a 30-year-old rule that protects Coloradans from unnecessary taxation.”

Background:

On Tuesday, the IRS announced they will not be taxing TABOR refunds this tax season. This comes after a year long campaign from Congresswoman Lauren Boebert and the bipartisan Colorado delegation pressuring the IRS to back off of plans to unnecessarily tax TABOR refunds.

In 1992, Colorado enacted the TABOR amendment, which imposes constraints on the amount of tax revenue retained by the state, mandating the return of any surplus revenue to our taxpayers. The IRS has consistently refrained from categorizing TABOR refunds as taxable income. This historical practice aligns with the IRS's traditional respect for states' autonomy in designing and administering tax refund procedures. Maintaining this course of action makes logical sense and has been a consistent practice.

As part of this pressure campaign, Congresswoman Boebert wrote three letters to the IRS in favor of protecting TABOR refunds. Check out the public comment letter from Colorado's bipartisan delegation sent on October 16th about TABOR refunds here.

Read Congresswoman Boebert's letter sent on September 5th to Daniel Werfel, Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service here.

Take a look at the letter from Colorado's bipartisan delegation to Douglas O’Donnell, Acting Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, sent on February 10th here.