For many Colorado taxpayers rushing to meet the midnight filing deadline, where they live could be a big factor in how much income they report.
The average adjusted gross income in Colorado was $55,014, spread across more than 2 million returns, according to a Denver Post analysis of 2004 tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service.
The highest-income ZIP code, 81611, home to Aspen, reported an average adjusted gross income that was 14-fold higher than the ZIP code with the lowest average income.
Other than ZIP codes composed of college dormitories, the lowest average income in the state belongs to the 81087 ZIP code, home to tiny Vilas, in the southeastern corner of Colorado.
The nearly 3,000 Aspen households filing taxes in 2004 reported an average income of $204,237. The 65 returns in Vilas reported an average income of $14,246, with 26 reporting income below $10,000 and none above $50,000.
Many of the other areas with lower incomes were also small and not household names – Hereford, Chama, Kim, Romeo and Center.
Residents at Fort Carson, ZIP 80913, reported one of the lowest average incomes in the state – $22,483.
At the bottom was the 80310 ZIP code, home to University of Colorado at Boulder dorms, where students reported an average income of $5,161.
Colorado ranks among the top 10 states for per-capita personal income. Many ZIP codes contain a mix of low- and high-income households.
But high housing costs keep working families from wealthy areas such as Cherry Hills Village, Castle Pines and the mountain resorts, said Maureen Farrell, executive director for the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute in Denver.
“The rich are getting richer; the poor and lower-income are getting poorer. We have to create policies in our state that will change that,” she said.
A handful of ZIP codes in the state had no households reporting more than $25,000 in income, and several lacked households reporting $50,000 or more.
“We have had this situation for a long time of clusters around the state that appear chronically trapped,” said Brian Vogt, former head of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.
Vogt said strong local leadership, strategic planning and state assistance can reverse that situation.
Two decades ago, Lower Downtown was considered Denver’s skid row, Vogt said. Now, it is home to million-dollar lofts. Downtown Denver, 80202, came in second after Aspen with an average income of $176,619.
Adjusted gross income represents wages, interest, dividends, capital gains and other income sources, less allowed deductions such as IRA contributions, student-loan interest, moving expenses and alimony paid.
Areas where the IRS hid data because there were too few returns in an income category weren’t included in this analysis. That “cloaking” affected low-income areas more. ZIP codes that consisted only of post-office boxes also weren’t included.
Computer assisted reporting editor Jeffrey A. Roberts contributed to this report.
Staff writer Aldo Svaldi can be reached at 303-954-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com.
Tax Day … plus two
How it happened: With April 15 falling on a Sunday and April 16 is Emancipation Day in Washington, D.C., the deadline for filing federal income-tax returns is midnight tonight.
Late filers: About one of every 10 tax filers, approximately 210,000 in Colorado, will either file a return today or seek an extension of time to file.
Where to go: The U.S. Postal Service will extend hours at about three dozen mail facilities.
