Time Machine Tuesday: Income Tax Statistics

Income tax filing season has arrived.  How do today’s incomes compare with those in the past?  It’s hard to believe that just forty years ago the average annual household income in Colorado was only $13,214!

In 1977 the Colorado Legislative Council issued their tax study Colorado Statistics of Income: Individual Income Tax Returns, Fiscal Year 1977, which contains lots of data on Coloradan’s incomes and how much of it went towards taxes.  Similar reports were issued for 1975 and throughout the 1980s and 1990s to help lawmakers determine state tax policy.  If you’re researching the history of salaries and income in Colorado, these reports are a very helpful tool which have been digitized and made available online for easy access.  Our library also has many other reports on income taxes; search our online catalog for titles.