Bookkeeping, Tax Preparation Support and Virtual CFO Services for Denver Businesses

Denver administers its own sales and use tax. The Denver Revised Municipal Code imposes 5.15 percent on retail sales, leases and rentals of tangible personal property and on certain services, including software as a service, internet subscriptions and telecommunication services, and the Tax Guide (revised March 2026) says online sales to customers in Denver are taxable. Returns are due on or before the 20th of the month after the period closes. Colorado's own sales tax guide uses the same 20th for the state return, and puts the state rate at 2.9 percent.

The sales tax license is its own document. Denver issues it through the eBiz Tax Center for a two-year term, and the licensee must verify its information by January 1 of the even-numbered years. A retailer with a Denver store and a warehouse in another city also has to check that city's rules, and Broomfield County is the one other county where the state does not collect the local tax. We keep a jurisdiction register on the file and code every invoice line with its delivery jurisdiction, so the state return and each city return can be rebuilt from the ledger. The sales tax filings and nexus work covers the registration side.

Denver's head tax has two parts. The employee tax is $5.75 a month, withheld by the employer from anyone who earns at least $500 in a calendar month for services performed in Denver. The business tax is $4.00 a month for each of those employees, and also $4.00 for each owner, partner or manager engaged in business in Denver, however much they earn. Any entity with activity in Denver owes a minimum of $4.00 for each month in which it has activity, even with no permanent location here.

Entity type changes who is counted. A corporation has only employees. A limited liability company is treated according to its IRS classification: the working members of a partnership are taxed as owners, and the single member of a disregarded entity is taxed as an owner. An employee with two Denver employers pays the employee tax once, with a Form TD269 given to the second employer, though that employer still owes the $4.00 business tax. We reconcile the OPT withholding to the payroll register every month, which makes the payroll journals the control record.

Colorado's rate on C corporations is not a fixed number. The Department of Revenue's corporate guide lists 4.4 percent for tax years 2022 and 2023, 4.25 percent for 2024 and 4.4 percent for 2025. A multi-year catch-up therefore needs the rate by year.

FAMLI, the state's paid family and medical leave program, is a premium on wages: 0.88 percent in 2026, shared equally between employer and employee when the employer has ten or more employees nationwide, while an employer with fewer than ten employees owes no employer share. Premiums are paid quarterly, with the payment dates listed as April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31, and the Annual Total Employee headcount is due by February 28; if it is missed, the Division assumes ten or more. The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment announced on October 6, 2026 that the rate drops to 0.86 percent in 2027.

The Secretary of State asks for a periodic report from each LLC and corporation, at $25 online, with a $50 late filing penalty. It can be filed two months before the reporting month or two months after without a penalty. The report month sits on each entity's record, so we log it per entity in our state annual reports register.

Denver's rate sheet groups food and beverage with liquor stores at 4.0 percent from the city (8.00 percent combined), while regular retail is 5.15 percent (9.15 percent combined). The Tax Guide defines taxable food and beverages as those served for immediate consumption, so a group with a bar, a restaurant and a packaged goods counter has to split its sales by category before the return is built. Tip reporting adds a payroll layer on top, and the monthly head tax count depends on who earned at least $500 that month, which changes with seasonal schedules.

Franchise owners with several Denver-area locations need location-level profit and loss statements and a consolidated view for lenders. Our restaurant and multi-entity work handles that, with class tracking by location. Online sales to customers in Denver are subject to Denver sales tax, per the Tax Guide, so a seller without a storefront here still has to check whether it must register with the city.

Startups raising a seed or Series A round want investor-ready monthly statements and a chart of accounts that will still make sense after the round, and we build the books to that standard from the start. Professional services firms bill by project, which makes revenue timing and utilization the issues that decide margins. Construction and trades firms in the suburbs track job cost, retainage and subcontractor payments, and an employee who works for one employer in both Denver and another city with a head tax, such as Aurora, pays the tax only in the city where most working hours are spent, per Denver's Tax Guide Topic 61.

Healthcare practices, property managers and nonprofits with Denver programs have their own versions of the same issues. A nonprofit with grant-funded staff needs fund accounting and a payroll file that shows which restricted grant pays which salary. For the leadership side, our fractional CFO service builds the cash forecast and board pack from the same reconciled ledger.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2025 estimates for the Denver-Aurora-Centennial metro put the mean annual wage for accountants and auditors at $107,620, which is about 14 percent above the national mean of $94,750, with a median of $100,020 and 22,720 jobs counted. Bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks average $59,520 against $53,560 nationally. Financial managers average $214,610 against $186,910, and tax preparers $72,150 against $60,930.

Denver sits above the national mean on every one of those four roles, before benefits, payroll tax and software. Finbryn's Essentials plan is $249 a month for businesses up to $50,000 in monthly expenses, and Growth is $549 a month up to $150,000, per the pricing page. The comparison that matters is coverage: a plan runs the close, the reconciliations and the filings calendar every month, and does not replace an in-house person you want at your desk.

The engagement is remote from the first call, with no Denver office or local staff, and the accounting file stays in your name. At setup we record your Denver sales tax license, your Occupational Privilege Tax account and your FAMLI account, so each one is reconciled to the ledger on the same monthly close. Documents travel through a client portal and bank feeds connect into QuickBooks Online or Xero. For tax work we prepare the books and supporting schedules, and the return is prepared for review and signature by the credentialed preparer.

Use the contact page and tell us your Denver license number, how many employees work inside the city, and your payroll provider. Catch-up work is scoped apart from the monthly ledger, and the terms go into an engagement letter before anything starts. For another Western metro with its own transaction tax rules, see Phoenix, or browse every metro on the locations hub.