COtax_creditpct_of_investmentrefundable
Employee Ownership Tax Credit to Strengthen and Thrive
CO-EOTC-STRENGTHEN · Colorado
Summary
Annual recurring tax credit of 50% of qualifying costs incurred to maintain or sustain an existing employee-ownership structure, capped at $50,000 per year. Available to Colorado-headquartered businesses that have been employee-owned for 7 years or less from the date of application. Available for tax years 2025 through 2029 (5-year program). Aggregate program cap of $1.5M per year, allocated by the Colorado Employee Ownership Office on a rolling basis. Sibling program to CO-EOTC-ESTABLISH (the conversion-cost credit) — STRENGTHEN supports BAU operations of already-converted businesses, ESTABLISH supports the conversion itself.
Benefit
- Percentage
- 50% of investment
- Flat
- —
- Duration
- —
- Max annual
- $50,000 (taxpayer)
- Max total
- — (taxpayer)
- Carryforward
- —
Program metadata
- Distribution
- allocated
- Claimant subject
- business
- Refund/transfer election
- refundable_only
- Program family
- —
- Effective
- —
- Sunset
- —
- Application deadline
- —
- Transfer discount
- —
Hard requirements (1)
- local_approval_requiredColorado Employee Ownership Office (OEDIT division) must issue a credit certificate. Pre-application + reservation REQUIRED before completing the conversion (ESTABLISH) or before the qualifying tax year (STRENGTHEN). DOR will not accept the credit without the certificate.
Preference / tiering rules (0)
None.
NAICS industries (0)
Any.
Geo zones (1)
- statewide — · Colorado Statewide
Tags (7)
- max_employee_owned_years: 7
- eligible_window_start: 2025-01-01
- eligible_window_end: 2029-12-31
- annual_program_cap_usd: 1500000
- related_program_establish: CO-EOTC-ESTABLISH
- pte_credit_schedule: DR_0106CR
- individual_credit_schedule: DR_0104CR
Approval requirements (1)
- requiredCO OEDIT — Colorado Employee Ownership Office — Pre-application + reservation must be approved by the Colorado Employee Ownership Office (a division of OEDIT) before the conversion is completed (ESTABLISH) or before the qualifying tax year (STRENGTHEN). The credit certificate issued by this office must be attached to the income tax return — DR 0104CR (individual), DR 0105 Schedule G (estate/trust), DR 0106CR (PTE), or DR 0112 (C-corp).
Source
HB24-1157 (Polis signed 2024-06-04); statute citation TBD — § 39-22-542.x, C.R.S.
Last verified: 2026-04-30
CO-statewide. Eligibility: business must be operational and headquartered in CO for the entirety of the tax year. Employee-owned ≤7 years from application. Source page returned CloudFront 403 from this fetch path on 2026-04-30; eligibility/rate details synthesized from WebSearch metadata + Colorado Governor press release announcing HB24-1157. Re-verify directly against the OEDIT page on next fetch attempt. Possible source-grounding gap: per-structure detail (whether all the same structure types as ESTABLISH count as eligible) not surfaced from accessible sources.