Summary
100% relief from state income tax, state sales/use tax, and county/municipal personal property tax for new businesses approved into a Rural Jump-Start zone (35 active rural Colorado counties as of December 2025). Plus 100% relief from state income tax for each qualified New Hire (claimed on the employee's personal return, not the employer's). Up to 8 years per business. Annual New Hire ramp by county-population tier (counties <100K: 1/2/3 hires by year 1/2/3+; counties ≥100K: 1/3/5). Each business must apply through and be endorsed by a designated Sponsoring Entity (institute of higher education or economic development organization), pass a competitive analysis (no direct competition with existing businesses in the applicant or adjacent distressed counties), and receive final approval from OEDIT's Economic Development Commission (EDC).
Benefit
- Percentage
- 100% of tax_liability
- Flat
- —
- Duration
- 8 years
- Max annual
- — (taxpayer)
- Max total
- — (taxpayer)
- Carryforward
- —
Program metadata
- Distribution
- allocated
- Claimant subject
- business
- Refund/transfer election
- refundable_only
- Program family
- —
- Effective
- —
- Sunset
- 2030-12-31
- Application deadline
- —
- Transfer discount
- —
Hard requirements (6)
- is_new_to_stateBusiness cannot be operating (selling a product or service) in Colorado at the time it submits the RJS application. Pre-revenue activities (planning, fundraising, recruiting, R&D, prototyping, business formation, manufacturing/testing a proof of concept) are permitted even if some revenue is associated.
- min_new_jobsCounties <100K population: business must have at least 3 qualified New Hires by the end of year 3 (annual ramp: year-1 ≥1, year-2 ≥2, year-3+ ≥3). Missed-year = benefit suspension; second consecutive miss = loss of RJS status. (This is a milestone-schedule pattern; full year-by-year ramp will land with future_proposals.md §2.)
- min_new_jobsCounties ≥100K population: business must have at least 5 qualified New Hires by the end of year 3 (annual ramp: year-1 ≥1, year-2 ≥3, year-3+ ≥5).
- min_wage_pctEach qualified New Hire must earn at least 100% of the county average annual wage to qualify for the per-employee state income-tax exemption.
- local_approval_requiredOEDIT runs a competitive analysis on each application; existing businesses in the applicant's county or adjacent economically-distressed counties may challenge the application during a one-month waiting period. Approval is conditional on the business not directly competing with the core function of an existing operating business in the relevant geography.
- local_approval_requiredApplication must be (a) endorsed by the zone's designated Sponsoring Entity (institute of higher education or economic development organization, e.g. Colorado Mesa University, Region 9 EDD, Trinidad State Junior College), and (b) approved by OEDIT's Economic Development Commission (EDC) at its monthly meeting. Plus the local jurisdiction (county/municipality) must have passed an RJS tax-relief resolution. Three layers of approval; modeled as one procedural rule in this seed.
Preference / tiering rules (0)
None.
NAICS industries (0)
Any.
Geo zones (34)
- rural alamosa · Alamosa County
- rural archuleta · Archuleta County
- rural clear_creek · Clear Creek County
- rural conejos · Conejos County
- rural costilla · Costilla County
- rural delta · Delta County
- rural dolores · Dolores County
- rural fremont · Fremont County
- rural garfield · Garfield County
- rural huerfano · Huerfano County
- rural kiowa · Kiowa County
- rural kit_carson · Kit Carson County
- rural la_plata · La Plata County
- rural lake · Lake County
- rural las_animas · Las Animas County
- rural lincoln · Lincoln County
- rural logan · Logan County
- rural mesa · Mesa County
- rural moffat · Moffat County
- rural montezuma · Montezuma County
- rural montrose · Montrose County
- rural morgan · Morgan County
- rural otero · Otero County
- rural phillips · Phillips County
- rural prowers · Prowers County
- rural pueblo · Pueblo County
- rural rio_blanco · Rio Blanco County
- rural rio_grande · Rio Grande County
- rural routt · Routt County
- rural saguache · Saguache County
- rural san_juan · San Juan County
- rural sedgwick · Sedgwick County
- rural washington · Washington County
- rural yuma · Yuma County
Tags (7)
- sponsoring_entity_required: true
- mutual_exclusion_with: CO-JGITC,CO-EZ-NEC,CO-EZ-NEC-RUR
- recapture: suspension_then_status_loss_after_second_consecutive_miss
- tier_1_just_transition_communities: moffat,western_montrose,morgan,pueblo,rio_blanco,routt
- reported_on_form: DR_0113
- sales_use_tax_form: DR_0137B
- pte_credit_schedule: DR_0106CR
Tax bases
- corporate_income_taxprimary
- sales_use_tax_state
- property_tax_local
- sales_use_tax_local
- personal_income_tax
Approval requirements (1)
- requiredCO Rural Jump-Start jurisdiction + Sponsoring Entity — Three-layer approval: (1) county/municipality must have an approved RJS tax-relief resolution, (2) the zone's Sponsoring Entity (institute of higher ed or EDO) must endorse the application, (3) OEDIT's EDC must approve at the monthly meeting.
Program relationships (5)
- Mutually ExclusiveCO-JGITC — Job Growth Incentive Tax CreditRJS prohibits stacking with JGITC for the same New Business and same New Hires. See edge_cases.md §23 (mutual-exclusion / negative-stacking).
- Mutually ExclusiveCO-EZ-NEC — Enterprise Zone New Employee Tax CreditRJS prohibits stacking with EZ New Employee Credits for the same New Hires.
- Mutually ExclusiveCO-EZ-NEC-RUR — Enterprise Zone Enhanced Rural New Employee Tax CreditRJS prohibits stacking with the Enhanced Rural EZ NEC for the same New Hires.
- StackableCO-EZ-ITC — Enterprise Zone Investment Tax CreditRJS explicitly permits stacking with EZ Investment Tax Credit (and Historic Preservation, Advanced Industries Accelerator Grant) — the rule prohibits stacking only with overlapping job-creation incentives.
- StackableCO-HSP — Historic Structures Preservation CreditRJS explicitly permits stacking with the Historic Preservation Tax Credit.
Source
HB24-1001 (reauthorization through Jan 1, 2031)
Last verified: 2026-04-26
Multi-tax-base program — see incentive_tax_bases below for the five bases. Claimed via DR 0113. Recapture: missed-metric year suspends benefits; second consecutive miss = loss of RJS status (re-application required). Modeled today without future_proposals.md §2 (milestone schedules) — annual New Hire ramp is captured in eligibility_rules description text below; structured milestone_schedules table arrives with A03. SECOND-STATE confirming instance for §2 milestone-schedule pattern (after NY Excelsior).