A Letter From Our Village Neighbors

Castle Pines Preservation Association
312 Quito Pl Castle Rock, Co. 80108

September 30, 2008

Dear Fellow Residents:

It has come to our attention recently that the City of Castle Pines North is inappropriately charging residents of Castle Pines Village sales tax. As part of their incorporation Castle Pines North (CPN) passed a 2 ¾% sales tax that is applicable to purchases from the shops on Castle Pines Parkway and to purchases delivered to the residents of Castle Pines North. We recently discovered that CPN is inappropriately charging the tax for goods and services delivered to resident’s homes in Castle Pines Village.

Somehow CPN has included the addresses of the Village in their taxing jurisdiction. We have verified that the tax is appearing on bills from Verizon and other utilities for residents in various parts of the Village. This is apparent as the utilities tend to itemize the various sales taxes. Most retailers simply provide a single sales tax amount and it is the sum of state, county and city (if applicable) sales tax. This inappropriate tax rate may be appearing in the data bases used by retailers (not just the retailers at Castle Pines Parkway) for items delivered to your home such as carpet, draperies, and appliances or automobiles.

The City of Castle Pines North, Verizon and The Colorado Department of Revenue have all been made aware of the mistake and indicate they are taking steps to correct it. In the mean time you need to check the amount of sales tax on all your bills. Residents of Castle Pines Village should be charged 4% (3% state, 1% county) on all good and services delivered to their homes. Although you can apply for a refund it’s better to avoid paying the incorrect tax at the time of purchase as the refund process is burdensome.

We have requested the documents from CPN that directed the Department of Revenue to begin collecting this tax so that we can determine how this mistake was made, how long it has been going on and how widely it is occurring. Thus far CPN is not aware of what they filed and blames the department of Revenue for the mistake. It seems as though CPN has already achieved a high level of bureaucracy in less than a year of existence.


Bill Kingery, President
Castle Pines Preservation Association, Inc.
kingery2669@msn.com