The IRS says the transplant wave has crested

If you’re of the opinion that “Colorado is full,” the Internal Revenue Service has some good news for you.

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The Denver skyline as seen from the Evans Avenue bridge. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)

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The Denver skyline as seen from the Evans Avenue bridge. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)

If you’re of the opinion that “Colorado is full,” the Internal Revenue Service has some good news for you.

The IRS released tax return counts Friday that show fewer people moved to Colorado in 2015 than in 2014, the Denver Post reports.

A lot fewer, in fact. 

How does the IRS know that?

It’s actually pretty simple. When it counts tax returns, the IRS keeps track of the number of Colorado tax returns filed by households who filed under an out-of-state or out-of-county address in the previous year. In 2014, that number was 97,185. In 2015, it was 76,123.

Tax returns also help answer a big question: Where are transplants coming from?

As Aldo Svaldi reports for the Post, new residents were still coming in from the same states: California, Texas, Florida, Arizona, Illinois, New York and New Mexico.

The flow of transplants out of Arizona and New Mexico decreased the most — down by 22 percent. The number of New Yorkers moving to Colorado dropped by 16 percent.

People are leaving Colorado, too.

The tax returns show that Coloradans were most like to leave for Texas, California, Florida, Arizona and Washington in 2015, and 56,653 tax returns were filed outside the state by households who filed in Colorado in 2014.

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