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Close-up Of A Person Hand Calculating A Real Estate Property Tax On Wooden Desk.

Third-party escrow service available in Colorado

EscrowTaxes gives taxpayers a monthly option to prepay property taxes

COMMUNITY NOTICE
July 15, 2025

Garfield County is offering property owners a new option to pay property taxes in monthly installments through escrowtaxes.com. The secure platform automatically charges the customer’s bank account or credit card each month to ensure that property taxes are submitted in-full and on time.

EscrowTaxes determines the payment amount based on the total due and the number of months remaining until the payment must be made. The payment amount is calculated when the client signs up for the service and it is deducted on the 15th of each month.

The taxpayer can also opt to prepay for next year based on this year’s taxes. When the new tax roll is accepted, the service adjusts the payment to meet the new tax amount. The funds are paid out to the county 10 days before the property tax due date and all funds are underwritten by Huntington National Bank, which is an FDIC-secured bank.

Currently, Garfield County offers two options to pay property taxes, according to state statute: One full payment on April 30, or two equal half-payments, typically made on February 28 and June 15. EscrowTaxes allows taxpayers to make much smaller payments throughout the year to streamline their budgets.

A $1 fee is charged for each payment via bank account, while monthly credit card payments incur a 2.5 percent processing fee on the amount being paid.

Legislators recently introduced installment payment bills that would have increased the operating costs of the county treasurer’s offices around the state, requiring more employees, software upgrades, increased space, and more workstations. In addition, schools, fire departments, and other taxing authorities would not have received their funding during historical and expected timelines.

Treasurers from Garfield, El Paso, and Larimer counties reached out with an idea to Autoagent, a company that works as the tax processor in 49 Colorado counties, and asked them to create a third-party escrow service to help avoid unfunded mandates. This was successful when EscrowTaxes was born. While this idea was not new to a few municipalities, it is the first time it is offered on a statewide basis (if the county opts in).

Garfield County Treasurer Couey told the Board of County Commissioners that utilizing EscrowTaxes could save the county roughly $100,000 annually.

“We feel that we’ve come up with a free-market solution to avoid large costs for the county,” she said.

“Thank you for this solution,” said Commissioner Tom Jankovsky. “It was almost a $100,000 unfunded mandate from the state legislature and you fixed it.”

“While this option isn’t for everyone, it is one more tool that is available,” Couey said. “Please visit escrowtaxes.com and see if it is for you.”