The Tax Foundation provides education and analysis of tax policy issues. Beginning in the 2012 fiscal year, the Tax Foundation released its annual State Business Tax Climate Index. The Index allows business leaders, government policymakers, and taxpayers to weigh their state’s tax system against other states by presenting the rankings of all 50 states’ tax climates. The latest version of the Index represents the relative tax advantages and disadvantages for each state as of July 2012, the first day of the standard 2013 state fiscal year. Business leaders, public policy decision-makers, taxpayers, and journalists in Colorado need a quick synopsis of the report’s findings, limited to Colorado’s performance, rather than wade through a 56-page work that details the outcomes for all 50 states. This piece will focus on how and why the Tax Foundation’s 2013 Index ranks Colorado’s tax system 18th nationwide.