Colorado Late Fee Calculator

Work out interest on an overdue B2B invoice under Colorado law. The legal default rate — what applies when the contract is silent — is 8%, and the statute is quoted verbatim below. All math runs locally in your browser.

8% legal default rate (contract silent)
Max written B2B rate
Up to 45% per year may be stipulated in writing — the cap applies to business deals too.
Cap regime
Hard cap — 45%
Statute
C.R.S. §§ 5-12-101 to -103
Verified
how we verify · changelog

Compounded annually; runs from when the money became due on instruments, settled accounts, and money due on account.

Pre-filled with Colorado's statutory default (8%) — the rate that applies when no rate was agreed. If your contract states a different rate, enter that instead.

The cited statute provides for annual compounding; this calculator shows simple interest, so multi-year totals under the statute will be slightly higher.

What Colorado law actually says

When there is no agreement as to the rate thereof, creditors shall be allowed to receive interest at the rate of eight percent per annum compounded annually for all moneys after they become due on any bill, bond, promissory note, or other instrument of writing [...] but not exceeding forty-five percent per annum
— C.R.S. §§ 5-12-102(2), 5-12-103(1) (Colorado Revised Statutes 2024, Title 5, official OLLS printout, pp. 121-122). Read it at the official source · row verified 2026-08-19.

Quoted verbatim from the linked official source — not our paraphrase. How we source and re-check every row is documented in the data methodology.

Maximum late fee in Colorado — written B2B contracts

Hard cap 45%.

Up to 45%/yr may be stipulated in writing; the cap binds business deals too and 45% is also the criminal-usury line. Narrow 'commercial credit plan' carve-out exists.

Basis: C.R.S. §§ 5-12-103, 18-15-104. Compare all 51 jurisdictions on the full state table and the cap-regime map.

B2B invoices only — not rent, not consumer debt

Everything on this page is about business-to-business invoices. Residential rent late fees live in Colorado's landlord-tenant law and consumer credit has separate, stricter rules — two different bodies of law. The distinction is explained in B2B invoice late fees vs. residential rent.

Use this data

Colorado's row — rate, cap, citation, verbatim quote, verification date — is part of our open 51-jurisdiction dataset: CSV · JSON (CC BY 4.0, cite myinvoicetemplate.com). Set late-fee terms on your next invoice with the free invoice generator, or state them clearly using the wording guidance in the payment terms guide.

Colorado late fee FAQ

Can I charge late fees on overdue invoices in Colorado?

Yes — on business-to-business invoices. If your contract or invoice states a late-fee rate, that rate governs (subject to the cap rules below). If nothing was agreed: 8%. Compounded annually; runs from when the money became due on instruments, settled accounts, and money due on account. Statute: C.R.S. §§ 5-12-101 to -103, verified 2026-08-19. Consumer and rent debts follow separate laws.

What is the maximum late fee I can charge in Colorado?

For a written B2B contract: Up to 45% per year may be stipulated in writing — the cap applies to business deals too. Basis: C.R.S. §§ 5-12-103, 18-15-104. The full cap analysis is in the section above; this covers business-to-business deals only — consumer credit has stricter separate caps.

What interest applies if my contract doesn't mention late fees in Colorado?

The statutory default rate of 8%. Compounded annually; runs from when the money became due on instruments, settled accounts, and money due on account. Statute: C.R.S. §§ 5-12-101 to -103 (verbatim quote on this page, verified 2026-08-19).

Does this cover rent, apartment, or consumer late fees in Colorado?

No. This page covers business-to-business invoices only. Residential rent late fees are governed by Colorado's landlord-tenant law, and consumer credit for personal, family, or household purposes has its own stricter caps and disclosure rules. Those are different statutes than the commercial-interest law cited here.

Where does this data come from, and when was it verified?

Every figure on this page comes from our 51-jurisdiction dataset: each row researched against the controlling statute or the state's official current-rate page, independently re-checked, and stamped with its own verification date — Colorado's row was last verified 2026-08-19. The operative legal text is quoted verbatim on this page with a link to the official source, the methodology is public, every verification pass is logged in the changelog, and the full dataset is downloadable (CC BY 4.0).