Manitou Springs, CO Garage & Yard Sales: Frequency, Duration & Permits (2026)

12's tax exemption article, is the city's operative garage sale rule, and it lives in the sales and use tax code rather than in the zoning ordinance. A private residence gets exactly one exempt garage sale per calendar year, the sale cannot run longer than three consecutive calendar days, and the exemption stops covering goods once total sales at that address pass $300 for the year. Anyone hosting a longer sale, a second sale in the same year, or one that grosses over $300 owes the city's sales tax on the excess just as a retail vendor would, and the finance director administers collection under the same procedures that apply to any other seller in the city.

C, so a resident does not need Planning Department sign-off to hold a compliant sale, only compliance with the tax-code frequency and duration caps. 100, the city's general penalty section. In practice the city has never needed a separate garage sale permit ordinance because the tax exemption cap does the same job: it defines, in dollars and days, how much unlicensed casual selling a resident may do before Manitou Springs treats the activity as a taxable retail operation.