Need to Know Tax Income Tax 2026 · Federal & Wyoming

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No income tax in Wyoming: the credit clause that keeps it that way, and what the state collects instead

Wyoming has never taxed a paycheck, a pension or a capital gain, and a 1974 clause in its constitution makes an income tax hard to write. What a Wyoming household pays instead is a 4% sales tax the county rounds up to 5% or 6% and a property tax on 9.5% of the home’s value that the Legislature has been cutting since 2024. What “no income tax” changes on Form 1040, what it costs anyway, and the two filings a homeowner can still miss.

Charles Trautman, EA

By Charles Trautman, EA, editor

Need to Know Tax  ·  written from Wyoming Department of Revenue sources, November 3, 2026; updated November 12, 2026 after the election  ·  not yet reviewed by a Wyoming practitioner

After the November 3, 2026 election. Initiative 1 failed: no 50% homeowner exemption. The existing property tax exemptions continue. Wyoming in 2027 and beyond →

A Wyoming resident files one income tax return, the federal one. There is no state return, no state withholding on the W-2 (Box 17 is blank), no state estimate in April, June, September and January, and no state refund to wait for. Wyoming has no individual income tax, no corporate income tax and no local income tax of any kind, and Article 15, Section 18 of the Wyoming Constitution, ratified in 1974, requires that any income tax the state ever enacts give full credit for the sales, use and property taxes a person has already paid. Economists who have looked at writing one say that clause is a large part of why none exists. Wages, Social Security, IRA withdrawals, the gain on a house, a lottery ticket and an inheritance all go on the 1040 and stop there.

The other half of the sentence is that Wyoming is paid for anyway. The state runs on mineral severance taxes and the earnings of its permanent funds, which is the part a household never sees. The part it does see is a 4% state sales tax with up to 2% more from the county (3% in a few), and a property tax that is collected by the county treasurer and spent by the towns, the county, the school district and the special districts. Neither produces a return in April. Both can be deducted on the federal Schedule A, and for a Wyoming household that is the whole of the SALT line.

What “no income tax” does on the federal return

Almost nothing, which surprises people who move here expecting the 1040 to get simpler. The IRS taxes a Wyoming resident exactly as it taxes anyone else. Up to 85% of Social Security is still taxable by the provisional-income formula. An IRA withdrawal is still ordinary income. A Roth conversion is still taxed in the year it is made. The 2025 federal law’s new deductions for tips, overtime, car-loan interest and the $6,000 senior deduction apply in Wyoming as everywhere, and there is no state return for them to conform to or not.

The one federal line that moves is the state and local tax deduction. In a taxing state, most of a household’s SALT deduction is state income tax. In Wyoming there is none, so the deduction is property tax plus either state income tax, which is zero, or general sales tax, whichever the filer elects. A Wyoming filer who itemizes always elects sales tax, because the alternative is nothing. The figure comes from the IRS optional tables, which estimate it from income, household size and the combined rate, 5% or 6% in most Wyoming counties, plus the actual tax on a car, truck, boat, RV or trailer bought during the year, because the tables assume ordinary spending. The county treasurer’s receipt for the vehicle tax is the document to keep.

The cap on that deduction is $40,400 for 2026, phased back toward $10,000 for modified AGI above $505,000. Almost no Wyoming household comes near it. The more common outcome is the opposite: with no state income tax in the SALT line, property tax after the exemptions plus the sales-tax table amount is a few thousand dollars, and most Wyoming households take the standard deduction, $16,100 single and $32,200 joint for 2026. The year to run the numbers is the year with a large mortgage, a big charitable gift or a new truck.

Property tax: the assessor, 9.5%, and the mills

There is no state property tax on homes. The county assessor sets the fair market value of every parcel as of January 1. Residential property is assessed at 9.5% of that value, the constitutional ratio for “all other property” (minerals are assessed at 100% and industrial property at 11.5%). The assessed value is then multiplied by the mill levy, the sum of what the county, the city or town, the school district, the community college district and the special districts each charge. One mill is $1 of tax per $1,000 of assessed value. The Legislative Service Office puts the weighted average levy in Wyoming municipalities at 69.748 mills for tax year 2024; most homes see something in the range of 60 to 75 mills (verify local figure).

The arithmetic is small compared with most states, and since 2024 it has been getting smaller. A $400,000 house at 9.5% is $38,000 of assessed value; at 70 mills that is $2,660 a year. Three things the Legislature passed between 2024 and 2026 take it down from there:

On the $400,000 house, the 25% exemption takes the bill from $2,660 to $1,995; the 50% exemption at 65 takes it to $1,330. Add the veterans exemption ($6,000 of assessed value, about $420 at 70 mills) and the income-limited Property Tax Refund Program (up to 75% of last year’s tax back), and a qualifying older household can end up paying a few hundred dollars a year on a home that would carry a four-figure bill almost anywhere else. All of it is in Property-tax relief in Wyoming.

What a $400,000 owner-occupied home pays at 70 mills, 2026
SituationValue taxedAssessed at 9.5%Tax at 70 mills
No exemption (second home, rental, or no affidavit filed)$400,000$38,000$2,660
25% homeowner exemption, affidavit filed$300,000$28,500$1,995
50% long-term homeowner exemption (65+, 25 years)$200,000$19,000$1,330
50% exemption plus veterans exemption ($6,000 of assessed value)$200,000$13,000$910

70 mills is illustrative (verify local mill levy); Cheyenne, Casper, Jackson and a rural county each differ. The Property Tax Refund Program can return up to 75% of the prior year’s bill on top of these for a household under the income limit.

The bill arrives from the county treasurer around the end of August or September. Half is payable by November 10 and the other half by May 10 of the next year, or the whole bill by December 31 with no interest; a late half accrues interest at 18% a year (W.S. 39-13-108). For the federal return the deduction is for what was actually paid in the calendar year. A homeowner who pays the first half in November and the second in May deducts one and a half bills in some years and half a bill in others, depending on the pattern; one who pays in full each December deducts one bill a year. Either is fine. What matters is the receipt dates.

Sales tax: 4% plus the county

The state rate is 4% on retail sales of goods and a list of services (lodging, admissions, repairs, telecommunications among them). Counties may add up to 2% of general-purpose and 1% of specific-purpose tax by local vote, so most Wyoming shoppers pay 5% or 6%. The Department of Revenue announced no statewide change for 2026 and one county change: Laramie County (Cheyenne) fell to 5% on April 1, 2026. Groceries are exempt. Lodging carries a separate 3% state tax plus up to 4% local, which is why a Jackson hotel bill runs well into double digits.

The sales tax a household notices is on a vehicle. The 4% plus the county rate of the buyer’s home county (not the dealer’s) is due to the county treasurer within about 60 days of purchase (counties describe the window as 60 or 65 days) (verify), before the title and plates issue; a vehicle bought in another state gets credit for sales tax paid there, with the receipt, and a Wyoming resident who paid a lower rate elsewhere owes the difference at the treasurer’s window. On a $38,000 pickup in a 5% county, that is $1,900, and it goes straight onto Schedule A if the household itemizes.

Worked example: one year of Wyoming taxes for a family in a 5% county

A couple with two children own a $400,000 house in a 5% county, filed the owner-occupied affidavit by March 1, 2026, and are taxed at 70 mills. They spend $45,000 on taxable goods and buy a $38,000 pickup. They have $11,000 of mortgage interest and give $3,000 to their church.

Property tax: $400,000 less 25% = $300,000 × 9.5% × 70 mills$1,995
Sales tax on $45,000 of purchases at 5% (the IRS table will give a smaller figure; receipts or the table, not both) (verify with the IRS calculator)$2,250
Sales tax on the pickup, 5% of $38,000, paid to the county treasurer$1,900
Wyoming taxes for the year$6,145
SALT deduction (property tax plus sales tax; well under the $40,400 cap)$6,145
Plus mortgage interest and gifts$14,000
Itemized total, against a $32,200 standard deduction$20,145
ResultStandard deduction

Wyoming income tax on this family’s $110,000 of wages: $0. The $6,145 is the whole state-and-local bill, and it is not large enough to make itemizing pay. Had they skipped the affidavit, the property tax would have been $2,660 and nothing else would change.

The taxes a household rarely meets

Wyoming has no estate tax in practice, no inheritance tax and no gift tax. Title 39, Chapter 19 of the statutes still contains an estate tax, but it is a pick-up tax equal to the federal state death tax credit, which has been zero since 2005, so nothing is owed and nothing is filed. Wyoming has no corporate income tax or franchise tax on an LLC’s income; a Wyoming LLC pays a small annual license tax to the Secretary of State based on its assets in the state (verify). A business that sells goods needs a sales tax license from the Department and collects the 4% plus county rate; from January 1, 2026 the first $75,000 of a business’s equipment and other personal property in each county is exempt from property tax (2025 SF 48), so a side business rarely owes the assessor anything.

Wyoming also has no reciprocity with any state and no credit for taxes paid elsewhere, because there is nothing to credit against. A Wyoming resident who works in person in Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Utah or Nebraska owes that state’s nonresident income tax on the wages earned there, and Wyoming gives nothing back. The same is true of gambling winnings from a casino across the line. It is the one way a Wyoming household ends up with a state return, and it is covered in Moving to Wyoming.

Behind the scenes: why the 1974 clause matters

Wyoming has never had an income tax, and the reason is partly geology. Coal, oil, gas, trona and uranium pay severance taxes and the lion’s share of the property tax (minerals are assessed at 100% of value, homes at 9.5%), and the earnings of the Permanent Wyoming Mineral Trust Fund pay for much of the rest. The 1974 amendment to Article 15 was written when a severance-tax boom made an income tax seem unnecessary and the Legislature wanted to make sure a future one could never be stacked on top of what residents already paid: any income tax must credit back sales, use and property taxes paid. Former Governor Dave Freudenthal has called such a tax theoretically possible and mechanically unworkable, because every filer would have to track a year of sales-tax receipts to claim the credit.

That is why the Wyoming tax fights of 2024 to 2026 were all about property tax, and why the November 3, 2026 ballot carried Initiative 1, a citizen statute that would have exempted 50% of the assessed value of a primary residence from tax year 2027. Several economists, including Senator Cale Case, have pointed out that the bigger the residential cut, the smaller the property-tax credit a high earner could claim against an income tax, and the more plausible one becomes. No income tax bill exists, and none was introduced in 2026. Voters rejected Initiative 1, 56.79% to 43.21%.

What to bring

  • The county treasurer’s property tax statement and the receipts, with the dates paid, for every Wyoming parcel
  • The treasurer’s receipt for sales tax on any vehicle, trailer, boat or RV bought in 2026
  • Your county of residence, for the combined sales tax rate in the IRS table
  • Form 1098 from the lender, which may show property tax paid through escrow
  • Any W-2 or 1099 with another state’s withholding in Box 17, for a nonresident return there
  • Confirmation that the owner-occupied affidavit was filed, if the property tax statement does not show the 25% exemption

Questions people ask

Is Wyoming really a low-tax state?

For a household, yes, and for income, absolutely: zero. Homes are assessed at 9.5% of value, the exemptions take a quarter or half off before that, and sales tax is 5% or 6% with groceries exempt. The state’s real taxpayers are the mineral companies.

Do I file anything with Wyoming at all?

Not for income. The owner-occupied affidavit goes to the county assessor for the 25% exemption, the long-term exemption claim at 65 goes to the assessor by March 1, and the Property Tax Refund application goes to the Department or the county treasurer by the first Monday in June. If you sell goods, a sales tax license and returns. That is the list.

Can Wyoming pass an income tax?

By statute, yes; the constitution does not forbid one. But Article 15, Section 18 requires any income tax to credit back the sales, use and property taxes a person paid, and nobody has worked out how to administer that. No bill was introduced in 2026.

My W-2 shows Colorado withholding and I live in Cheyenne.

You worked in Colorado, or your employer thinks you did. Colorado taxes a nonresident on wages for work done in Colorado, and you file a Colorado nonresident return to settle up. Wyoming gives no credit because Wyoming charges nothing. If you never worked in Colorado, have the employer correct the W-2 and claim the withholding back.

Should I check the sales tax box on Schedule A?

If you itemize, always; there is nothing to compare it against. Use the IRS calculator with your county’s combined rate and add the actual tax on any vehicle bought during the year. Most Wyoming households do not itemize, because without state income tax the SALT line is small.

I bought a truck in Colorado and brought it home. Do I owe Wyoming anything?

Use tax at 4% plus your county’s rate, less the sales tax you paid in Colorado, at the county treasurer when you title it, within the county’s 60-to-65-day window (verify). Bring the receipt; without it there is no credit.

Wyoming’s taxes are small, and none of them involves a return

File the owner-occupied affidavit by the assessor’s deadline, pay the treasurer by November 10 and May 10, keep the truck’s tax receipt for Schedule A, and let the 1040 be the only return you file.

Written by Charles Trautman, EA, editor  ·  Need to Know Tax, Lone Tree, Colorado

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Updated November 12, 2026, after the November 3 election · tax year 2026 figures · awaiting review by a Wyoming practitioner

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