Wyoming Sales Tax

Wyoming Sales Tax At a Glance

State rate: 4%
Maximum combined rate: 6%
Sourcing: Destination
Tax Holidays: None
Governing Body: Wyoming Department of Revenue

When you’re making sales to customers in Wyoming, it’s important to be sure you’re in tax compliance with all applicable sales tax laws. This is true whether your small business is based in Wyoming or you’re shipping goods from out-of-state, and depending on the specifics of your situation, you may or may not have an obligation to collect tax on those sales and remit it to the state.

Wyoming is a member of the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA), and its tax laws are generally in line with many other states. However, the details of sales tax regulations vary considerably from one state to the next, particularly regarding what rate you need to charge your customers and what goods and services are taxable.

Wyoming Sales Tax Rates

The state tax rate in Wyoming is 4%, and there are some places in the state where that is the only rate that applies. Counties can add their own local sales tax to this state rate, however, and this can come in the form of an economic development county option tax, a general purpose county option tax, or a specific purpose county option tax.

The general purpose and specific purpose categories of local sales tax are each capped at 2%, while the economic development category is capped at 1%. Additionally, the combined local taxes in all categories cannot exceed 3%. No counties currently hit this maximum threshold, however, and in most of the state, the effective sales tax rate is 5% or 6%.

Wyoming is a destination-based state, which means that the rate you charge your customers is determined by where they take possession of the product or where they receive the service. If you have a brick-and-mortar store where customers make purchases in person, the applicable rate is the one in effect at that location. If you’re shipping a product to a customer, whether from in-state or out-of-state, you must charge the rate at the delivery address.

Sales Tax Nexus Regulations

Before registering to collect Wyoming sales taxes, you need to determine if you have a nexus, or significant business presence, in the state. This condition can be triggered by any number of factors including:

  • Having an office, storefront, warehouse, distribution house, or other physical place of business in the state
  • Employing agents to market products or services, distribute goods, perform services, or take orders in the state
  • Engaging in the regular or systemic solicitation of orders by distributing three or more advertisements in the state over a 12-month period.

Amazon does not currently have a fulfillment center in Wyoming, so using fulfillment by Amazon to serve your Wyoming customers will not create a nexus for you at this time.

Wyoming has also adopted an economic nexus law, enacted on July 1, 2017. The law went fully into effect in February 2019 and requires all remote sellers who make $100,000 in gross sales or 200 or more separate transactions involving tangible personal property to Wyoming residents to collect and remit sales taxes.

What’s Taxable?

Sales of tangible personal property and some specific services are taxable in Wyoming. This includes leases or contracts that transfer possession of tangible personal property, as well as intrastate telecommunications, intrastate passenger transportation services, and services to provide gas, electricity or heat to both residential and commercial buildings. Other taxable goods and services include:

  • Prepared food and restaurant meals
  • Admission fees for amusement, entertainment, recreation, or athletic events
  • Services to repair, improve, or alter tangible personal property
  • Services performed within oil and gas well sites
  • Computer hardware and system software
  • Specified digital products, as long as the purchaser receives the rights to permanent use of that product

Sales to both state and federal government entities are exempt from Wyoming sales tax, as are sales made to qualifying religious, charitable, or non-profit organizations as long as a valid exemption certificate is provided at the time of the sale. Other exemptions include:

  • Groceries
  • Prescription drugs
  • Farm implements
  • Livestock, feed for livestock, or poultry for marketing purposes
  • Seeds, roots, small plants, bulbs, and fertilizer planted or applied to land, when its eventual product is intended to be sold

Registration and Filing

Before you can collect sales tax on purchases made by your Wyoming customers, you must register with the state. This can be done either by mailing a paper form or by completing the application online. There is a one-time application fee of $60. You should receive your sales tax license in the mail about ten days after submitting your application, and this must be displayed prominently within view of your customers if you have a physical place of business.

You can file online or through the mail, and your filing frequency will be assigned by the state when you register based on your anticipated volume of taxable sales. In general, you will file annually if your monthly tax liability is less than $50, and you will file quarterly if that liability is between $50 and $150 per month. Average monthly tax liability of more than $150 will mean you must file and pay monthly, and the state will periodically review your sales volume to determine if your assigned filing frequency should be adjusted.

Due Dates and Penalties

Regardless of your filing frequency, your returns will be due on the last day of the month following the close of the period you are filing for.

Monthly Due Dates

PeriodDue Date
JanuaryFebruary 28
FebruaryMarch 31
MarchApril 30
AprilMay 31
MayJune 30
JuneJuly 31
JulyAugust 31
AugustSeptember 30
SeptemberOctober 31
OctoberNovember 30
NovemberDecember 31
DecemberJanuary 31

Quarterly Due Dates

PeriodDue Date
January – March (Q1)April 30
April – June (Q2)July 31
July – September (Q3)October 31
October – December (Q4)January 31

Returns and payments for annual filers are due on January 31st of the following year. If you file and pay by the 15th of the month your payment is due, you can take advantage of a credit offered by the state, which allows you to retain up to $500 of your tax liability for the period in exchange for paying early. The Vendor Compensation Credit equals 1.95% of the first $6,250 due and 1% of the remaining balance.

Late payment, on the other hand, will cause you to incur a penalty of 10% of the tax due, in addition to a $10 penalty for failure to file a return on time. Wyoming requires zero returns be filed, and so that $10 penalty applies even if you made no taxable sales during the period in question. If you still have not filed a return more than 30 days after the original due date, an additional $25 penalty will be applied. Interest accrues daily on outstanding balances as well.

Resources

Wyoming Sales Tax Software

Regardless of the volume of taxable sales you make in Wyoming or how many other states you sell in, it can be a challenge to stay on top of all the details you need to to stay in tax compliance with the state’s sales tax laws. This is especially true with the status of Wyoming’s economic nexus law up in the air, and trying to manage all of this can take you away from other important aspects of your small business you’d rather be focusing on.

To help you successfully navigate this situation, TaxTools offers a combination of tax calculator and features designed to streamline your sales tax collection and filing processes. These include the ability to calculate the proper sales tax rate for each sale accurately and the production of up-to-date reports for all of your taxable sales whenever you need them. TaxTools will also periodically check for changes to the state’s tax code that could impact your business, and it integrates smoothly with all eCommerce platforms. So, if you’re ready to see how your company can benefit from the services TaxTools provides, click here to sign up for a free trial today.

Last updated October 2024