Wyoming Homestead Exemption: Amount, Filing & Savings
Wyoming’s property-tax break for an owner-occupied house is the homeowner exemption in W.S. 39-11-105(a)(xlvi): 25% of fair market value on the first $1,000,000, claimed online each year between October 1 and March 1. The $100,000 “homestead” in W.S. 1-20-101 is different: it protects the home from creditors, not from tax.
The 25% homeowner exemption: who claims it and by when
Senate File 69 (2025 Wyo. Sess. Laws ch. 106, signed March 4, 2025) created it, first for the tax year beginning January 1, 2025. The amount is “twenty-five percent (25%) of the fair market value of a single family residential structure and the associated improved land,” and the exemption “shall only apply to the first one million dollars ($1,000,000.00)” of that value.
A “single family residential structure” is a house, modular home, mobile home, townhouse or condominium “that is a privately owned single family dwelling unit.” Starting with tax year 2026, the claimant must actually live there “for not less than eight (8) months of the year.” Active-duty service has its own route: if you or a member of your immediate family serve on active duty and that service is why you cannot meet it, the house qualifies when it is the service member’s legal domicile. Under Chapter 14, Section 26(d), someone who bought after January 1 of the tax year may combine months in the previous qualifying property with months in the new one.
The filing rule sits in Department of Revenue Rules, Chapter 14, Section 26 (version effective August 26, 2026). You verify eligibility “by submitting a yearly claim to the Department using an internet-based site,” and all verifications “must be submitted between October 1 of the previous tax year and March 1 of the current tax year.” Rule 26(c)(ii) closes the door on late filers: “Persons submitting verifications after March 1 shall not be eligible.” For tax year 2027, the window runs October 1, 2026 through March 1, 2027. Claims go through the Department’s Wyoming Residential Affidavit Claim site, and the county assessor reviews each one.
One limit: this exemption “shall not be available to any person who has applied for and received” the long-term homeowner exemption described below “for the same property in the same tax year.”
The 4% ceiling on year-to-year assessed value
A second exemption, from 2024 House Bill 45 (2024 Wyo. Sess. Laws ch. 107), removes any growth in a home’s assessed value beyond the prior year’s figure (net of this same exemption) plus 4%. Paragraph (xliii) covers the house and first applied to tax year 2024. Paragraph (xliv) covers the improved land under it and first applied to tax year 2025. The Department’s February 2026 program summary lists it with “No Application is required.”
The ceiling does not apply, and the property is valued at full value, when:
- the increase comes from structural changes to the house, “including new construction or additions to an existing structure” (this test is in (xliii) only, not the land paragraph); or
- the owner “acquired the property during the prior calendar year.”
Five kinds of transfer are not treated as an acquisition: a transfer between spouses; a transfer under a court order, including one that carries out a settlement agreement or a divorce or judicial-separation decree; a transfer to a trust set up for the prior owner’s benefit; a transfer to a corporation, partnership or LLC in which the prior owner is a shareholder or owner; and any other transfer the Department’s rules exclude because of the parties’ relationship.
When a home qualifies for more than one exemption, W.S. 39-11-105(c) (added by 2025 Wyo. Sess. Laws ch. 147) applies percentage-based exemptions “in the order of the smallest percentage to the largest percentage,” and fixed-amount exemptions after them.
Age 65 and 25 years of Wyoming property tax: § 39-11-105(a)(xlv)
If you or your spouse is 65 or older and you or your spouse “has paid residential property tax in Wyoming for twenty-five (25) years or more on any residential property,” the primary residence gets an exemption of 50% of fair market value, applied to the first $3,000,000. That wording comes from 2026 House Bill 45 (2026 Wyo. Sess. Laws ch. 83), effective July 1, 2026. The 2024 original said 50% “of the assessed value.” The 2026 act also struck the July 1, 2027 sunset from the 2024 law.
The claim goes to the county assessor “not later than March 1 each year” on a Department of Revenue form; until July 1, 2026 the statutory date was the fourth Monday in May. Chapter 14, Section 19(b) adds that a homeowner who misses March 1 “shall not be authorized to claim the long-term homeowners exemption for that tax year.” After the first sworn claim, you stay qualified by contacting the assessor “by telephone, mail or other communication method on or before March 1” to confirm you still meet the requirements.
Under (C)(I), “owner” means any of the following, “provided that no other person who may qualify as a co-owner shall apply for an exemption under this paragraph for the same property in the same year”:
- a person who occupies and owns a primary residence, alone or with other owners;
- a person who occupies a primary residence as a vendee in possession under a contract of sale;
- a person who occupies a primary residence owned by a corporation, partnership or LLC in which that person is a shareholder or owner;
- a person who occupies a primary residence held in a trust established by or for the benefit of the occupant; or
- military personnel who declare Wyoming as their domicile.
The home must be in Wyoming and lived in at least eight months a year; if you sell and buy again inside the state, months in both houses count. “Residential real property” means a dwelling for no more than four families, plus up to 35 acres of associated land the dwelling’s owner owns. Except in that sell-and-buy case, only one such exemption applies per property and per owner each year. A surviving spouse of someone who qualified keeps it. False claims are punishable under W.S. 6-5-303.
Veterans, surviving spouses and Gold Star parents: $6,000 of assessed value
W.S. 39-13-105(b) limits the veterans’ exemption to “an annual exemption of six thousand dollars ($6,000.00) of assessed value,” the figure set by 2024 Wyo. Sess. Laws ch. 101 for tax assessed on and after January 1, 2025. The claimant must be a bona fide Wyoming resident for at least three years and fall in one of the classes in subsection (a):
- an honorably discharged veteran of the Indian Wars, Spanish American War, Filipino insurrection, Boxer rebellion, Puerto Rico campaign or First World War;
- an honorably discharged veteran of the Second World War who served between December 7, 1941 and December 31, 1946;
- an honorably discharged veteran of the Korean War emergency who served between June 27, 1950 and January 31, 1955;
- an honorably discharged veteran of the Vietnam War emergency who served between February 28, 1961 and May 7, 1975;
- a surviving spouse, during widowhood, of a qualifying veteran or of someone who died serving honorably in one of those periods, or the surviving parents if there is no surviving spouse (parents added by 2025 Wyo. Sess. Laws ch. 116, effective July 1, 2025); surviving parents who are divorced and living separately may each qualify, and the exemption applies only to property titled to the surviving spouse or parents or held in a trust created by or for their benefit;
- an honorably discharged veteran awarded the armed forces expeditionary medal or another authorized service or campaign medal for service in any armed conflict in a foreign country;
- a disabled veteran with a compensable service-connected disability certified by the VA or a branch of the armed forces.
Under subsection (h), a surviving spouse or surviving parents qualify only if both the veteran and the spouse or parents lived in Wyoming at the time of death, the spouse or parents have lived in Wyoming at least three years when they claim, and the veteran would have qualified had the veteran survived and applied.
File a sworn claim (Form PTD-100) with the assessor of the county where the property sits “on or before the fourth Monday in May”; in 2027 that is May 24. The claim must show that the claimant, the claimant’s spouse or the claimant’s parents are listed as an owner of the property, that the property is in a trust created by or for the benefit of one of them, or that one of them is listed as purchaser on a valid contract for deed recorded with the county clerk (subsection (c)(ii)). The real-property exemption covers only the principal residence, and it is claimed in no more than one county unless surviving parents are divorced and live in different counties. Later years need only a call or letter to the assessor by the same date. A claim filed after the deadline counts for that year only against motor vehicle registration fees, subsection (g), with two exceptions. Subsection (d) gives an honorably discharged claimant who files late that year’s exemption as well as the next year’s, if the next claim is in by the fourth Monday in May of the next year. Subsection (e) lets the assessor accept a spouse’s claim, or waive the claim, for a qualified claimant who reentered the armed services on or before that year’s deadline.
Refund of taxes already paid: § 39-13-109(c)(v)
This program repays part of the prior year’s tax on your principal residence, provided that tax was “due and timely paid.” Apply “on or before the first Monday in June” to the county treasurer or the Department of Revenue. You need five years of Wyoming residency and at least nine months in the home during the tax year. Household income may not exceed the greater of 145% of the county or statewide median (the cap was 165% until 2025 Wyo. Sess. Laws ch. 51 took effect July 1, 2025).
There is also an asset test: $150,000 per adult, indexed yearly; the application for taxes billed in 2025 printed it as $169,866. It is waived if your tax “is greater than ten percent (10%)” of household income. The statute excludes six items from the count: the home itself; one personal vehicle per adult; household furnishings and personal property; IRA or other bona fide pension assets; the cash value of life insurance; and medical savings accounts.
The refund tops out at 75% of the prior year’s tax and never more than half of the county’s median residential tax. At or below 125% of the median income you get the full amount; at or below 145%, 65% of it. For taxes billed in 2025, the Department’s brochure put the statewide 145% figure at $114,043. That cycle closed June 1, 2026, with checks due by September 30, 2026. Taxes billed in 2026 are claimed by June 7, 2027. The program is “active ONLY if funds are appropriated by the Wyoming Legislature,” per the Department.
Two county-level options also exist. Under (c)(vi) a county may run its own refund program, with applications due by the second Monday in October. Under W.S. 39-13-107(b)(iii) a county may let qualifying owners defer up to half of the real estate tax on a principal residence on no more than 40 acres (apply to the board of county commissioners by November 10 of the levy year; the qualification tests are in subparagraph (N), and deferred taxes become a lien on the property); the Department’s 2026 summary says “only Teton County” offers it.
Wyoming’s creditor homestead, W.S. 1-20-101 to 1-20-109
“Every resident of the state is entitled to a homestead not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000.00) in value, exempt from execution and attachment arising from any debt, contract or civil obligation.” The limit rose from $20,000 on July 1, 2023 (2023 Wyo. Sess. Laws ch. 84). It works only while the home is “occupied as such by the owner or the person entitled thereto, or his or her family.” When two or more people jointly own and live in the same residence, “each shall be entitled to the homestead exemption.” It can be a house on any number of acres, or a house trailer or other movable home, “whether or not” it has wheels. A surviving widow, husband or minor children take it over; without one, it answers for the deceased’s debts. The claimant must be “a bona fide resident of this state.”
Wyoming law names what the homestead does not stop in two places. Article 19, Section 9 of the Wyoming Constitution: “no property shall be exempt from sale for taxes, or for the payment of obligations contracted for the purchase of said premises, or for the erection of improvements thereon.” W.S. 1-20-108(a): nothing claimed under 1-20-101 through 1-20-106 is exempt “for the purchase money of the property.” The tax-collection statute narrows the tax exception: when a treasurer levies distress for delinquent taxes, “a homestead may only be sold for taxes due upon it exclusively” (W.S. 39-13-107(b)(ii)(B)(III)). Federal bankruptcy law adds its own exceptions in 11 U.S.C. § 522(c), including domestic support obligations, a debt secured by a lien that is not avoided in the case, and a properly filed tax lien.
Article 19, Section 9 also says a homestead “shall not be alienated without the joint consent of husband and wife, when that relation exists.” Under W.S. 34-2-121 a deed or mortgage of a homestead must contain, in substance, the words “Hereby releasing and waiving all rights under and by virtue of the homestead exemption laws of this state,” and must be freely and voluntarily signed and acknowledged by the owner and the owner’s spouse (a conveyance directly from husband to wife is excepted). In bankruptcy, W.S. 1-20-109 says the federal exemption list in 11 U.S.C. § 522(d) is “not authorized” where Wyoming law applies on the filing date and the debtor’s domicile was in Wyoming for the 180 days before filing, or for a longer part of that period than anywhere else.
Wyoming exemption FAQ
We bought our house in 2026. What do we get for 2027?
You can file the 25% homeowner claim between October 1, 2026 and March 1, 2027. The 4% ceiling will not apply for 2027, because you acquired the property “during the prior calendar year,” unless the deed was one of the five transfers listed above that do not count as an acquisition.
Can I stack the 25% exemption with the long-term homeowner exemption?
No. Paragraph (xlvi) bars anyone who “applied for and received” the (xlv) exemption for the same property and tax year. For exemptions that do combine on one property, § 39-11-105(c) sets the order.
Does anything renew by itself?
Only the 4% ceiling, which needs no application. The 25% exemption takes a yearly online claim; the 65-plus and veterans’ exemptions renew by contacting the assessor by March 1 and the fourth Monday in May, respectively; the refund takes a new application every year.