Article 4 of Title 9, Chapter 12 of the Wyoming Statutes, titled Film and Video Promotion, is a list of repealed sections: 9-12-401 (repealed 2003), 9-12-402 through 9-12-406 (repealed 2007), and 9-12-407 (repealed by Laws 2020, chapter 87). A clause elsewhere in Title 9 still tells the tourism board to administer the "film industry financial incentive program" under sections 9-12-402 through 9-12-406, but those sections were repealed in 2007, so there is no program left to run.
What remains is a film office inside the Wyoming Office of Tourism and whatever a production can save on its own.
What the Wyoming Film Office does
The film office works with film, television, and advertising productions on locations, using its Wyoming Media Library to answer location requests, and keeps a vendor and crew list. It doesn't issue permits. It points productions to the right land managers and says its relationships with state land managers can make permitting easier. The permitting page covers:
- State parks and state-owned properties, many of which the office describes as fee-free
- Federal lands, including national parks such as Grand Teton
- Tribal lands, including the Wind River Indian Reservation
- Animal handling, child labor, insurance, tax, and transportation rules
For a western or a car commercial, that help with state land is the closest thing to an incentive Wyoming offers. The film office specifically suggests Togwotee, Beartooth, and Snowy Range passes for driving shots.
What a Wyoming shoot costs in tax
W.S. 39-15-104 sets the state excise (sales) tax at 4%: a 3% base plus an additional 1% in effect since July 1, 1993. Local taxes can apply on top. With no production exemption, taxable rentals and purchases carry that rate.
A $1,000,000 western spends $640,000 in Wyoming, $280,000 of it on taxable equipment rentals, set dressing, and expendables.
- State sales tax: 4% x $280,000 = $11,200, plus any local tax
- State incentive: $0
A $5,000,000 production with $1,500,000 of taxable Wyoming purchases pays $60,000 in state sales tax and receives nothing back.
For comparison, Utah pays 20% of qualified dollars left in the state to projects spending over $1 million, and 25% when 75% of production days are in rural Utah. If the $5,000,000 production left $3,600,000 in rural Utah instead, that would be a $900,000 refundable credit. Utah counts only certain spend as qualified spend, and its program isn't first come, first served, so read its page before you move a shoot.
Planning a Wyoming shoot without an incentive
- Use the film office early. Ask which state properties on your location list are fee-free before the scout, and whether the location crosses into federal or tribal land with separate permits.
- Pick up only what has to be in Wyoming. If the script needs Teton exteriors, shoot them with a lean unit and put interiors and stage days in a state that pays on its own spend, then check that state's minimum.
- Code Wyoming costs to their own location sub-accounts so they stay separate from any incentive state's audit.
- Budget the 4% state tax plus the local rate on every taxable rental, and don't assume a neighboring state's sales tax exemption follows your trucks across the border.
Neighbors with programs
Utah is covered above. Montana, Colorado, Idaho, and Nebraska also border Wyoming, and South Dakota has no program. For the difference between a tax credit, a rebate, and a grant, read how film tax credits work. Test a split Wyoming and Utah schedule in the incentive calculator, and see every state on the incentives hub.
Storiara's Funding page lists Wyoming with no state program when it matches incentives to your locations, so a Wyoming-only budget shows no incentive offset.