Live in Colorado, work in Wyoming
State income tax on wages · single filer · tax year 2026
Wyoming takes
$0
on wages earned there
Colorado takes
$1,932
after the credit it gives
Both together
$1,932
state tax for the year
Cost of the line
$0
a year, above working at home
What crossing the line costs
no work-state taxWyoming has no income tax, so only Colorado taxes this pay. Solid is what you actually pay; the faded part of the Colorado bar is the credit it hands back. State income tax only — federal and payroll tax apply on top, and a city wage tax may too.
Which state taxes you, and what it costs
- No income tax in Wyoming means one bill instead of two, not zero bills. Colorado still taxes you because you live there, and it reaches pay earned across the line. You owe $1,932 for the year, and only Colorado collects it.
- Of all the states feeding workers into Wyoming, Colorado sends the most: 6,967 jobs. That makes this the largest crossing of its kind into the state, out of 2 of them.
- Wyoming levies no individual income tax, so a commuter into it is taxed by Colorado alone, on the whole of the wages, at $1,932 for the reference salary. ⛔ The common expectation — that working in a state without an income tax removes the tax — is exactly backwards for a commuter: residence is what gives Colorado its claim, and that claim reaches income wherever it is earned. There is no work-state liability to credit against it, so nothing offsets the Colorado bill. The only version of this that changes the answer is moving.
- Measured against every other state sending commuters into Wyoming, this is the largest single flow: 6,967 jobs held by Colorado residents, ahead of all 2 corridors of this size into that state. Census LODES counts jobs rather than people, so a worker holding two positions in Wyoming appears twice.
Where the money goes
A $75,000 salary
- Federal income tax$7,670
- Social Security and Medicare$5,738
- State income tax$2,592
- Yours$59,001
| Federal income tax10.23% | $7,670 |
|---|---|
| Social Security and Medicare7.65% | $5,738 |
| State income tax3.46% | $2,592 |
| Yours78.67% | $59,001 |
Which rung you are on
A $75,000 salary
| This rung starts at | $66,500 |
|---|---|
| Next rung starts at | $121,800 |
| Room before it | $46,800 |
Federal only, measured on gross pay — so the first rung is what the standard deduction covers.
The arithmetic, step by step
| Wyoming takes, on wages earned there | $0 |
|---|---|
| Colorado charges its residents | $1,932 |
| Less the credit Colorado gives | $0 |
| Total state tax | $1,932 |
| If you also worked in Colorado | $1,932 |
| Difference | $0 |
On a reference salary of $60,000 a year, single filer. Both states run progressive schedules, so the figures do not simply scale — use the tool above for your own salary.
What this page does not cover
- What you see here is state tax between Colorado and Wyoming. Cities can charge their own tax on top, and a handful do. That layer is not modeled on this page, so treat these figures as the floor rather than the final bill.
- The figures take the simple case: one job, in Wyoming, worked in person. Money from several states makes the credit a proportion instead of a cap. Working remotely from Colorado can pull you under a different rule entirely, depending on the state.
- Every dollar figure here uses a salary of sixty thousand a year. It is a stated benchmark, not a guess at what people on this route earn. Scale them to your own pay. Which state ends up dearer, Colorado or Wyoming, generally holds at other salaries — though the gap between them can widen or narrow as you cross tax brackets.
- These figures cover the STATE layer only. City and municipal wage taxes sit on top of them and are not included: a commuter into Philadelphia pays its wage tax on top of anything here, and Ohio's municipalities run their own credit system, which this site models in its own families. New York City, by contrast, taxes only its residents, so a commuter into it adds nothing at the city level. Whether Wyoming or Colorado carries a local layer is a separate question from the state arithmetic above.
- The arithmetic assumes all wages are earned in Wyoming and that there is no other income. That matters for the credit: where income comes from several states, Colorado limits the credit to the share of its own tax attributable to the Wyoming portion, computed as a ratio rather than the straightforward cap used above. It also assumes days are worked in Wyoming rather than remotely — several states tax a non-resident's remote days as though they were worked at the employer's location, which reverses the usual expectation and is handled on this site's reciprocity pages.
- Dollar amounts are computed at a stated reference salary of sixty thousand rather than a corridor wage average, which no published source provides per state pair. Because both states' liabilities and the credit between them are functions of the same income, the direction of the Colorado to Wyoming comparison holds at other salaries even though the amounts do not — with one qualification worth stating, that a progressive schedule can change the SIZE of the gap at higher incomes, and in Wyoming's case a bracket crossed on one side and not the other is exactly where that happens.
Questions people ask
Do I pay state tax twice, to Colorado and Wyoming?
You file in both states, but you do not pay the full amount to both. Colorado credits the tax Wyoming collected, capped at its own charge on that income. The practical result is one bill at the higher of the two levels: $1,932 for the year.
Does working in Wyoming cost me anything extra?
No. The state line is real on a map and invisible on your pay stub here. Your total is $1,932 either way. Keep the paperwork in mind though: crossing a line usually means filing twice even when it changes nothing.
Do I have to file tax returns in both Colorado and Wyoming?
Two returns is the normal outcome here, even when only one state ends up taking anything. Wyoming generally wants to see a non-resident return from people who work there, and Colorado wants your whole picture. It is paperwork rather than extra tax.
What if I work from home in Colorado some days instead of going to Wyoming?
It depends on the state, and the answer is not the one most people expect. You might assume a day worked at your kitchen table in Colorado is taxed by Colorado. Usually that is right, and your Wyoming share shrinks to the days you were actually there. But a few states tax days you work at home as though you had been in the office, unless your employer required you to be elsewhere. It is worth checking which kind Wyoming is before assuming.
How is liability allocated between residence and work state on the same wages?
Both jurisdictions assert a claim on the same wages — Wyoming on a source basis, Colorado on residence. The residence state grants a credit for tax paid to the source state, limited to the residence state's own liability on that income. Net combined liability therefore equals the greater of the two liabilities rather than their sum, $1,932 at the reference salary, and the split between the two treasuries is the only thing the credit changes.
Why is the marginal state-tax cost of this crossing zero?
Marginal cost is zero because the binding liability is the residence state's. Colorado's own charge on this income equals or exceeds Wyoming's, so the resident credit absorbs the source-state tax entirely and combined liability equals residence-only liability, $1,932. ⚠️ Zero marginal tax is not zero obligation: a non-resident return may still be required in Wyoming.
What filing obligations arise in each state on this corridor?
Generally two. Colorado requires a resident return reporting all income; Wyoming requires a non-resident return reporting the income sourced to it, which is also the mechanism by which the resident credit is substantiated. ⚠️ A filing obligation is distinct from a liability: a reciprocity exemption or a zero net position removes tax without necessarily removing the return, and the non-resident return is frequently what establishes the credit claimed on the resident one.
How do remote working days affect sourcing between these two states?
Ordinarily wages are sourced to where the services are performed, so days worked remotely from Colorado fall outside Wyoming's jurisdiction and the source-state apportionment shrinks accordingly. ⛔ The exception is the "convenience of the employer" rule, which several states apply: a non-resident's remote days are sourced to the employer's location unless the remote work is required by the employer rather than chosen by the employee. The figures on this page model in-person attendance in Wyoming throughout.