State veteran benefits · WY
Wyoming Veteran Benefits
Wyoming gives a veteran who deployed to an overseas combat operation eight tuition-free semesters at the University of Wyoming, in a state that levies no personal income tax at all.
By Mario Bailey, U.S. Air Force veteran · current Air National Guard member. Data updated 2026-07-10.
What Wyoming adds, benefit by benefit
Your federal VA benefits travel with you to any state. Everything below is the second stack: what Wyoming itself offers, each item checked against the state's own official source on the date shown.
$6,000 of assessed value off the house or the truck
Wyoming's veterans exemption removes $6,000 of assessed value from property tax, applied to the primary residence or, at the veteran's choice, to motor vehicle registration fees. It covers honorably discharged veterans of WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam, veterans awarded an armed forces expeditionary or equivalent campaign medal, and certain disabled veterans, after three years of Wyoming residency. An unremarried surviving spouse keeps it.
The exemption is not automatic: the veteran or spouse must contact the county assessor annually, by the fourth Monday in May for the property tax route. Because Wyoming assesses homes at 9.5 percent of market value, $6,000 of assessed value corresponds to roughly $63,000 of home value.
SOURCE: Wyoming Department of Revenue · retrieved 2026-07-10
No individual income tax
Wyoming does not possess an individual or corporate income tax, so military retired pay, SBP payments, and wages carry no state tax. VA disability compensation is untaxed everywhere: the IRS excludes VA disability benefits from gross income.
SOURCE: State of Wyoming · retrieved 2026-07-10
Eight free semesters at the University of Wyoming
Under Wyoming Statute 19-14-106, a veteran who was a Wyoming resident at entry into service and deployed in support of an overseas combat operation during that enlistment may be eligible for eight free semesters at the University of Wyoming, applied for through the UW Veterans Services Center.
SOURCE: University of Wyoming Veterans Services Center · retrieved 2026-07-10
Interview preference in public hiring
An honorably discharged veteran who has been a Wyoming resident for at least one year receives an interview preference in public-sector applicant screening under W.S. 19-14-102, provided the veteran meets the position's qualifications. The preference applies to initial hiring only, not to applicants already employed by the agency.
SOURCE: University of Wyoming Human Resources · retrieved 2026-07-10
Veterans' Home of Wyoming, Buffalo
The state's veterans home sits on a mountainside outside Buffalo at 700 Veterans' Lane, with two connected communities: an assisted living community providing domiciliary care, including two-room suites for couples, and a skilled nursing community built as modern single-room cottages on the Greenhouse model.
SOURCE: Wyoming Department of Health · retrieved 2026-07-10
Free lifetime licenses at 100 percent and for Purple Heart recipients
Wyoming Game and Fish issues complimentary lifetime game bird, small game, and fishing licenses to resident veterans receiving 100 percent service-connected disability compensation and to Purple Heart medal recipients. Resident veterans at 50 percent or more can apply for a discounted lifetime fishing license, and residents deployed to a combat zone get free general elk, deer, game bird, and daily fishing licenses while home on leave.
SOURCE: Wyoming Game and Fish Department · retrieved 2026-07-10
Oregon Trail State Veterans Cemetery, Evansville
Wyoming's state veterans cemetery in Evansville, established in 1983, charges nothing for burial plots and provides a grave vault at no cost for casket interments. Any veteran with a discharge other than dishonorable is eligible, and a spouse or a minor or handicapped child may be buried in the veteran's plot.
SOURCE: Wyoming Military Department · retrieved 2026-07-10
Rank Wyoming’s benefits by dollar value and the order surprises people. The property tax exemption gets the attention, but $6,000 of assessed value in a state that assesses at 9.5 percent shelters only about $63,000 of home value, worth a few hundred dollars a year. The education benefit is the real money: eight tuition-free semesters at the University of Wyoming for a veteran who left for an overseas combat operation as a Wyoming resident. Stacked after the Post-9/11 GI Bill, that is two full degrees with the state and federal governments splitting the bill, and unlike the GI Bill it does not expire with a delimiting date, it waits.
The residency tests here are stricter than the benefit amounts, and they are the thing to verify before counting on anything. The tax exemption wants three years in the state; the tuition benefit wants Wyoming residency at the moment you entered service, which no amount of later residence can retroactively fix; the interview preference wants one year. A veteran who enlisted from Colorado and retired to Cheyenne gets the tax exemption eventually and the hiring preference quickly, but never the free semesters. Read your own DD-214’s home of record line before you plan around W.S. 19-14-106.
With no income tax, the state never touches retired pay, and VA compensation is untaxed everywhere, so Wyoming’s pitch to the military retiree is the same as its pitch to everyone: keep what you draw. What the state adds on top skews outdoors, and the licensing table is more generous than the tax table. At 100 percent, or with a Purple Heart at any rating, the lifetime bird, small game, and fishing licenses are simply free, a benefit that in Wyoming carries real cultural weight as well as cash value.
The annual assessor visit is the commonly missed mechanic: the $6,000 exemption dies every year it is not re-claimed by the late-May deadline, and assessors do not chase you. The strongest position in the state belongs to the combat-deployed homegrown veteran, who collects the degree, the licenses, the exemption, and, at the end, a no-cost plot at Evansville with federal burial honors beneath the Wyoming wind.
Where to apply
State benefits are administered by the state, not by VA, so the applications above run through Wyoming Veterans Commission or the specific agency named in each source link. A free VA-accredited representative or VSO in Wyoming will know both stacks, the federal claim and the state paperwork, and charges nothing to help with either.