Thermopolis, Wyoming Sales Tax Rate

Thermopolis is in the Big Horn Basin of north-central Wyoming and is famous for having the world's largest mineral hot spring (Hot Springs State Park). The economy is driven by tourism (hot springs, Wyoming Dinosaur Center) and healthcare.

The combined sales tax rate in Thermopolis is 6.000%, composed of the Wyoming state rate of 4.000% plus a local portion of 2.000%.

The formula to calculate sales tax for any purchase:

For a $150.00 purchase in Thermopolis: tax is $9.00 ($150.00 × 0.06000), total is $159.00.

Visitor spending around Hot Springs State Park and Wyoming Dinosaur Center flows straight through the 6.000% combined rate — on dining, retail, entertainment, and ground transportation alike. For Thermopolis operators, that makes visitor volume a direct driver of sales tax remittance, and it makes getting the rate right on every channel (POS, online booking, mobile ordering) a compliance issue, not a rounding detail.

Major draws behind Thermopolis's visitor volume: Hot Springs State Park, Wyoming Dinosaur Center, Thermopolis Rodeo, Big Horn Basin scenery.

A room night in Thermopolis usually carries more than the 6.000% combined sales tax: most Wyoming lodging markets layer a separate occupancy or lodging tax on top. The exact stack is set locally — confirm the current schedule with WY Dept of Revenue / Hot Springs County before publishing rates.

Three charges typically sit on top of the 6.000%: an occupancy tax on the room, a short-term-rental tax that many cities now make the platform collect rather than the host, and any convention-centre or tourism-district assessment covering Hot Springs State Park. None of the three is set by Wyoming — which is why a rate that is correct in Thermopolis can be wrong one town over. How each is levied and who remits it is worked through in the short-term rental and lodging tax guide rather than restated here.

Admissions taxability is one of the sharpest state-by-state splits: many states tax tickets at the full combined rate — which in Thermopolis means 6.000% on top of face value — while others do not tax admissions at all. Before pricing tickets to Hot Springs State Park, verify Wyoming's admissions rules.

• Ticket taxability depends on Wyoming's admissions rules — never assume the general rate applies
• Bundled packages (ticket + meal + merchandise) may require allocation
• Non-profit venues may qualify for exemptions — verify with WY Dept of Revenue / Hot Springs County

Business events in Thermopolis cluster around Wyoming Dinosaur Center, and the spend they generate is squarely taxable. What visiting teams and their finance departments should expect:

• Food, beverage and AV hire billed by the venue carry the full 6.000%, so a five-figure catering line arrives with $600 of tax on every $10,000 of it.
• Booth and exhibit materials shipped in tax-free from another state do not escape — they land as Wyoming use tax at the same rate, self-assessed by whoever brought them in.
• Per diems and receipts diverge here: a meal per diem is not a taxable supply, but an actual restaurant receipt from Thermopolis already includes the tax, and expensing both ways in one trip is how the reconciliation breaks.

Retailers working the visitor trade near Hot Springs State Park and Wyoming Dinosaur Center should implement:

The one that actually bites is address-level rate verification. A visitor-trade business sits close to a municipal boundary far more often than a suburban one does, and Thermopolis's 6.000% stops applying at a line that is not always visible from the street — the address-level rate guide covers how to resolve it. Everything else here is configuration: tourism-district surcharges set in the POS, and receipts that show the state and local components separately so a visitor claiming a refund can read what they paid.

Thermopolis shoppers and businesses routinely cross into Riverton, Cody, Worland and beyond — and in Wyoming, the combined rate can change at those lines. Of the tracked neighbors, Riverton charges 5.000% and Cody charges 4.000% versus Thermopolis's 6.000%.

• Riverton (60 mi S): combined rate 5.000% — see the Riverton page
• Cody (80 mi NW): combined rate 4.000% — see the Cody page
• Worland (30 mi SE): combined rate 6.000% — see the Worland page
• Shoshoni (40 mi S): outside our tracked Wyoming city set — verify its current combined rate before invoicing deliveries there
• Dubois (90 mi W): outside our tracked Wyoming city set — verify its current combined rate before invoicing deliveries there

Deliveries are taxed by the destination rules Wyoming applies, not by where the store sits — when an order ships across one of these city lines, re-check the rate for the exact address.

Since South Dakota v. Wayfair, a seller with no premises, staff or stock anywhere near Thermopolis can still be required to register in Wyoming and charge 6.000% on what it ships here — presence stopped being the trigger and volume took over. The thresholds that decide it are in the table below; what they do not tell you is that crossing them obliges you to collect at the buyer's local rate, not a state average, which is why Thermopolis and its neighbours have to be priced separately. The registration mechanics and the trailing-twelve-month counting rules are in the economic nexus guide.

Audit & Compliance Warning: Because combined tax rates combine state and local tax components, calculating tax based purely on ZIP codes can lead to errors. Many ZIP codes span multiple municipal boundaries with differing rates. For precise auditing, always use address-level geo-lookup.

Three obligations follow the 6.000% rate around Thermopolis: untaxed out-of-state purchases delivered here owe matching use tax — $60.00 on a $1,000 order — self-assessed to WY Dept of Revenue / Hot Springs County; sellers with physical presence or economic nexus must register before collecting; and wholesale sales need a valid resale certificate on file at transaction time. Filing mechanics, exemption certificates, and audit preparation are covered in the Wyoming sales tax guide.

Thermopolis has significant retail activity. Marketplace facilitator laws require platforms to collect/remit sales tax for third-party sellers. Economic nexus threshold in Wyoming: $100,000 in gross sales, revenue-only with no transaction test, measured over the current or previous calendar year. Transaction test repealed effective July 1, 2024..

Prescription drugs are exempt from sales tax in Wyoming. Medical equipment purchased by licensed providers in Thermopolis may qualify for exemptions — verify with WY Dept of Revenue / Hot Springs County.