The rest of what we have written about Wyoming. Every figure is quoted from Wyoming’s own statute or its courts’ own published schedule, and carries the date we last checked it.
Dividing property and money in a Wyoming divorce
The money picture for a divorce in Wyoming: how property gets divided, what Wyoming calls spousal support and how it is decided, whether one spouse can be made to pay the other’s legal fees while the case is running, and — the part nobody publishes — whether Wyoming’s own income tax follows the federal rule on alimony.
See a different stateWyoming
Every claim is traced to Wyoming’s own statute, court rule or revenue department, quoted where the wording carries the meaning. Where we could not verify something, the page says so instead of filling the space. Information, not legal advice — and tax questions in particular need a professional in your state. Corrections: thecusp.app/corrections.
Does Wyoming follow the federal alimony rule?
Since 2019, federal law has treated alimony as not deductible by the payer and not taxable to the recipient, for any instrument executed after 31 December 2018. Most people assume every state followed. Most did. Not all.
Wyoming levies no individual income tax, so there is no state-level treatment of alimony income to conform or decouple from the federal TCJA rule.
Source: Wyoming Department of Revenue – Wyoming has no individual or corporate state income tax · source
Nationally: 36 states follow the federal rule, 9 have no income tax, 4 are decoupled, and 1 — Maine — we could not establish. The full fifty-state table and what each decoupled state does differently.
How property is divided
Wyoming is an equitable distribution state. That means the court divides marital property fairly, which is not a synonym for equally. What counts as marital rather than separate property is frequently the whole argument.
the court shall make such disposition of the property of the parties as appears just and equitable, having regard for the respective merits of the parties and the condition in which they will be left by the divorce
Source: Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 20-2-114(a)
Alimony
Wyoming calls it alimony. Using the state’s own word matters when you are searching for forms or reading a statute.
There is no guideline calculation. A judge weighs the statutory factors and reaches a number.
This is the norm and it is why alimony is the least predictable figure in a divorce. Two judges can reach different answers on the same facts and both be right. It also means the strength of your evidence about income, earning capacity and the standard of living during the marriage does real work.
The court may decree to either party reasonable alimony out of the estate of the other having regard for the other’s ability to pay and may order so much of the other’s real estate or the rents and profits thereof as is necessary be assigned and set out to either party for life, or may decree a specific sum be paid by either party.
Source: Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 20-2-114(a)
Child support
Wyoming uses the income shares model — both parents’ incomes go into the calculation, and the result is apportioned between you.
Whichever model applies, this is the most predictable number in your case — there is a formula and a presumption that its output is correct. Deviating from it takes written findings. Run it early; it is free, and it anchors everything else.
Guideline: Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 20-2-304 (child support tables apply to the combined net income of both parents; total obligation divided between the parents in proportion to the net income of each)
How Wyoming calculates child support, in detail
Who pays for the lawyers
In every action brought for divorce, the court may require either party to pay any sum necessary to enable the other to carry on or defend the action and for support and the support of the children of the parties during its pendency.
Source: Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 20-2-111
In every action brought for divorce, the court may require either party to pay any sum necessary to enable the other to carry on or defend the action and for support and the support of the children of the parties during its pendency.
A fee award that only arrives at final judgment is close to worthless to someone who could not afford a lawyer during the case. By then it is over. An interim award is what stops a wealthier spouse winning by attrition.
If you are the lower earner, this is the single most actionable thing on this page. Ask at the first meeting, in these words: “Can we move for an interim award of attorney fees now?” Do not let “we will deal with fees at the end” pass unexamined.
Separately, if custody is contested you may be ordered to pay for a guardian ad litem or a custody evaluator, and the court decides how to split that. What that costs in Wyoming, and who bears it.
The thing worth knowing about Wyoming
Wyoming’s core alimony and property-division authority is combined in a single statute (Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 20-2-114) rather than split across separate alimony and property chapters, and the same statute (subsection (b)) expressly bars courts from considering a veteran’s federal service-connected disability benefits, or indemnifying a spouse for any resulting waiver of military retirement pay, in the property division.