The statutory ceiling
This rate is fixed by statute and no bidding can reduce it, so every certificate sold carries it in full. It is a ceiling only in the sense that nothing pays more. It never falls below 3% on redemption.
A penalty on top of the interest
On redemption the owner pays a one-time 3% penalty on the amount paid, added to the interest rather than compared against it. A certificate redeemed a month after the sale therefore returns the 3% plus that month's interest, and the penalty is not competed away at the sale.
How interest accrues
Interest runs at 15 percent a year from the date of sale on the full amount paid at the sale, including the advertising charge of up to 20 dollars and the certificate of purchase fee of up to 20 dollars, and a one-time 3 percent penalty is added on top. Subsequent taxes the certificate holder pays also earn 15 percent a year. The statute states the rate per annum and does not state a compounding rule; county handouts, Albany County's among them, describe the interest as applied to the days held since the sale date. The 15 percent applies to every certificate from the 1982 tax sale onward; the statute keeps an 8 percent rate only for older certificates. If the holder has already given notice of intent to apply for a tax deed, the redeeming owner also reimburses the holder's actual expenses up to 250 dollars on a sworn statement.
Why nothing is bid at this sale
Wyoming runs no auction on rate or price. Under W.S. 39-13-108(e)(iii)(B) any person who offers to pay the taxes, interest, penalties and costs due on a parcel is considered its purchaser and must pay immediately, so every buyer pays the same figure and earns the same statutory return. The statute says nothing about choosing among several people making that same offer, and the county treasurers fill that gap with a lottery: Laramie, Campbell and Albany counties each assign every registered buyer one number, draw a number for each parcel as it is announced, and let the holder of the drawn number buy or pass, and Natrona County runs the same drawing in the treasurer's office. A parcel that cannot be sold for the amount due is bid in for the county by the treasurer at the same sale, which is not a separate event and is not open to investors. Other things a date-scraper will find that are NOT an investor sale: the newspaper notices of intent to apply for a tax deed that certificate holders publish under 39-13-108(e)(v)(B), the county clerk's 60-day notice before a tax deed issues to the county under 39-13-108(e)(iv)(A), and a county commissioners' private sale of land the county already took by tax deed under 39-13-108(e)(iv)(B), which sells the parcel itself and has no statutory schedule.
When the certificates sell
Once a year, in summer, on a date each county treasurer sets. The statute fixes the notice rather than the date: the sale must be advertised once a week for three weeks in a legal newspaper in the county, the first publication at least four weeks before the sale and before the first week in September. Sales are held at the county courthouse or a county building between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Sundays excluded, and may be adjourned day to day until all lands are sold. County practice puts most sales from late July into early September: Laramie County holds its sale the Thursday after Cheyenne Frontier Days, Sweetwater County scheduled its 2026 sale for August 6, and Natrona County held its 2026 lottery drawing on September 3. No state agency assigns or publishes a statewide sale calendar, and no shared law firm or auction contractor runs the sales; each treasurer runs its own.
The headline figure is a ceiling, not a forecast. To see what a certificate actually pays over a real holding period, run the numbers in the yield calculator, and compare Wyoming against other states on interest rates by state.
Verified Sep 25, 2026 against Wyoming statutes.
Tax Sale Atlas publishes educational information about public tax sale processes. This is not legal, financial, or investment advice. Rules, dates, and fees change; confirm with the county office before you bid.