C. Taxable/nontaxable property ....................................................................... 4

III. Assessment and Its Purpose ......................................................................... 5

IV. Assessors ............................................................................................ 5

A. Certication ........................................................................................ 5

B. Wisconsin Property Assessment Manual (WPAM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

V. Assessment Process .................................................................................. 6

A. Municipal assessor is responsible for the assessment process ........................................ 6

B. Assessment classications of real property .......................................................... 6

C. Property information ............................................................................... 7

D. Information used to determine assessments ........................................................ 8

C. Monthly municipal mobile home permit fee ......................................................... 12

D. Mobile home assessment appeals ................................................................... 13

E. Mobile home exemption disputes................................................................... 13

F. Overview of manufactured and mobile home unit property taxes .................................... 13

VII. Equalized Value ...................................................................................... 14

A. Uses of equalized value ............................................................................. 14

B. Assessment compliance ............................................................................ 15

C. Full value law ....................................................................................... 15

VIII. Reassessment/Revaluation .......................................................................... 15

A. Initiating a reassessment ........................................................................... 16

H. Open Book ......................................................................................... 18

I. Appealing your assessment ......................................................................... 19

IX. Board of Assessors (BOA) ............................................................................ 19

A. Cities with a BOA ................................................................................... 19

B. BOA information ................................................................................... 19

X. Board of Review (BOR) ............................................................................... 20

A. Requirements to appeal an assessment to the BOR .................................................. 20

B. BOR members ...................................................................................... 20

C. BOR details ......................................................................................... 21

D. Providing information to the BOR ................................................................... 22

D. School taxes ....................................................................................... 27

XII. Collection ............................................................................................ 27

A. Property tax bills ................................................................................... 27

B. Payment of property taxes .......................................................................... 27

C. Interest on unpaid taxes ............................................................................ 27

D. Unlawful tax claim ................................................................................. 28

E. Excessive assessment claim ......................................................................... 28

F. Denial of unlawful tax or excessive assessment claim ................................................ 29

XIII. Assistance with Property Taxes ...................................................................... 29

A. Homestead tax credit ............................................................................... 29

XVII. Statutory References ................................................................................ 34

XVIII. Glossary .............................................................................................. 35

XIX. Contact Information ................................................................................. 38

This guide provides information about property assessment and appealing your assessment. This guide also

describes the role of the assessor, local Board of Review (BOR), and taxation process. For additional information

on property valuation, see the Wisconsin Property Assessment Manual (WPAM). Contact your local assessor for

information about your property assessment and your local clerk for information about your property taxes.

Information in this publication was prepared by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue’s Oce of Technical and

Assessment Services.

Article VIII of the state constitution requires the uniform taxation of property. Article VIII also provides the following

property taxation standards:

• Legislature prescribes taxes on forest property

• Taxation of agricultural land and undeveloped land does not need to be uniform with the taxation of other

real property

The state legislature enacts all property tax and assessment laws. The property tax assessment laws are covered in

ch. 70, Wis. Stats.

• Apparel and musical instruments for personal use

• Money, bonds and stocks

• Motor vehicles and aircraft

• Livestock, inventories and merchant’s stocks

• Computers and electronic peripheral equipment

• Sec. 70.109, Wis. Stats., provides for a presumption of taxability. Exemptions shall be strictly construed, with the

burden of proof resting with the entity claiming the exemption.

• Secs. 70.11, 70.111, and 70.112, Wis. Stats., list property eligible for a property tax exemption

• To obtain an exemption from property tax, most exemptions under sec. 70.11, Wis. Stats., require a Property Tax

An assessment is the value an assessor places on your property. This value determines what portion of the local

property tax levy is covered by your property.

An assessed value is the value a local assessor places on taxable property. Under state law, all non-agricultural

assessments must be based on the property’s market value as of January 1. State law recognizes every municipality

cannot be assessed at market value each year. The law requires each municipality is within 10% of market value

once every ve years. Assessed values are used to distribute the municipality’s tax burden among the individual

property owners.

The assessor of each taxation district determines the assessed value of all taxable property, with the exception

of manufacturing property. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue (DOR) annually assesses all manufacturing

property in the state. The assessor is appointed or elected at the local level. When the assessor completes the

appraisal and assessment law and administration. While there is no formal training required, assessors must show

that they have acquired the knowledge essential to do a satisfactory job through successful completion of the

certication exam.

In addition, many assessors in Wisconsin are active in professional organizations with established professional

standards for assessors and appraisers. The municipally employed assessor and the independently contracted

assessor and their sta (except clerical help) must have a current assessor certication at the appropriate level.

1. Assessment technician

2. Property appraiser

3. Assessor 1

Revaluation)

• Under state law, the assessment must be based on the market value of the improvement. The assessor looks at

how much the total value of the building and land changed due to the improvement. The cost may not be the

true measure of any change in market value. If there is an increase in market value, it should be reected in an

increase in assessed value.

• If a building is under construction as of January 1, the best way for the assessor to get this information is with an

on-site inspection and recording the data on the appropriate property record card

• Onsite inspection reveals new or remodeled improvements not previously recorded

• If the property owner started new or remodeled improvements before January 1 (the assessment day) and

such a case, the value of the foundation should be determined by the construction cost and could possibly be

veried with construction receipts or the building permit.

Assessors consider information from many sources to determine your assessment.

Under state law, the best indicator of market value is a recent arm’s-length sale of a property provided it is in line

with recent arm’s-length sales of reasonably comparable property.

The assessor may not change the assessment of property based solely on the recent arm’s-length sale of property

without adjusting the assessed value of comparable properties in the same market area.

• Sales should be recent – those several years old may not reect current market conditions

If you did not recently purchase the property, the next best evidence is recent arm’s-length sales of reasonably

comparable property.

• Comparable properties are those similar to your property in location, style, age, size and other features

• Example: You own a ranch home built in 1962 that has 1,200 square feet, three bedrooms, one full bath and one

half bath, a two-car garage, and is on a level 7,200 square foot lot

» You should try to nd recent arm’s-length sales of property in your area with the same or similar features

» The more features of the sale properties that are the same as your property, the stronger the indication that

• Assessor should be able to tell you what comparable sales they used to determine the market value of your property

by any amount, the owner must be notied. The assessor is not required to provide notice if land is classied

as agricultural land, as dened in sec. 70.32(2)(c)1g., Wis. Stats., for the current year and previous year and the

dierence between the assessments is $500 or less. However, failure to receive a notice does not aect the validity

of the changed assessment.

The notice must be in writing and mailed at least 15 days (30 days in revaluation years) prior to the BOR meeting

(or meeting of the Board of Assessors if one exists). The notice contains the changed assessment amount and

the time, date and place of the local BOR (or Board of Assessors) meeting. The notice must include information

notifying the owner of the procedures to use to object to the assessment.

If your property’s assessment ratio is similar to the assessment level of the taxation district (see the Glossary section

assessment level of the taxation district.

the municipality. The basis of the petition must be that the property assessment in the taxation district is not in

compliance with the law and the public interest will be promoted by a reassessment. A petition for reassessment

may be obtained from the Equalization Bureau District Supervisor. The district supervisor can also answer any

questions you may have about circumstances of a potential sec. 70.75, Wis. Stats. petition. It is not necessary for

property owners to have appeared at the BOR to petition for a reassessment.

For a reassessment, the assessment roll in question would be completely redone. The property owners do not have

to appear at the BOR to petition for a reassessment.

DOR holds a public hearing once a petition is veried to contain at least 5% of the assessed value of all property in

the municipality. The public hearing provides property owners and municipal ocials an opportunity to present

See DOR’s Guide for 70.75 Reassessments for more information.

A supervised assessment is an alternative to a reassessment. Under state law (sec. 70.75(3), Wis. Stats.), one or

more persons are appointed by DOR to assist the assessor in making the assessment for the following year. DOR

supervises the assessment work. The municipality pays all costs involved in a supervised assessment. A supervised

assessment is very similar to a revaluation under sec. 70.055, Wis. Stats., in that new assessment records and

assessed values are created. The previous year’s assessment roll is not aected.

some are paying less. A complete reassessment or revaluation may be the only remedy. Most property owners are

willing to pay the expenses of a revaluation to be assured that all are paying their fair share of property taxes.

Property owners fear that taxes will go up if a revaluation is done. This may or may not be the case. Taxes are

directly tied to the amount of money that the municipality needs to collect. This is called the levy. If the total levy

remains the same, only those properties that are not presently paying their fair share of the tax burden will pay

more taxes after a revaluation. Properties presently paying more than their fair share will pay less.

• Before: Levy/(Total Assessed Value) = $200,000/$4,000,000 = .05 or 5%

• After: Levy/(Total Assessed Value)=$200,000/$8,000,000= .025 or 2.5%

owner

• Duration – assessor’s visit must not be more than one hour

• Scope – assessor must not open doors, enter through open doors, or look into windows of structures

• Notice – if the property owner or occupant is not present, the assessor must leave a notice on the principal

building providing the owner information on how to contact them

The assessor may not enter the premises if they received a notice from the property owner or occupant denying them

entry. The assessor must leave if the property owner or occupant asks them to leave. (sec. 943.15(1m)(f), Wis. Stats.)

If a reasonable written request (see Notication Process with Request to View Property Notice) to view the property

is refused, the assessor should not enter the property. The assessor may seek a special inspection warrant to view

municipality does not have a website, it must post the required information in at least three public places within

the city, village or town.

The city, village or town should provide links to the above noted statutory references, so persons visiting the

website can click those links and review the statutes.

• Parcel number (also appears on tax bill)

• Property owner’s name and address

• Legal description of the property

• Assessed values, by class

• When you meet with your assessor, review your property records and discuss how your assessment was made

• Assessors maintain a record of your property, which includes a physical description and information on how

your assessment was developed

• These property records are considered open records, which means the public has the right to inspect them. This

(BOA) (see below). There is a local BOR for all property assessed by the local assessor. The Wisconsin Department of

Revenue’s BOA reviews manufacturing property assessed by the state assessors.

• If your municipality does not have a BOA and you feel your assessment is incorrect, your formal appeal begins

Determination (PR-302) should be sent to property owners as the BOR completes its work.

State law allows the BOR to waive the BOR hearing for the property owner to appeal directly to the circuit court.

The BOR determines whether it will waive the BOR hearing. Contact the municipal clerk if you would like to appeal

directly to the circuit court.

• Prohibiting a person scheduled to appear before the BOR from contacting or providing information to any BOR

member about their objection

• Providing a notice to the BOR’s clerk at least 48 hours before the rst BOR meeting, stating whether the objector

is asking for removal of a board member from hearing the appeal, identifying the person to be removed and

estimating the length of time of the hearing

• Requiring the objector, when appearing before the BOR, to specify (in writing) an estimate of the property’s

due process concerns regarding a similarly worded statute in Milewski v. Town of Dover, 2017 WI 79, 377 Wis. 2d

38, 899 N.W.2d 303. It is DOR’s recommendation to allow a BOR hearing even if the property owner denied an

interior or exterior view. The lack of access to view, and the credibility of evidence oered can be managed as an

evidentiary issue at a BOR hearing, rather than denying access to the BOR.

The BOR examines the roll and corrects all apparent errors in descriptions or calculations (inadvertently or

otherwise), and adds any omitted property to the roll. The BOR must notify the property owners concerned and

hold hearings before omitted property can be added to the assessment roll and before any other lawful changes

can be made.

assessment, and provide the date, time and place of the hearing. The hearing must be conducted according to the

procedure established in state law (sec. 70.47(8), Wis. Stats.). The BOR may then adjust the assessment based on the

evidence before them.

• Person objecting to his/her assessment requests the removal of a BOR member for any reason – only one

• Member must show bias or prejudice (ex: a separate pending court action)

BOR members may be removed for other reasons. A municipality must remove any BOR member who has

• At least 48 hours before the rst scheduled BOR meeting or at least 48 hours before the objection is heard if

The notice must identify the member(s) to be removed.

State law allows the BOR to accept sworn written statements or testimony by telephone from property owners.

The BOR determines whether it accepts information in writing or over the phone. Contact the municipal clerk to

determine if the BOR accepts these forms of information.

The BOR can accept testimony by telephone, upon oath, from all ill or disabled persons. You must be prepared to

present to the BOR a letter from your physician, surgeon, or osteopath conrming your illness or disability. This

letter should be led with your objection form. You may designate a personal representative to appear before the

Under state law (sec. 70.47(7)(ae), Wis. Stats.), if you are planning to protest an assessment, you must provide

the BOR, in writing, your estimate of the land value and all improvements you are objecting . You must specify

the information you used to arrive at that estimate. You should have information on the market value of your

non-agricultural property, including: a recent arm’s length sale of your property and recent sales of comparable

properties. Other factors include: size and location of the lot, size and age of the building, original cost,

depreciation and obsolescence, zoning restrictions and income potential, presence or absence of various building

components; and any other factors or conditions aecting the property’s market value.

The BOR allows sucient time for the assessor and the objector to present information. The assessor can also

request the BOR to subpoena witnesses to provide sworn testimony.

If you are ling an objection to valuation, you must submit your written objection form before the rst meeting or

• Property owner may have witnesses or experts provide sworn testimony on his/her behalf

• Witnesses and experts must be prepared to provide documentation of their testimony

• After you present your evidence and answer any questions, it is the assessor’s turn to present evidence. The

assessor presents evidence to support the assessment and answers questions from BOR members. You will also

have an opportunity to ask the assessor questions.

A property owner has two ways to appeal a BOR decision. One is appealing to the circuit court under state law (sec.

70.47(13), Wis. Stats.), and the other is appealing to DOR under sec. 70.85, Wis. Stats. If a number of property owners

feel there are severe inequities in the entire assessment roll, they may appeal for a reassessment of the entire

municipality under sec. 70.75, Wis. Stats. (see 70.75 Reassessment Guide).

record made at the BOR.

• Circuit court must presume rightful action by the BOR. The valuation placed on the property is presumed

correct and binding on the BOR in the absence of evidence showing it to be incorrect.

• BOR’s determination will be upheld if there is any substantial basis for it

• If the taxpayer pursues certiorari review, the circuit court’s review is limited solely to review of the BOR record.

The circuit court cannot conduct its own factual inquiry or admit any new evidence. On certiorari review,

the circuit court can consider "(1) whether the BOR’s acted within its jurisdiction; (2) whether the BOR acted

according to law; (3) whether the BOR’s action was arbitrary, oppressive or unreasonable, representing its will

rather than its judgment; and (4) whether the evidence was such that the BOR might reasonably make the order

• DOR must receive a written complaint (letter) within 20 days after delivery of the BOR determination

• This appeal process requires a non-refundable $100 ling fee

• It is not available for properties with an assessed value over $1 million or properties located in rst-class

• DOR may revalue the property any time before November 1 of the assessment year or within 60 days after

• 10% threshold – DOR may not change an assessment determined to be within 10% of the general

• DOR will hold an informal conference with the property owner and the assessor where each may present

- If DOR feels adequate evidence was presented during the conference, it will make a decision

- If DOR does not feel it has adequate evidence, DOR will investigate the appeal. Once the investigation is

completed, DOR will make a decision.

• DOR may revalue the property any time before November 1 of the assessment year or within 60 days after

assessment and tax rolls, and taxes are calculated and paid accordingly. You may appeal DOR’s decision, by an

action for certiorari, in the circuit court of the county where the property is located.

If you are not satised with your assessment, then consider the following assessment appeal process:

Bill and Sue Homeowner live in Badger, Wisconsin where ve taxing jurisdictions exist (state, county, village, school

district, technical college). Common taxing jurisdictions include the state of Wisconsin (forestation tax), county,

municipality (city, village, or town), local public schools, technical college, and sanitary district. Other districts may

also be listed on your property tax bill.

Wisconsin is almost unique among the states in terms of the amount of taxes raised at the state level, but spent at

the local level. Bill and Sue Homeowner can compare the estimated state aids allocated to the tax district to the

prior year gures. Bill and Sue Homeowner’s share of the net tax in the tax district before special purpose costs.

This amount contains the tax owed to each taxing jurisdiction. The two years net tax amounts by tax jurisdiction

improvements. This credit value is calculated every year by DOR, after taking into consideration the estimated

number of claims expected to be paid and school property tax rates (for K-8, union high, and K-12 school districts).

The credit value is set at the level that distributes the available funds. If the value of the parcel exceeds the credit

value, a full credit is paid. However, if the value of the parcel is less than the credit value, the credit is paid on the

actual value of the parcel.

The rst dollar credit is shown on property tax bills as a reduction of property taxes due. For taxpayers who pay

their taxes in two or more installments, the credit is applied equally to each installment.

general property tax collections paid by taxpayers.

For additional information on rst dollar credit, visit our website.

Your tax bill may contain a special assessment for some type of public work (ex: sewer, water, street, alley,

sidewalk). The assessor does not make special assessments. They are based on the cost of the improvement or the

repair and billed only to properties beneting from the work. If you have a question about a special assessment,

contact your local clerk.

Bill and Sue Homeowner have some additional costs taxpayers in other districts may not see on their tax bills.

special assessment, special charges or special taxes are listed in the upper-right section of the tax bill. Most of

these costs are listed on the tax bill by type (ex: curb and gutter, street, refuse collection, or weed control.

The following are the references to the appeals procedures contained in state law.

organization and procedures of the BOA.

and procedures of the BOR.

• Sec. 70.85(4)(c), Wis. Stats. – provides for the property owner to appeal DOR’s 70.85 decision to the circuit

court

• State law (sec. 70.75, Wis. Stats.) – provides for property owners to appeal the assessment of the entire

municipality to DOR

• Sec. 70.85, Wis. Stats. – provides for the property owner to appeal an individual assessment to DOR

the other (see market value)

Assessed value is estimated as of January 1 and will apply to the taxes levied at the end of that year. Assessed

value is called a primary assessment because a levy is applied directly against it to determine the tax due. Accurate

assessed values ensure fairness between properties within the taxing jurisdiction. (See Equalized value for fairness

between municipalities).

manufacturing property minus corrections for the prior year over and under charges within a municipality – town,

village, or city. For example, if the assessed value of all the property subject to property tax in the municipality is

to agricultural lands, agricultural forest, or undeveloped lands.

from state to state depending upon state statutes

cities (Madison). It consists of members of the tax commissioner’s or assessor’s sta who investigate and act on

assessment complaints