Wisconsin Statutes & Annotations
Chapter 70 - General property taxes.
70.112 - Property exempted from taxation because of special tax.

70.112 Property exempted from taxation because of special tax. The property described in this section is exempted from general property taxes:
(1) Money and intangible personalty. Money and all intangible personal property, such as credit, checks, share drafts, other drafts, notes, bonds, stocks and other written instruments.
(4) Special property and gross receipts taxes or license fees.
(a) All special property assessed under ss. 76.01 to 76.26 and property of any light, heat, and power company taxed under s. 76.28, car line company, and electric cooperative association that is used and useful in the operation of the business of such company or association. If a general structure for which an exemption is sought under this section is used and useful in part in the operation of any public utility assessed under ss. 76.01 to 76.26 or of the business of any light, heat, and power company taxed under s. 76.28, car line company, or electric cooperative association and in part for nonoperating purposes of the public utility or company or association, that general structure shall be assessed for taxation under this chapter at the percentage of its full market value that fairly measures and represents the extent of its use for nonoperating purposes. Nothing provided in this paragraph shall exclude any real estate or any property which is separately accounted for under s. 196.59 from special assessments for local improvements under s. 66.0705.
(b) If real or tangible personal property is used more than 50 percent, as determined by the department of revenue, in the operation of a telephone company that is subject to the tax imposed under s. 76.81, the department of revenue shall assess the property and that property shall be exempt from the general property taxes imposed under this chapter. If real or tangible personal property is used less than 50 percent, as determined by the department of revenue, in the operation of a telephone company that is subject to the tax imposed under s. 76.81, the taxation district in which the property is located shall assess the property and that property shall be subject to the general property taxes imposed under this chapter.
(5) Motor vehicles, bicycles, snowmobiles. Every automobile, motor bicycle, motor bus, motorcycle, motor truck, moped, road tractor, school bus, snowmobile, truck tractor, or other similar motor vehicle, or trailer or semitrailer used in connection therewith.
(6) Aircraft. Every aircraft.
(7) Mobile homes and manufactured homes. Every unit, as defined in s. 66.0435 (1) (j), that is subject to a monthly municipal permit fee under s. 66.0435 (3).
History: 1971 c. 221, 289; 1981 c. 20; 1983 a. 27, 243, 342, 368; 1999 a. 80; 1999 a. 150 s. 672; 2001 a. 16; 2007 a. 11.
The federal Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976, 49 USC 11501 (b) (4), restricts the ability of state and local governments to levy discriminatory taxes on rail carriers. The Act might be violated if a railroad is singled out for unfavorable treatment in the form of inability to benefit from property tax exemptions given to other taxpayers. In Wisconsin, manufacturing and commercial taxpayers generally qualify for the intangible personal property exemption under sub. (1), but railroad and utilities companies under s. 76.025 (1) do not. Therefore, the intangible personal property tax singles out railroads as part of a targeted and isolated group in violation of the Act. Union Pacific Railroad Co. v. DOR, 940 F.3d 336 (2019).

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