2025 Wisconsin Statutes & Annotations
Chapter 70 - General property taxes.
70.01 - General property taxes; upon whom levied.
70.01 General property taxes; upon whom levied. Taxes shall be levied, under this chapter, upon all general property in this state except property that is exempt from taxation. Real estate taxes and personal property taxes are deemed to be levied when the tax roll in which they are included has been delivered to the local treasurer under s. 74.03. When so levied such taxes are a lien upon the property against which they are charged. That lien is superior to all other liens, except a lien under s. 292.31 (8) (i) or 292.81, and is effective as of January 1 in the year when the taxes are levied. Liens of special assessments of benefits for local improvements shall be in force as provided by the charter or general laws applicable to the cities that make the special assessments. In this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise, references to “this chapter” do not include ss. 70.37 to 70.395.
History: 1977 c. 29 s. 1646 (3); 1977 c. 31, 203; 1987 a. 378; 1993 a. 453; 1995 a. 227; 1997 a. 27.
The enactment of this chapter did not supersede the Milwaukee city charter, which exempts from taxation property leased by the city. City of Milwaukee v. Shoup Voting Machine Corp., 54 Wis. 2d 549, 196 N.W.2d 694 (1972).
Property held in trust by the federal government for the Menominee tribe and tribal members is not subject to state taxation. 66 Atty. Gen. 290.
As a general matter, Wisconsin is without power to tax Ojibwe lands owned by tribal members within the Bad River, Lac Courte Oreilles, Lac du Flambeau, and Red Cliff reservations created in an 1854 treaty. That is true even though the parcels in question are fully alienable, meaning their current owners can sell them at will. Under the facts of this case, the tribal lands were sold by past tribal owners to non-Indians before coming back into tribal ownership, but the one-time act of alienating reservation property to a non-Indian did not surrender the parcel’s tax immunity for all time. Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin v. Evers, 46 F.4th 552 (2022).
