The middle Wisconsin homeowner reports paying $3,792 a year in property tax on a home worth $266,500, a ratio of 1.42 percent, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 2024 five-year estimates. Among all 72 counties the ratio runs from 0.73 percent in Vilas County to 1.93 percent in Milwaukee County, with Menominee County printing an outlier that needs its own explanation below. The calculator takes the value you enter, applies your county’s median bill divided by its median home value, and sets the answer next to what a typical neighbor pays. Enter the estimated fair market value shown on your December tax bill, not the assessed value, because assessment levels vary so much from one municipality to the next.
Two large counties show the math. A $400,000 house in Dane County, home to Madison, at 1.63 percent comes to $6,520 a year, or $543.33 a month, just $100 over the Dane median bill of $6,420, the largest median bill in the state. A $250,000 house in Milwaukee County at 1.93 percent works out to $4,825 a year, $402.08 a month, which is $381 more than the $4,444 median there. Move that $400,000 Dane house to Waukesha County, at 1.14 percent, and the estimate drops to $4,560, a difference of $1,960 for the same price.
Wisconsin Property Tax Calculator (2027)
All 72 counties, Menominee included with a caveat. Choose one, type the estimated fair market value from your bill, and the tool applies that county's ratio of the median owner bill to the median owner home value, then shows how you compare with neighbors. Figures: Census ACS 2024 five-year survey.
This is a planning number, not the bill your town, village, or city treasurer mails in December. It multiplies your value by the county's median owner bill divided by median owner home value (Census ACS 2024 five-year), so the school levy credit, lottery and gaming credit, and first dollar credit that typical owners receive are already folded in. The Census counts only owners who pay something when it finds the median bill, yet counts every owner for the median value; where many owners owe nothing, as on Menominee trust land, the ratio overshoots. Mill rates differ by municipality and school district inside each county, and special assessments and charges are left out. Your assessor handles value questions; your local or county treasurer handles what is owed.
Why the Assessed Value on Your Bill Is Not Your Market Value
Each town, village, and city assessor values real estate as of January 1, but the law does not demand a match with market value every year. Section 70.05(5)(b) of the statutes requires each municipality to bring every major class of property within 10 percent of full value at least once in every five years. Six straight years out of compliance brings a state-supervised assessment.
The result is a wide spread of local assessment levels. In the Department of Revenue’s 2025 figures, assessed values equal 100 percent of full value in the City of Milwaukee, 97 percent in Madison, 73 percent in Green Bay, and 56 percent in the Town of Minocqua. Because the mill rate is set against assessed value, a low assessment simply means a higher rate, so neither number alone tells you whether your bill is fair. The bill prints both the assessment ratio and an estimated fair market value; divide your assessed value by your honest guess at market value, and if that percentage sits close to the municipal level, your assessment is in line with your neighbors.
So that low assessments in one town do not shift costs onto another, counties, school districts, and technical colleges split their levies by the department’s equalized value, and each municipality turns its share into a net assessed value rate per $1,000.
Four Credits Instead of a Homestead Exemption
Wisconsin has no general homestead exemption and no property tax exemption for veterans. Relief arrives as credits, most of them printed right on the bill:
- School levy tax credit. Applied to every taxable parcel to reduce school taxes; the state paid $1,275,000,017 of it against the 2025 levy.
- Lottery and gaming credit. Only for a primary residence. It equals your school tax rate multiplied by a credit value, which is $27,000 for 2025 to 2026, down from $29,300 the year before. The Department of Revenue estimates the average credit at $190. Missing it? Claim it with the treasurer by January 31.
- First dollar credit. For parcels with buildings on them, divided among installments.
- Income-based credits. The homestead credit, filed with the income tax return, helps owners and renters whose 2025 household income is under $24,680. Eligible veterans and surviving spouses who meet the residency test can claim a refundable credit under section 71.07(6e), run with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Because the Census asks owners what they actually paid, the county ratios in the calculator already reflect the credits typical owners receive.
Where $14.43 Billion Went in the 2025 Levy
Towns, villages, and cities collected $14,427,049,092 in property tax on the 2025 levy, payable in 2026. Elementary and secondary schools took 45.6 percent, municipal governments 26.1 percent, counties 18.2 percent, technical colleges 3.7 percent, and the remaining 6.4 percent went to tax increment districts and special districts such as sanitary, sewerage, and lake districts. The levy rose 5.8 percent while statewide full value climbed 8.3 percent, so the average full value rate on all property dropped from $15.03 to $14.68 per $1,000 before credits, and from $13.62 to $13.38 after the school levy credit.
That department figure covers all taxable property, businesses included, while the Census 1.42 percent compares two medians for owner-occupied homes, so the two should not match.
County Ratios From Vilas to Milwaukee, and the Menominee Exception
The lowest ratios belong to Northwoods lake counties, where expensive seasonal homes spread local budgets across a big tax base: Vilas at 0.73 percent, Sawyer at 0.80, Oneida at 0.89, and Burnett at 0.93. The highest undistorted ratio is Milwaukee at 1.93 percent, followed by Dane, Racine, and Winnebago at 1.63. Twenty-four counties sit above the statewide 1.42, Ashland matches it, and 47 fall below. On a $300,000 home that spread is $2,190 in Vilas against $5,790 in Milwaukee.
Menominee County prints 3.56 percent, which would suggest $10,680 on that same house. Do not read it as a real rate. The county and the Town of Menominee share the boundaries of the Menominee Reservation, and after federal recognition was restored in 1973 most of the land went back into federal trust, where it is not taxable. The Legislative Audit Bureau found that only 1 percent of county land was taxable and 94.4 percent of assessed value sat in the lakes area around Legend Lake. In the ACS survey, 57.8 percent of Menominee owners report paying no real estate tax. The Census median bill counts only those who pay, mostly lake-home owners, while the median value of $110,200 includes everyone. The department’s 2025 net rate for the Town of Menominee is about 1.20 percent, a bit under the statewide 1.34 percent.
Open Book, the Board of Review, and the 48-Hour Rule
If your assessment changes, the municipality must mail a notice at least 15 days before the Board of Review meets, or 30 days in a revaluation year. Start at Open Book, the informal window when the roll is open and the assessor can still correct a value without a hearing. After Open Book closes, only the Board of Review can change it.
The deadlines are short. You must give the board clerk written or oral notice of intent to object at least 48 hours before the board’s first scheduled meeting, and file the signed objection form PA-115A before or during the first two hours of that meeting. You must object to the total value, not just the land or the building. From there, you can seek certiorari review in circuit court within 90 days, appeal to the Department of Revenue within 20 days under section 70.85 with a $100 fee (not available above $1 million or in Milwaukee), or pay the tax and file an excessive assessment claim with the municipality by January 31 under section 74.37.
January 31, July 31, and 1 Percent a Month
The municipal clerk must send bills no later than the third Monday in December. Unless your municipality adopts its own schedule, the full amount or first installment is due January 31 and the second installment July 31. A late first installment, received more than five working days after January 31, makes the entire remaining balance delinquent as of February 1. Interest runs at 1 percent a month back to that date, some counties add a penalty of 1.5 percent a month, and taxes left unpaid long enough can cost you the property.
The 400-Year Veto and the Next Data Refresh
A 2023 partial veto keeps pushing on future bills. By striking digits in the state budget, Governor Tony Evers extended a $325 per pupil annual increase in school revenue limits through the year 2425, and on April 18, 2025, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld it 4 to 3. Districts can raise that added revenue from local property tax. A second change is already built in: 2023 Wisconsin Act 12 exempted personal property beginning January 1, 2024, removing business equipment from the rolls.
These ratios come from ACS surveys taken from 2020 to 2024, so they predate the latest levies. They refresh with the next Census five-year file, normally each December, and the department’s statewide rates with its 2026 levy report.
Sources: county ratios divide Census table B25103 (median real estate taxes paid) by B25077 (median owner home value), American Community Survey 2024 five-year estimates, with B25102 for the share of owners paying no tax; Wisconsin Department of Revenue 2026 Guide for Property Owners, 2025 Town, Village and City Taxes, and Lottery and Gaming Tax Credit report; Legislative Audit Bureau report 98-3. Value questions go to your municipal assessor; payment questions go to your town, village, or city treasurer or the county treasurer.