Personal Property Aid

  1. What is personal property aid?

  2. Who qualifies for personal property aid?

  3. How is personal property aid calculated?

  4. How does the personal property aid payment affect the district's Levy Limit Worksheet?

  5. When do taxation districts receive the personal property aid payment?
  1. What is personal property aid?

    • Beginning in 2018, locally assessed Code 2 personal property (machinery, tools and patterns) is tax exempt
    • Personal property aid is equal to the property tax amount previously levied on locally assessed Code 2 personal property items

  2. Who qualifies for personal property aid?

    • Each active county, municipality, school district, technical college district, special district, and tax incremental financing district (TID) with Code 2 personal property as of January 1, 2017, is eligible to receive an aid payment
    • Exceptions:
      • Dissolved districts (other than TIDs) do not receive a payment
      • Due to a law change, effective for 2022 personal property aid payments and forward, when a TID terminates, the year following the termination, the personal property aid payment is now distributed to all taxing jurisdictions within the TID

  3. How is personal property aid calculated?

    • The Wisconsin Department of Revenue (DOR) calculates the payment based on the January 1, 2017 locally assessed value of Code 2 personal property
    • Under state law (sec. 79.096, Wis. Stats.), personal property aid is equal to the amount of property taxes levied on items of locally assessed Code 2 personal property

  4. How does the personal property aid payment affect the district's Levy Limit Worksheet?

    • The levy limit is the prior year actual levy multiplied by the valuation factor, minus the personal property aid payment for the municipality or county only. It does not include the additional personal property aid paid to a municipality or county for the termination of a tax incremental district.
    • Valuation factor means a percentage equal to the greater of either:
      • Percentage change in the political subdivision's January 1 equalized value due to new construction, less improvements removed between the previous year and the current
      • Zero percent

  5. When do taxation districts receive the personal property aid payment?

    DOR distributes personal property aid on the first Monday in May.​


Questions?

Contact us at lgs@wisconsin.gov.

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