Property assessments are now being set. Be sure to check yours and find out how your MFL and other open lands are valued and that they are correctly classified as:
“Agriculture” – taxed at use-value,
“Undeveloped” – taxed at 50% of fair market value,
“Agricultural Forest” – taxed at 50% of fair market value, and
“Productive Forest” – taxed at 100% of fair market value.
Remember, there is no such thing as a “Recreational” classification. In addition MFL is not a classification. The underlying lands are classified based upon their use.
Although we have requested that the Department of Revenue (Department) and Wisconsin counties provide landowners with information on how their land is classified, they have yet to do that. At a recent meeting we were told “Tell them [landowners] to go to ‘Open Book.’” Open Book is a Department web page designed as a way for municipalities to announce the scheduling of their municipality’s assessment roll session, which is also open for examination. You can view the Open Book web page where you will also be able to ask your assessor about how they classified your lands.
Open Book is scheduled based on location. To see when it is scheduled in your area (typically late May to mid-June), go to “Property Owner Lookup.” If a date has not yet been set, enter your email to be notified when it is scheduled. If you go, please tell us about your experience.
Unfortunately, work toward making our property tax bills more transparent is not as a simple and straightforward as we would like… it has turned out to be more a marathon than a sprint. To help you understand how your land is taxed, check out our Landowner Guide.
Thank you for your contributions. Without them we would not be able to be a voice on how our private woodlands are being taxed and regulated.