Your Property Tax Bill, Line by Line

The Bill at a Glance

Every Wisconsin municipality uses the same state bill form, so a bill from Sun Prairie or Verona has the same boxes as this one. The Treasurer posts a sample bill with made-up numbers.(County Treasurer)

Every Line Explained

1. Real Estate Property Tax Bill for 2025. The year is the tax year, not the year you pay. Values are as of January 1, 2025; the bill is mailed in December 2025 and paid in 2026.(County Treasurer)
2. Bill number and parcel number. The parcel number is how the treasurer, the assessor and AccessDane find your property. Use it on every payment and letter. The legal description below it is for the tax bill only and may not be your full legal description.(sample bill)
3. Assessed value: land, improvements, total. What your local assessor valued the land and the buildings at, as of January 1. Your tax is figured on the total.(County Treasurer)
4. Ave. Assmt. Ratio. How your town's assessments compare with market value overall. The sample bill shows 0.9858, meaning assessments average 98.58% of market value. In 2025 Dane County ratios ran from 0.59 to 1.11.(County Treasurer)
5. Estimated fair market value. Assessed value divided by the ratio. State law requires it on the bill. If it's far from what your home would sell for, that's a question for your assessor during Open Book, not the treasurer.(bill back)
6. Taxing jurisdiction table. Each body that taxes your property: Dane County, your city, village or town, your school district and the technical college (Madison College for most of the county), sometimes a lake or sanitary district. For each one you see the state aid allocated to it and your net tax for last year and this year, with the % change. This is where you see which one raised your bill.(sample bill)
7. Net Assessed Value Rate. The total rate on assessed value after the state school levy credit, as a decimal: 0.01787 means $17.87 per $1,000 of assessed value. It does not reflect the lottery or first dollar credits. Don't compare it with another town's rate without adjusting for the ratio; our rate study does that for every town.
8. School taxes reduced by school levy tax credit. The state's school levy tax credit is applied automatically to every taxable property and is already taken out of the school line.(sample bill)
9. First Dollar Credit and Lottery & Gaming Credit. Two more state credits. First Dollar is automatic for any parcel with a building and is split evenly across installments.(DOR) Lottery & Gaming is only for your primary residence, and only if someone applied. If that line is blank and you lived there on January 1, claim it.
10. Special assessments and charges. Anything your municipality adds that isn't a property tax, such as a share of a street project or a service charge. These go on top of the net property tax.(County Treasurer) In Madison, see how special assessments work.
11. The star box. A star means unpaid taxes from a prior year.(sample bill)
12. Total due, installments, and who to pay. Pay in full by January 31, or in installments. Outside Madison the first installment goes to your municipal treasurer and the second, due July 31, to the Dane County Treasurer; the bill names both. Madison bills have four installments, all paid to the City Treasurer.(County Treasurer)

Five Things to Check When the Bill Comes

1. The Lottery & Gaming Credit line. If you lived in the home on January 1 and it's blank, apply to your municipal treasurer by January 31. After that you can file a late claim with the state by October 1.(Wisconsin DOR)
2. The % change column. It tells you which taxing body's share rose. A school referendum shows up here and is also listed on the back of the bill.(bill back)
3. Estimated fair market value. If it's far off, note it for Open Book and Board of Review in the spring. By the time the bill arrives, it's too late to appeal that year's assessment.(County Treasurer)
4. The star box, for unpaid prior-year taxes.
5. Who to pay, and when. The first installment and the second usually go to different offices outside Madison.

The Math

The County Treasurer sums it up this way:(County Treasurer)

• Assessed value x mill rate = total taxes
• Total taxes − lottery credit − first dollar credit = net property taxes
• Net property taxes + special assessments and charges = your bill

A mill is $1 per $1,000 of assessed value. Our rate calculator runs this math for any municipality and school district in Dane County, and the Madison estimator does it for Madison's eight districts.

The Back of the Bill

• Failure to pay on time. Each installment must reach the treasurer within 5 working days of its due date, or the whole remaining tax becomes delinquent, with interest from February 1.(bill back) Dane County charges 1.5% a month combined interest and penalty.(County Treasurer)
• Referenda and resolutions. Temporary tax increases approved by referendum or resolution are listed for your information.
• Use value assessment. Farmland is taxed on its use value, with a penalty if the use changes. Undeveloped land and agricultural forest are assessed at 50% of market value.(bill back)
• Other credits and help. The back lists programs run by the state: the homestead credit for lower-income households, the school property tax credit and veterans credit on your income tax return, property tax deferral loans for older homeowners, and energy assistance.(bill back)

Questions

Why is my first installment smaller than the second?

The lottery and gaming credit comes off the first installment, while the first dollar credit is split across installments. On the County's sample bill the first installment is $3,212.90 and the second $3,486.97.

What happens if I miss an installment?

You lose the installment option: the whole remaining balance is due right away, and the County charges 1.5% a month in interest and penalty counted back to February 1. Missing July 31 means 10.5% in August.

Does the postmark count?

Yes. The County judges timely payment by the USPS postmark, which isn't always added the day you mail it. If you pay through your bank's bill pay, schedule it 7 to 10 business days early.

Where do I see my bill online?

AccessDane, the County's parcel site, shows current and past bills for parcels outside Madison, updated when bills go out in December.

Related Guides

• Lottery and Gaming Credit
• Property Tax Rates by Town
• Madison Property Tax
• Madison Special Assessments