How to Appeal Your Property Tax in Wisconsin: Step-by-Step Guide
Wisconsin assessment appeals go to your city, village or town Board of Review. Under Wis. Stat. § 70.47(7)(a), you tell the board’s clerk you intend to object at least 48 hours before its first scheduled meeting, then file the written objection within that meeting’s first two hours. Manufacturing property assessed by the Department of Revenue under § 70.995 follows a separate route through DOR’s State Board of Assessors.
There is no statewide calendar date. Each municipality picks its first Board of Review meeting inside a 45-day window that opens on the fourth Monday of April, and it may not meet sooner than seven days after the last Open Book day (§ 70.47(1)). Milwaukee, the state’s only first-class city, and second-class cities that route objections through a Board of Assessors, such as Madison, run a different clock, covered below. The rules quoted here are from the statutes as published September 4, 2026. The only 2024–2026 acts that touched § 70.47 (2023 Wis. Act 138 and 2025 Wis. Act 17) reworded hearing details about witnesses and medical letters. Neither changed a deadline.
Wisconsin deadlines, from Open Book to circuit court
| Step | Who receives it | Deadline rule | Statute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Book (informal talk with the assessor) | Municipal assessor | The days named in the clerk’s notice, posted or published at least 15 days before the roll opens | § 70.45 |
| Notice of intent to object | Board of Review clerk | Written or oral, at least 48 hours before the board’s first scheduled meeting | § 70.47(7)(a) |
| Written objection (Form PA-115A) | Board of Review clerk | Before the first meeting or during its first 2 hours | § 70.47(7)(a), (3)(a)3. |
| Milwaukee objection | Commissioner of Assessments | On or before the third Monday in May | § 70.47(16)(a) |
| Milwaukee: move on to the Board of Review | Commissioner of Assessments | Written request within 15 days after the Board of Assessors’ notice is issued | § 70.07(6) |
| Second-class city with a Board of Assessors (e.g. Madison): objection | City assessor / Board of Assessors | The date the city sets; Madison’s 2026 deadline was 4:30 PM on May 15 | § 70.075 |
| Certiorari appeal | Circuit court | Within 90 days after you receive the board’s notice of decision | § 70.47(13) |
| Complaint to the Department of Revenue | DOR | Within 20 days after receiving the board’s determination, or 30 days after the date on the clerk’s affidavit if there is no return receipt | § 70.85(2) |
| Claim on excessive assessment | Municipal clerk | Served by January 31 of the year the tax is payable; the tax, or each authorized installment, must be paid on time | § 74.37(2)(b)5. |
| Suit after the claim is disallowed | Circuit court | Within 90 days after the disallowance notice arrives by certified or registered mail | § 74.37(3)(d) |
Finding your own Board of Review date
Two documents carry it. If the assessor changed your value, a Notice of Changed Assessment must be mailed at least 15 days before the board meets, or 30 days in a revaluation year, and it has to state the time, date and place of the meeting (§ 70.365). In Milwaukee and in second-class cities with a Board of Assessors, this notice names the Board of Assessors meeting instead. The clerk also has to publish a class 1 notice of the first meeting at least 15 days ahead, 30 in a revaluation year (§ 70.47(2)). If your value did not change, the statute requires no mailed notice, so the published notice and the clerk’s office are your sources.
If the roll isn’t finished in time, the board convenes and adjourns (§ 70.47(3)(aL)). The Department of Revenue’s 2026 Guide for Property Owners (PB-060) says the 48-hour notice then runs to “the first scheduled meeting after the roll is complete.”
Open Book with your assessor
During Open Book the roll is open for inspection, the assessor must be there for at least 2 hours, and the assessor may “make changes that are necessary to perfect the assessment roll” (§ 70.45). DOR’s guide tells owners who can’t otherwise meet the assessor to attend (“highly recommended”) and warns that once Open Book ends, any change to your value “requires formal process in front of the Board of Review or circuit court.” Ask for your property record card and check the square footage, basement finish, bathroom count and lot size against reality.
Filing the objection under § 70.47(7)
DOR’s guide says “There is no specific form for your notice,” and the statute accepts “written or oral notice.” Keep proof of when you gave it. The objection itself goes on DOR Form PA-115A, Objection to Real Property Assessment. The board may require DOR-approved forms, and the annotation to § 70.47 citing Bitters v. Town of Newbold, 51 Wis. 2d 493 (1971), says a board “may deny a taxpayer a hearing if the taxpayer’s objections are not stated on an approved form.”
- Object to the total. If you own land and a building, you “may not object only to the valuation of that land or only to the valuation of improvements” (§ 70.47(7)(a)).
- At the hearing, give the board your written estimate of land and improvement value and name the information behind it (§ 70.47(7)(ae)).
- The 48-hour notice has a second required part. Under § 70.47(7)(ad), you can’t appear, testify by phone or contest the assessment unless, at least 48 hours before the board’s first meeting (or before a late objection the board allowed is heard), you tell the clerk whether you will ask to remove a board member, which one, and roughly how long your hearing will take. You may remove one member for any reason, except in first- and second-class cities (§ 70.47(6m)(a)1.).
- Don’t refuse the assessor an outside look. Section 70.47(7)(aa) bars you from appearing or contesting the assessment if you refused the assessor’s reasonable written request, sent by certified mail, to enter the property for an exterior view. DOR’s 2026 guide adds a caveat: the Wisconsin Supreme Court “expressed due process concerns regarding a similarly worded statute” in Milewski v. Town of Dover, 2017 WI 79, and DOR recommends that boards hear owners “even if the property owner denied an interior or exterior view.”
- Rental or other income property: if the valuation uses the income method, give the assessor the income and expense data requested no later than 7 days before the first meeting, or you can’t be heard (§ 70.47(7)(af)).
Missed the 48 hours? The board must waive it if you appear before the board during the first 2 hours of its first scheduled meeting, show good cause and file a written objection (§ 70.47(3)(a)4., (7)(a)). With proof of extraordinary circumstances, the board may waive the notice and the written-objection deadline if you appear and file a written objection by the end of the fifth day of the session, or by the end of the final day of the session if the session is less than 5 days (§ 70.47(7)(a), (3)(ak)).
What the board weighs
Testimony is sworn: the board hears “upon oath all persons who appear before it” (§ 70.47(8)). Filing the form doesn’t finish the job. Section 70.47(7)(a) lets you question the value later only if you presented evidence to the board in good faith and “made full disclosure before said board, under oath of all of that person’s property liable to assessment in such district and the value thereof.” The board “shall presume that the assessor’s valuation is correct,” and you rebut that “by a sufficient showing” that it is wrong (§ 70.47(8)(i)). It decides by roll-call vote, and a tie sustains the assessment (§ 70.47(8)(g), (9)(a)). DOR’s guide ranks the evidence: a recent purchase price “is usually the best evidence of market value,” and sales of comparable property are “the next best evidence.” It also tells owners not to argue that taxes are too high, because the board hears only value. If you can’t attend, Form PA-814 asks the board to take your testimony by phone or as a sworn written statement. The board decides whether to allow it (§ 70.47(8)).
Milwaukee and cities with a Board of Assessors
In Milwaukee, objections are filed with the Commissioner of Assessments “on or before the 3rd Monday in May,” and the board may not waive the writing requirement (§ 70.47(16)(a)). The city’s Assessor’s Office puts the cutoff at 4:45 PM that day. It takes filings through its Milwaukee Real Property Appeals web application, by mail or in person at City Hall, Room 507, and it states that it “does not accept any objection forms via email.” The office also says its Board of Assessors reviews every appeal first. Within 15 days from the date the Board of Assessors’ notice of determination is issued, you must ask the Commissioner of Assessments in writing to testify before the Board of Review, or you are deemed to have accepted it (§ 70.07(6)). If your Milwaukee assessment and ownership are unchanged from last year, and last year’s objection ended with the value sustained, a repeat objection carries a fee of up to $10 (§ 70.47(16)(b)).
Second-class cities may route objections through a Board of Assessors by ordinance (§ 70.075), and there the objection goes to the city’s Board of Assessors first, by a deadline the city sets. Madison works this way. For 2026 its Assessor’s Office required the objection to be filed with the Board of Assessors by 4:30 PM on Friday, May 15, 2026, and said that anyone who missed that date “will need to request a waiver from the Board of Review.” DOR’s guide says the 15-day notice asking to move on to the Board of Review then goes to the city assessor. The same guide says most Wisconsin cities do not have a Board of Assessors and tells owners who are not sure to call the city assessor or clerk.
After the Board of Review decides
Before adjourning, the board must send its decision by personal delivery or by mail with return receipt, and the notice has to explain your appeal rights (§ 70.47(12)). From there you choose one route:
- Certiorari in circuit court, within 90 days after you receive that notice (§ 70.47(13)). The court reviews the board’s record and takes no new evidence. That limit comes from case law, noted under § 70.47 (Bitters v. Town of Newbold, 1971: review “is limited to the action of the board”), and from DOR’s guide, which says you “cannot submit new evidence.”
- A § 70.85 complaint to DOR, for property the board valued at $1,000,000 or less, with a $100 filing fee (§ 70.85(1), (3)). DOR may revalue only if the assessment is not within 10 percent of the district’s general level (§ 70.85(4)(b)1.). DOR’s 2026 guide says this route is not available for Milwaukee property, but § 70.85 itself has no first-class-city exception and the City of Milwaukee’s appeals FAQ points to § 70.85 as an option. A Milwaukee owner considering it should confirm with DOR before the 20-day window closes.
- A claim on excessive assessment, served on the municipal clerk by January 31 of the year the tax is payable (§ 74.37(2)(b)5.). The claim is barred unless the tax, or any authorized installment of it, is paid on time (§ 74.37(4)(b)). The municipality has 90 days to act. If it disallows the claim, you have 90 days after its certified or registered notice to sue (§ 74.37(3)).
The routes don’t stack. No § 74.37 claim may be brought or maintained if the same year’s assessment is contested under § 70.47(13) or § 70.85 (§ 74.37(4)(c)). Separately, if the board waives your hearing under § 70.47(8m), that waiver disallows your excessive-assessment claim, and you get 60 days from the waiver notice to sue under § 74.37(3)(d).
Related pages
- Wisconsin property tax system explained: mill rates, credits and payment schedule
- Property tax calculator
- Moving to Milwaukee in 2026
- Neighbor states: Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois
Frequently asked questions
I only found out after the Board of Review met. Is this year lost?
Not always. Section 70.47(7)(a) bars anyone from questioning a valuation “in any action or proceedings” without a written objection filed with the board. If the board is still in session, it may hear a late objection with proof of extraordinary circumstances up to the end of the fifth day of the session, or its final day if the session is shorter (§ 70.47(3)(ak)). The statute has two exceptions for the excessive-assessment claim. First, the claim is still open if the assessor owed you a changed-assessment notice under § 70.365 and didn’t send it (§ 74.37(4)(a)). Second, a taxpayer who shows the clerk never published the board’s meeting notice may file a § 74.37 claim (§ 70.47(2)). Either way the claim still has to be served by January 31 and the tax paid on time. Courts have also excused a new objection when the value is unchanged and last year’s properly filed objection is still unresolved at the board’s first meeting (Walgreen Co. v. City of Oshkosh, 2014 WI App 54).
Can the Board of Review raise my value instead of lowering it?
Yes. If the board finds an assessment “too high or too low, the board shall raise or lower the assessment accordingly” (§ 70.47(9)(a)).
Do I pay the tax bill while my objection is pending?
Yes. When the board hasn’t finished, or a court or § 74.37 appeal is pending, taxes are due on the normal chapter 74 schedule and become delinquent if unpaid (§ 70.47(14)). An excessive-assessment claim also requires the tax, or an authorized installment, to be paid on time (§ 74.37(4)(b)).
My value jumped in a revaluation year. What changes?
The notice periods. The mailed notice and the board’s published notice move from 15 to 30 days before the meeting (§§ 70.365, 70.47(2)). Section 70.47(7)(a)’s 48-hour notice and two-hour objection window carry no revaluation-year variant.