Wisconsin Taxation

Online Resources
None at this time

Why Use Tax Records
By studying several consecutive years of tax records you may determine when a young men came of age, when individuals moved in and out of a home, or when they died leaving heirs. Authorities determined wealth (real estate, or income) to be taxed. Taxes can be for polls, real and personal estate, or schools.

Tax record content varies and may include the name and residence of the taxpayer, description of the real estate, name of original purchaser, description of personal property, number of males over 21, number of school children, slaves, and farm animals. Tax records usually are arranged by date and locality and are not normally indexed. Tax records can be used in place of missing land and census records to locate a person’s residence.

County Level
There are county tax rolls, some dating as early as the 1820s. The county treasurer may have these records, or they may have been transferred to the area research center for the region (see the list of area research centers in Wisconsin Archives and Libraries).
 * Brown County has an extent tax roll for 1824.

State Level
The earliest tax records in Wisconsin appear to be for real estate. Many of these records have been transferred to the appropriate Area Research Centers. There are 14 Research Centers in Wisconsin The following link shows where they are and what counties are in what area Area Research Center Network



Tax Laws
Abraham Lincoln instituted the income tax in 1862, and on July 1, 1862, Congress passed the Internal Revenue Act, creating the Bureau of Internal Revenue (later renamed to the Internal Revenue Service). This act was intended to “provide Internal Revenue to support the Government and to pay interest on the Public Debt.” Instituted in the height of the Civil War, the “Public Debt” at the time primarily consisted of war expenses. For the Southern States that were part of the Confederate side of the Civil War, once Union troops took over parts of the Southern States, income tax were instituted on them.


 * To learn more about this Collection click here


 * To learn more about the Civil War taxes click here