70.13 Where personal property assessed.

(1) All personal property shall be assessed in the assessment district where the same is located or customarily kept except as otherwise specifically provided. Personal property in transit within the state on the first day of January shall be assessed in the district in which the same is intended to be kept or located, and personal property having no fixed location shall be assessed in the district where the owner or the person in charge or possession thereof resides, except as provided in sub. (5).

(2) Saw logs or timber in transit, which are to be sawed or manufactured in any mill in this state, shall be deemed located and shall be assessed in the district in which such mill is located. Saw logs or timber shall be deemed in transit when the same are being transported either by water or rail, but when such logs or timber are banked, decked, piled or otherwise temporarily stored for transportation in any district, they shall be deemed located, and shall be assessed in such district.

(3) On or before the tenth day of January in each year the owner of logs or timber in transit shall furnish the assessor of the district in which the mill at which the logs or timber will be sawed or manufactured is located a verified statement of the amount, character and value of all the logs and timber in transit on the first day of January preceding, and the owner of the logs or timber shall furnish to the assessor of the district in which the logs and timber were located on the first day of January preceding, a like verified statement of the amount, character and value thereof. Any assessment made in accordance with the owner's statement shall be valid and binding on the owner notwithstanding any subsequent change as to the place where the same may be sawed or manufactured. If the owner of the logs or timber shall fail or refuse to furnish the statement herein provided for, or shall intentionally make a false statement, that owner shall be subject to the penalties prescribed by s. 70.36.

(5) As between school districts, the location of personal property for taxation shall be determined by the same rules as between assessment districts; provided, that whenever the owner or occupant shall reside upon any contiguous tracts or parcels of land which shall lie in 2 or more assessment districts, then the farm implements, livestock, and farm products of the owner or occupant used, kept, or being upon the contiguous tracts or parcels of land, shall be assessed in the assessment district where that personal property is customarily kept.

(6) No change of location or sale of any personal property after the first day of January in any year shall affect the assessment made in such year.

(7) Saw logs or timber removed from public lands during the year next preceding the first day of January or having been removed from such lands and in transit therefrom on the first day of January, shall be deemed located and assessed in the assessment district wherein such public lands are located and shall be assessed in no other assessment district. Saw logs or timber shall be deemed in transit when the same are being transported. On or before January 10 in each year the owner of such logs or timber shall furnish the assessor of the assessment district wherein they are assessable a verified statement of the amount, character and value of all such logs and timber. If the owner of any such logs or timber shall fail or refuse to furnish such statement or shall intentionally make a false statement, he or she is subject to the penalties prescribed by s. 70.36. This subsection shall supersede any provision of law in conflict therewith. The term “owner" as used in this subsection is deemed to mean the person owning the logs or timber at the time of severing. “Public lands" as used in this subsection shall mean lands owned by the United States of America, the state of Wisconsin or any political subdivision of this state.

History: 1977 c. 29 s. 1646 (3); 1977 c. 273; 1991 a. 316; 1993 a. 213; 1995 a. 225.

The situs for taxation assessment purposes of a movable bituminous plant was not in the town where the plant was physically present during most of the tax year because the property was neither “located" in the town nor “customarily kept" there. Wm. J. Kennedy & Son, Inc. v. Town of Albany, 66 Wis. 2d 447, 225 N.W.2d 624 (1975).