71.55 General provisions.

(1) Application of credit against any liability. The amount of any claim otherwise payable under this subchapter may be applied by the department of revenue against any amount certified to the department under s. 71.93 or 71.935 or may be credited under s. 71.80 (3) or (3m).

(2) Fee charge by lessor not permitted. No lessor may charge a fee for supplying a claimant with the information necessary for the claimant to comply with sub. (7).

(3) Forms to be provided by department. In administering this subchapter, the department of revenue shall make available suitable forms with instructions for claimants, including a form that may be included with, or as a part of, the individual income tax form. In preparing homestead credit forms, the department of revenue shall provide a space for identification of the county and city, village or town in which the claimant resides.

(4) Interest not allowed. No interest may be allowed on any payment made to a claimant under this subchapter.

(5) Legislation may be proposed by department. At the end of each fiscal year, the department of revenue shall review the homestead tax credit program and may propose legislation to adjust the amounts of claims allowable under the program, taking into account findings that social security benefits and the cost of living, as reflected in the index computed by the U.S. bureau of labor statistics, have increased or decreased.

(6) Penalties. Unless specifically provided in this subchapter, the penalties under subch. XIII apply for failure to comply with this subchapter unless the context requires otherwise.

(6m) Administration. The income tax provisions in this chapter relating to assessments, refunds, appeals and collection apply to the credit under this subchapter.

(7) Records may be required by department to determine correct credit. To ascertain the correctness of any claim under this subchapter or to determine the amount of the credit under this subchapter of any person, the department may examine, or cause to be examined by any agent or representative designated by the department, any books, papers, records or memoranda bearing on the homestead credit of the person, may require the production of the books, papers, records or memoranda, and require the attendance, of any person having relevant knowledge, and may take testimony and require proof material for its information. Based on the information it discovers, the department shall determine the true amount of homestead credit during the year or years under investigation.

(8) Rental not at arm's length. In any case in which a homestead is rented by a person from another person under circumstances deemed by the department of revenue to be not at arm's length, it may, with the aid of its property tax bureau, determine rent constituting property taxes accrued as at arm's length, and, for purposes of this subchapter, such determination shall be final.

(9) Table shall be published. The secretary of revenue shall prepare a table under which claims under this subchapter shall be determined. The table shall be published in the department's instructional booklets.

(10) Farmers. Notwithstanding the provision in s. 71.52 (6) that requires the addition of certain disqualified losses to income, such an addition may not be made by a claimant who is a farmer whose primary income is from farming and whose farming generates less than $250,000 in gross receipts from the operation of farm premises in the year to which the claim relates.

History: 1987 a. 312; 1989 a. 31, 294; 1991 a. 39, 232; 1993 a. 205; 1995 a. 27; 2001 a. 107; 2003 a. 33; 2017 a. 59.