Wisconsin sales tax on invoices (2026 guide)

Wisconsin charges a 5% state sales tax. Most counties add a 0.5% county tax, and Milwaukee has its own higher rates: 0.9% for Milwaukee County and a 2% city tax in the city of Milwaukee, for a combined 7.9% there.

Wisconsin doesn't tax most services, but it does tax a defined list. Some are common small-business trades: landscaping and lawn care, photography, and repair work. If your work is on the list, you need a seller's permit and tax on your invoices.

Wisconsin sales tax rates

A few things to know about local tax:

• County and city tax follow the sale. The Department says a registered retailer must collect county and city tax on taxable sales sourced to a county or city that has adopted the tax, wherever the retailer is based.
• Not every county has a county tax. The Department's rate chart lists the counties that do. Racine County started its 0.5% tax on April 1, 2025.
• The city of Milwaukee is the only Wisconsin city with a city sales tax. The rest of Milwaukee County is 5.9%.
• Premier resort area tax applies in a few tourist areas and only to taxable sales by certain sellers: 1.25% in Wisconsin Dells and Lake Delton, and 0.5% in places such as Bayfield, Eagle River, Ephraim, Rhinelander, Sister Bay and Stockholm. Sturgeon Bay and Minocqua started 0.5% on July 1, 2026.

Use the Department's address-based rate lookup to find the rate for a specific location.

Once you know the combined rate, our sales tax calculator works out the tax and the total for you.

Which services are taxable in Wisconsin?

Wisconsin taxes tangible personal property, certain digital goods, and only certain services. The Department lists these taxable services:

• Landscaping and lawn maintenance services
• Photographic services
• Repair and service of tangible personal property
• Fabricating, processing and printing
• Laundry and dry cleaning services
• Parking for motor vehicles and aircraft, and boat docking and storage
• Rooms or lodging for less than one month
• Admissions to amusement, athletic, entertainment or recreational places or events, and access to amusement devices
• Telecommunications and cable TV services
• Towing and hauling of motor vehicles by tow truck
• Contracts for future performance of the taxable services above

Also worth knowing: Wisconsin treats prewritten computer software as tangible personal property, however it's delivered. And if you charge for delivery on a taxable sale, the delivery charge is taxable too (with limited exceptions).

Services that aren't on the list, such as most consulting, design, writing and bookkeeping, aren't subject to Wisconsin sales tax.

Getting a Wisconsin seller's permit

The Department says a seller's permit is required for anyone with a Wisconsin sales location making retail sales of taxable products or services, unless all their sales are exempt. You can register online or on paper with Form BTR-101. Apply at least three weeks before you open, and display the permit at your place of business.

The Department may ask for a security deposit of up to $15,000 before or after issuing a permit.

For remote sellers, Wisconsin's small seller exception now has no transaction count: you only need to collect if your gross sales into Wisconsin exceed $100,000 in the previous or current calendar year. Gross sales include sales for resale and exempt sales.

What a Wisconsin sales tax invoice should show

• your business name and address,
• the customer's name and address,
• a unique invoice number and invoice date,
• each item or service with its price,
• sales tax as a separate line, with the combined rate for the location, and
• the total due.

If a job mixes taxable and non-taxable work (say, lawn mowing plus a consultation), list them separately. In Invoice Native, tick Tax only on the taxable lines and enter your combined rate.

Exemption certificates

Buyers claiming an exemption, including businesses buying to resell, give you one of these:

• Form S-211, Wisconsin Sales and Use Tax Exemption Certificate,
• Form S-211E, the electronic version, or
• Form S-211-SST, the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Exemption Certificate (Wisconsin version).

You're relieved of collecting the tax if you get a fully completed certificate within 90 days after the sale. Keep copies of every certificate. The protection doesn't apply if you fraudulently fail to collect tax or encourage a customer to claim an exemption they aren't entitled to. See how to invoice a tax-exempt customer.

A worked example

Say you run a lawn care business in Madison (Dane County, which has the 0.5% county tax), so the combined rate is 5.5%. A month of lawn maintenance for a client costs $600.

Landscaping and lawn maintenance is a taxable service, so the tax is $600 × 5.5% = $33.00, and the invoice total is $633.00. The same job for a customer in the city of Milwaukee would be taxed at 7.9%: $600 × 7.9% = $47.40.

Selling to customers in other states

If you ship goods or deliver taxable services to customers in another state, that state's rules may apply instead of Wisconsin's. Since the Supreme Court's 2018 decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, states can require out-of-state sellers to register and collect their sales tax once sales into the state pass a threshold the state sets. If you sell across state lines regularly, check the thresholds and registration rules of each state you sell into, and use that state's rate on those invoices.

Common mistakes on Wisconsin invoices

• Forgetting that lawn care, photography and repairs are taxable.
• Using 5% everywhere instead of adding the county tax (and Milwaukee's city tax).
• Assuming every county has a county tax. Check the rate chart.
• Not taxing delivery charges on taxable sales.
• Accepting an exemption claim without an S-211 within 90 days.

Quick checklist for Wisconsin invoices

• ✅ Seller's permit before your first taxable sale
• ✅ Checked whether your services are on Wisconsin's taxable list
• ✅ State rate plus county, city and resort area tax where they apply
• ✅ Taxable and non-taxable lines separated
• ✅ S-211 exemption certificates on file