Wisconsin Administrative Code
Department of Revenue
Chapter Tax 11 - Sales And Use Tax
Subchapter III - Exemptions
Section Tax 11.12 - Farming, including dairy farming, agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, silviculture, and custom farming services

Universal Citation: WI Admin Code ยง Tax 11.12

Current through August 26, 2024

(1) STATUTES. Section 77.54(3) and (3m), Stats., provides exemptions for certain sales of tangible personal property, or items or property under s. 77.52(1) (b) or (c), Stats., to persons who are engaged in farming as a business enterprise, including dairy farming, agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, silviculture, beekeeping, and custom farming services.

(2) DEFINITIONS. In this section and s. 77.54(3), (3m), (30) (a) 3 and 5., and (33), Stats.:

(a) "Animal bedding" used in farming means disposable loose materials, including straw, shavings, sawdust, leaves, sand, and shredded paper, used where an animal may lie, to promote cleanliness and absorb urine or liquid manure. It does not include nonabsorbent items, including rubber floor mats.

(am) "Beekeeping" has the meaning given in s. 77.51(1bm), Stats.

(b) "Custom farming services" means the performance of an activity, defined as farming in this section, for a farmer for a fee. The fee may include a cash payment, a share of the harvest or other valuable consideration. "Custom farming services" also includes services performed by a veterinarian to animals that are farm livestock or farm work stock used exclusively in the business of farming.

(c) "Dairy farming" means the business of feeding and raising cattle and other milk producing animals, but does not include operations such as pasteurizing, homogenizing, or making butter, cheese, or ice cream.

(d) "Farm livestock drugs" means any substance or preparation used in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in farm livestock. This includes antibiotics, dewormers, mastitis treatments, medicated shampoos and vaccines in the form of boluses, capsules, feed additives, fluids, pills, powders, ointments, and salves. This also includes disinfectants, flea powder and flea sprays, mastitis indicators, teat dips, udder wash, and vitamins. "Farm livestock drug" does not include drugs for work stock, horses used in racing, pleasure riding, or show, or small domestic animals, including dogs and cats. It also does not include laboratory equipment used by a veterinarian, non-medicated shampoos, non-medicated pet foods, and non-medicated bandages, or plaster of paris that is used to set an animal's broken bone.

(e) "Farm work stock" means animals, such as draft horses and mules, which are used exclusively in farming. The phrase includes horses used exclusively in farming to check on or herd livestock. The phrase does not include dogs, horses used for racing, pleasure riding or show or laboratory animals. The food for animals which are not farm work stock is taxable unless the animals are livestock as defined in par. (j).

Example: Dog and cat food is taxable.

(f) "Farming" means the business of producing food products or other useful crops by tilling and cultivating the soil or by raising cattle, sheep, llamas, poultry, domesticated rabbits, or other animals which produce a food product or which are themselves a food product. In addition, consistent with chs. 29 and 94, Stats., "farming" includes raising earthworms, pheasants, foxes, fitch, nutria, marten, fisher, mink, chinchilla, rabbit, caracul, and bees; producing honey products by a beekeeper; commercial raising of fish for food; commercial breeding and raising of horses and llamas for sale; and raising ginseng, mushrooms, and sod. "Farming" does not include home gardening and other similar noncommercial activities; breeding or raising dogs, cats, other pets or animals intended for use in laboratories; operating sporting or recreational facilities, such as riding stables or shooting preserves; operating stockyards, slaughterhouses, or feed lots as described in par. (g); pulpwood and sawmill operations; milling and grinding grain; and preparing sausage, canned goods, jellies, juices, or syrup.

Example: Dog and cat food is taxable.

(g) "Feed lot" means a restricted area containing pens or lots where livestock are held and fed. A person who holds livestock in a feed lot for less than 30 days is not engaged in farming. Feed purchased for livestock held in a feed lot for less than 30 days is taxable. However, a person who holds livestock in a feed lot for 30 days or more is engaged in farming and the feed purchased for the livestock is exempt. If a person holds some livestock for less than 30 days and some livestock for 30 days or more and purchases feed for both types at the same time, an allocation of the feed costs may be made so that tax is paid on the feed consumed by livestock held for less than 30 days and is not paid on feed consumed by livestock held for 30 days or more.

(h) "Floriculture" means the business of producing flowers, Christmas trees or other decorative trees, plants, or shrubs, including such operations as greenhouses.

(i) "Horticulture" means the business of producing vegetables, vegetable plants, fruits, and nursery stock, including the operation of commercial nurseries and orchards but not businesses which hold stock for purposes other than propagation or growth. "Horticulture" does not include the business of servicing plants owned by others; the raising of trees as timber; or lumber or sawmill operations.

(j) "Livestock" and "poultry" include animals, the products of which are normally used as food for human consumption, and domestically raised fur bearing animals or animals which are a source of wool, such as llamas, including those purchased for breeding.

(k)
1. "Silviculture" means the business of raising trees for timber, lumber, or other wood products. Silviculture includes the logging of timber when it is performed by a person engaged in the business of silviculture and the logging is conducted with respect to that person's silviculture activity. Silviculture does not include pulp or sawmill operations.

2. "Logging" as used in subd. 1. includes the following activities which occur while in the field:
a. The felling of trees.

b. The delimbing of trees.

c. The cutting of trees into logs, poles, or other units.

d. The transportation of cut timber to a sawmill.

e. Activities conducted in the forest incidental to the felling, cutting, and removal of trees from the forest such as the clearing of the forest to allow access to and removal of the timber from the forest land.

(3) OBTAINING EXEMPTION CERTIFICATES. A retailer shall have a signed exemption certificate for every exempt sale made to a farmer, except that if the exemption certificate is received electronically, a signature is not required. Every invoice to which the certificate refers must contain the seller's name, the farmer's name and address, the date of sale and a brief description of the product sold.

(4) STATUTORY EXEMPTIONS.

(a) Section 77.54(3) (a), Stats., exempts the sales price from the sales of and the storage, use, or other consumption of tractors and machines, including accessories, attachments, and parts, lubricants, nonpowered equipment, and other tangible personal property or items or property under s. 77.52(1) (b) or (c), Stats., that are used exclusively and directly, or are consumed or lose their identities, in the business of farming, including dairy farming, agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, silviculture, beekeeping, and custom farming services, but excluding automobiles, trucks, and other motor vehicles for highway use; excluding personal property that is attached to, fastened to, connected to or built into real property or that becomes an addition to, component of or capital improvement of real property and excluding tangible personal property or items or property under s. 77.52(1) (b) or (c), Stats., used or consumed in the erection of buildings or in the alteration, repair, or improvement of real property, regardless of any contribution that that personal property, or item or property under s. 77.52(1) (b) or (c), Stats., makes to the production process in that building or real property and regardless of the extent to which that personal property, or item or property under s. 77.52(1) (b) or (c), Stats., functions as a machine, except as provided in subd. 4. d. For purposes of this section:
1. `Directly.' Items used "directly" in farming include a plow, a combine, and a milking machine. Items of "indirect" use include repair tools, computers used for tracking prices or inventories or for word processing, and lawn and garden tractors used for mowing lawns and tilling home gardens.

2. `Exclusively.' "Used exclusively" means used to the exclusion of all other uses except for other uses not exceeding 5% of total use.

2g. `Consumed.' Property is "consumed" in farming when it is used 100% in farming. Items consumed in farming include repair tools used to repair farm machinery or farm equipment, insect control strips, computers used indirectly but solely in the business of farming, test kits to test milk for contaminants, and lubricants used in farm tractors and machines.

2r. `Lose their identities.' Property "loses its identity in farming" when it is used 100% in farming. Property losing its identity in farming includes disinfectants and sanitizers such as iodine and chlorine, water softener salt, and detergents.

3. `Accessories, attachments, and parts.' Included within the exemption are accessories, attachments, and parts for tractors and machines used exclusively and directly, or which are consumed or lose their identities in the business of farming. "Accessories" and "attachments" include devices designed to be mounted on a machine, such as a slow moving vehicle sign attached to a tractor or pipes attached to an irrigation pump, or devices to be pushed or pulled by a machine such as a farm wagon or a plow. A machine "part" means a durable unit of definite, fixed dimensions and includes tractor tires, oil filters, and fuel pumps. Canvas covers and paint for exempt machines are exempt. "Parts" does not include fluids such as antifreeze, hydraulic fluids, or diesel fuel anti-gel additives. These are "other tangible personal property" rather than "parts."

4. `Machines.'
a. "Machine" means an assemblage of parts that transmit force, motion and energy from one part to another in a predetermined manner.

b. "Machines which qualify for exemption" include, if not realty improvements, all-terrain vehicles or trucks not licensed for highway use, balers, chain saws for orchard or logging use but not for use in cutting firewood for personal use or for use in pulpwood or sawmill operations, choppers, corn pickers, crop conditioners, crop thinners, cultivators, discs, drags, end loaders, electric clippers and hoof trimmers, electric dehorners, electric fence chargers not fencing or insulators, electric foggers, fork lifts, harrows, harvesting combines, hay wagons, manure spreaders, mowers, planters, plows, powered posthole diggers, pumps and associated piping for irrigation, rock pickers, rotary hoes, space heaters not for residential use, sprayers, stalk shredders, and windrowers.

c. "Machines which do not qualify for exemption" include tangible personal property and items and property under s. 77.52(1) (b) and (c), Stats., that are attached to, fastened to, connected to or built into real property or that become an addition to, component of or capital improvement of real property. Also, tangible personal property, and items and property under s. 77.52(1) (b) and (c), Stats., used or consumed in the erection of buildings or in the alteration, repair or improvement of real property, regardless of any contribution that the personal property, or item or property under s. 77.52(1) (b) or (c), Stats., makes to the production process in that building or real property and regardless of the extent to which that personal property, or item or property under s. 77.52(1) (b) or (c), Stats., functions as a machine does not qualify for exemption. However, there is an exception for those items specifically mentioned in subd. 4. d.

d. The following items retain their character as tangible personal property and qualify for exemption, regardless of the extent to which they are fastened to, connected to or built into real property: auxiliary power generators, bale loaders, barn cleaners and elevators, conveyors, feed elevators and augers, grain dryers and grinders, irrigation implements, milk coolers, milking machines, including piping, pipeline washers and compressors, top and bottom silo unloaders, and powered feeders, excluding platforms and troughs constructed from ordinary building materials.

5. `Real property improvements.'
a. "Building" means any structure that is intended to be a permanent accession to real property; that is designed or used for sheltering people, animals, or plants, for storing property, or for working, office, parking, sales, or display space, regardless of any contribution that the structure makes to the production process in it; that in physical appearance is annexed to the real property; that is covered by a roof or encloses space; that is not readily moved or disassembled; and that is commonly known to be a building because of its appearance and because of the materials of which it is constructed.

b. Certain machines in addition to those in subd. 4. qualify for the exemption if purchased by farmers directly from retailers, even though after the sale they are affixed to realty by the farmer, or someone hired by the farmer. Machines included are automated livestock feeder bunks, but not ordinary building materials; automatic stock waterers powered by electricity or water pressure and built into a permanent plumbing system; automatic water softeners, such as for milkhouses; barn fans and blowers and other ventilating units; unit heaters and other heating units; water heaters serving production areas; and water pumps serving production areas.

6. `Motor vehicles and their accessories, attachments, and parts.' Specifically excluded from the exemption are "motor vehicles for highway use," which includes motor trucks, automobiles, station wagons, buses and motorcycles. The exclusion from the exemption also applies to accessories, attachments, and parts for motor vehicles for highway use. "For highway use" means registered or required to be registered for that use. Charges for labor for the repair of vehicles registered for highway use, such as nurse tanks and trailers, are taxable. Sales of parts for vehicles registered for highway use which are used exclusively and directly in farming or are consumed in farming, such as nurse tanks and trailers, are taxable.

Note: Nurse tanks may qualify for the exemption provided in s. 77.54(5) (d), Stats., as mobile units used for mixing and processing if they have pumps to blend and mix the product.

7. `Other non-exempt sales.' The exemption does not apply to:
a. Tools used in construction of or making repairs to real estate, such as block and tackle sets, chain hoists, cutters, electric drills, hammers, powered or nonpowered hand tools, planers, sharpeners, sanders, saws and wheelbarrows.

b. Building materials used to repair or improve real estate such as cement, drain tile, fencing, light fixtures, lumber, nails, and stanchions.

8. `Sales and use tax.' A person who buys without tax by claiming the farming exemption owes the sales tax at the time the person uses the property or item purchased in a taxable manner or for a taxable purpose. Property, items, or goods purchased without tax by claiming they will be used exclusively and directly in the business of farming, become subject to the tax when use of the property, items, or goods for nonexempt purposes exceeds 5% of total use. Property, items, or goods purchased without tax by claiming they will be consumed or lose their identity in the business of farming, become subject to the tax when the property, items, or goods are used for a purpose other than for an exempt use in the business of farming.

(b) Section 77.54(3m), Stats., exempts: "The sales price from the sale of and the storage, use or other consumption of the following items if they are used exclusively by the purchaser or user in the business of farming; including dairy farming, agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, silviculture, beekeeping, and custom farming services:
(a) Seeds for planting.

(b) Plants.

(c) Feed.

(d) Fertilizer.

(e) Soil conditioners.

(f) Animal bedding.

(g) Sprays, pesticides and fungicides.

(h) Breeding and other livestock.

(hm) Bees, beehives, and bee combs.

(i) Poultry.

(j) Farm work stock.

(k) Baling twine and baling wire.

(l) Containers for fruits, vegetables, grain, hay, silage and animal wastes.

(m) Plastic bags, plastic sleeves and plastic sheeting used to store or cover hay or silage." "Exclusively" as used in s. 77.54(3m), Stats., and in this section means that the items mentioned in s. 77.54(3m), Stats., are used solely in farming to the exclusion of all other uses, except that the sales and use tax exemption for those items will not be invalidated by an infrequent and sporadic use other than in farming. For purposes of this section:
1. `Seeds for planting.' "Seeds for planting" includes seeds for alfalfa, blue grass, canning peas, clover, field corn, field peas, rye grass, sweet corn, timothy and vegetables; plant parts capable of propagation; and bulbs. "Seeds for planting" does not include sod.

2. `Plants.' "Plants" include herbs, shrubs or young trees, slips, seedlings, or saplings planted or ready to plant.

3. `Feed.'
a. "Feed" includes processed vegetable and animal products and essential minerals required for the normal nutritional needs of livestock, poultry and domestic fur-bearing animals and other materials which are required for the normal nutritional needs of animals in some domestic environments, such as vitamins A, B-complex, D and E. Essential minerals include phosphorous, calcium, sodium, chlorine, iodine, iron, copper, sulfur, potassium, magnesium and zinc. Common feed additives containing these substances include cod liver oil, salt in granular or block form, ground limestone, fish oil, fish meal, oyster shells and bone meal.

b. "Feed" includes medicated feed or drug carriers purchased for use as an ingredient of medicated feed, the primary purpose of which is the prevention of diseases in livestock or poultry. "Feed" does not include a mixture labeled and sold for specific treatment or cure of a disease. Feed for farm livestock, poultry and work stock is exempt but feed for pets, such as dogs and cats, is taxable.

4. `Fertilizers and soil conditioners.'
a. "Fertilizer" means any substance containing nitrogen, phosphoric acid, potash or any recognized plant food element or compound which is used primarily for its plant food content to improve the soil's agricultural qualities. "Fertilizer" and "soil conditioners" include fertilizer and insecticide combinations, agricultural minerals, carbon dioxide for application to land, urea, sewage sludge, liquid spray mixtures of minerals and plant nutrients, lime, compost, manure, peat moss and soy bean straw.

b. "Fertilizer" and "soil conditioners" do not include fill dirt, top soil, wood chips, wood shavings, litter and hormone growth stimulants.

Note: The difference between fertilizers and hormone growth stimulants is that fertilizers nourish plants whereas hormone growth stimulants act upon the cellular structure.

5. `Sprays, pesticides and fungicides.' "Sprays," "pesticides" and "fungicides" include disinfectant sprays, fly sprays and preparations used to destroy insects, mites, nematodes, slugs, or other invertebrate animals injurious to plants and animals; chemicals used for crop disease, pest and weed control, including insecticides, rodenticides, and pesticides used to sanitize and clean dairy equipment. Products used to sanitize dairy equipment are exempt, if they are registered with the U.S. environmental protection agency, or "EPA," as pesticides, advertised and sold as pesticides, and each bottle, can, or other container containing the pesticide has an EPA pesticide registration number on it.

6. `Containers for fruits, vegetables, bee products, grain, hay, silage and animal wastes and plastic bags, plastic sleeves and plastic sheeting used to store or cover hay or silage.'
a. "Containers for fruits, vegetables, bee products, grain, hay, silage and animal wastes and plastic bags, plastic sleeves and plastic sheeting used to store or cover hay or silage" includes any kind of personal property which is purchased exclusively for holding or storing fruit, vegetables, bee products, grains, hay, silage or animal wastes. The phrase includes feeders and feed carts if used to hold hay, silage or feed which contains grain.

b. A complete corn crib or grain bin may be purchased "knocked-down" in kit form and still qualify for this exemption. However, a person who contracts with a farmer to provide and install the bin permanently into real estate is a consumer of the bin, not its seller. The contractor, dealer or installer, not being a farmer, may not furnish an exemption certificate claiming a farming exemption on the bin's purchase. Being the consumer, not a seller, the contractor shall pay the sales tax to the supplier or report the use tax or sales tax pursuant to s. Tax 11.14(2) (c) on the purchase price directly to the department. A farmer who utilizes the exemption certificate on the purchase of a grain bin or corn crib normally built on a slab or otherwise affixed to real estate may purchase the crib or bin separately and do any necessary installation work.

c. Farmers or contractors may purchase animal waste containers or the component parts of animal waste containers without tax, by issuing their supplier a properly completed "single purchase" exemption certificate.

d. Silos are not included in the exemption. The purchaser of materials used in building a silo shall pay the sales tax to the purchaser's supplier. A silo unloader may be purchased by a farmer as an exempt machine.

7. `Semen.' Semen used for artificial insemination of livestock is exempt under s. 77.54(27), Stats.

(c) Section 77.54(30) (a)3, Stats., exempts the sales price from the sale of electricity sold for use in farming, including but not limited to agriculture, dairy farming, floriculture, silviculture, beekeeping, and horticulture. Section 77.54(30) (a)5, Stats., exempts the sales price from the sale of fuel sold for use in farming, including but not limited to agriculture, dairy farming, floriculture, silviculture, beekeeping, and horticulture.
1. Electricity and fuel sold for use in farming includes electricity and fuel sold for use in performing custom farming services.

2. Fuel includes oxygen used to enrich a fuel mixture, or oxygen and acetylene used in a welding process.

(d) Section 77.54(33), Stats., exempts the sales price from sales of and the storage, use or other consumption of drugs used on farm livestock, not including workstock, or on bees.

(5) SERVICES FURNISHED TO FARMERS.

(a) Sales tax imposed under s. 77.52(2) (a)10., Stats., does not apply to the repair, service, alteration, fitting, cleaning, painting, coating, towing, inspection, or maintenance of tangible personal property and items, property, and goods under s. 77.52(1) (b), (c), and (d), Stats., if the farmer may purchase the property, item, or good without tax under s. 77.54(3), (3m), (27), (30) (a) 3 and 5., (33), and (50), Stats.

Examples:

1) Charges to a farmer for labor to replace a water pump on a motor vehicle registered for highway use are taxable. However, charges to a farmer for labor to replace a water pump on a tractor used exclusively and directly in farming are not taxable.

2) A farmer may claim an exemption when having draft horses or horses used exclusively in farming for breeding or to check on or herd livestock shod, but not when having horses ridden for pleasure shod.

(b) Fees for breeding farm livestock or farm work stock, charges for artificial insemination of farm livestock or farm work stock, and medical and hospitalization services furnished by veterinarians are not taxable.

(c) The exemptions under s. 77.54(3), Stats., do not apply to farmers' purchases of other services which are taxable under s. 77.52(2) (a), Stats., including telephone, laundry, dry cleaning, photographic services, and breeding or artificial insemination of animals other than farm livestock or farm work stock.

(6) SERVICES PROVIDED BY FARMERS.

(a) Nontaxable services. The following services performed by farmers are not subject to the sales tax:
1. `Custom work.' The performance of custom farm services, such as plowing a field, planting seeds, harvesting grain, or logging timber.

2. `Training animals.' The training of horses, dogs, or other animals.

(b) Services to tangible personal property.Charges for the repair, service, alteration, fitting, cleaning, painting, coating, towing, inspection, or maintenance of tangible personal property or items, property or goods under s. 77.52(1) (b), (c), or (d), Stats., are taxable, unless at the time such services are performed, a sale in Wisconsin of the type of property, item or good so serviced would have been exempt from Wisconsin sales tax. Taxable services to tangible personal property and items, property, and goods under s. 77.52(1) (b), (c), or (d), Stats., include:
1. `Boarding animals.' The boarding of dogs, cats, horses used for racing, pleasure riding or show, or other recreational animals. The entire boarding charge is taxable, but the retailer may purchase the feed for the animals without tax by supplying a properly completed exemption certificate claiming an exemption for resale.

2. `Grooming animals.' The grooming of recreational animals.

Example: Charges by a farmer for labor to replace a radiator on a motor vehicle registered for highway use are taxable. However, charges by a farmer for labor to replace a radiator on a tractor used exclusively and directly in the business of farming are not taxable.

(7) TAXABLE SALES. Sales of tangible personal property and items, property, and goods under s. 77.52(1) (b), (c), and (d), Stats., by farmers which are taxable include:

(a) Horses for use in racing, pleasure riding, or show.

(b) Llamas for use as pack animals, pets, or to herd sheep.

(c) Flowers, Christmas trees and other decorative trees, plants, or shrubs.

(d) Timber or gravel when the purchaser acquires this property for removal, unless the purchaser pays royalties to lease land.

Note: Section Tax 11.12 interprets ss. 77.51(1bm) and (2d), 77.52(1) and (2) (a) 10., and 77.54 (3), (3m), (27), (30), and (33), Stats.

The interpretations in s. Tax 11.12 are effective under the general sales and use tax law on and after September 1, 1969, except: (a) Semen became exempt effective July 22, 1971, pursuant to Chapter 64, Laws of 1971; (b) Baling wire and twine became exempt effective December 24, 1975, pursuant to Chapter 146, Laws of 1975; (c) The exemption for electricity for residential use and use in farming and for fuel oil, propane, coal, steam or wood for residential use became effective July 1, 1979, pursuant to Chapter 1, Laws of 1979; (d) The definition of "feed lot" became effective December 1, 1981; (e) Farm livestock medicine, milk house supplies and animal bedding became exempt effective July 1, 1986, pursuant to 1985 Wis. Act 29; (f) The definition of "exclusively used" became effective October 1, 1989, pursuant to 1989 Wis. Act 31; (g) The farm machinery exemption was revised effective October 1, 1989, pursuant to 1989 Wis. Act 31; (h) The exemption for farm fuel for items other than machines became effective October 1, 1991, pursuant to 1991 Wis. Act 39; (i) The exemption for electricity sold for use in farming was expanded to include sales of electricity during the entire year, effective for sales on or after May 1, 2000, pursuant to 1999 Wis. Act 9; (j) The expansion of the exemption for tangible personal property consumed in farming and the addition of "silviculture" to the definition of farming became effective July 1, 2007, pursuant to 2005 Wis. Act 366; (k) The change of the term "gross receipts" to "sales price" and the separate impositions of tax on coins and stamps sold above face value under s. 77.52(1) (b), Stats., certain leased property affixed to real property under s. 77.52(1) (c), Stats., and digital goods under s. 77.52(1) (d), Stats., became effective October 1, 2009, pursuant to 2009 Wis. Act 2; (L) The clarification that "custom farming services" includes services performed by veterinarians to farm livestock or work stock used exclusively in the business of farming became effective July 2, 2013, pursuant to 2013 Wis. Act 20; and (m) The addition of "beekeeping" to the definition of farming and various farming exemptions became effective December 1, 2017, pursuant to 2017 Wis. Act 59.

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