Wis. Admin. Code § Tax 11.12 — Farming, including dairy farming, agriculture, horticulture, floriculture, silviculture, and custom farming services

Tax 11.12(1) (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.

Tax 11.12(2) (2) Definitions. In this section and s. 77.54 (3) , (3m) , (30) (a) 3. and 5. , and (33) , Stats.:

Tax 11.12(2)(a) (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.

Tax 11.12(2)(am) (am) “Beekeeping” has the meaning given in s. 77.51 (1bm) , Stats.

Tax 11.12(2)(b) (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.

Tax 11.12(2)(c) (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.

Tax 11.12(2)(d) (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.

Tax 11.12(2)(e) (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) .

Tax 11.12(2)(f) (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.

Tax 11.12(2)(g) (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.

Tax 11.12(2)(h) (h) “Floriculture” means the business of producing flowers, Christmas trees or other decorative trees, plants, or shrubs, including such operations as greenhouses.

Tax 11.12(2)(i) (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.

Tax 11.12(2)(j) (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.

Tax 11.12(2)(k) (k)

Tax 11.12(2)(k)1. 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.

Tax 11.12(2)(k)2. 2. “Logging” as used in subd. 1. includes the following activities which occur while in the field:

Tax 11.12(2)(k)2.a. a. The felling of trees.

Tax 11.12(2)(k)2.b. b. The delimbing of trees.

Tax 11.12(2)(k)2.c. c. The cutting of trees into logs, poles, or other units.

Tax 11.12(2)(k)2.d. d. The transportation of cut timber to a sawmill.

Tax 11.12(2)(k)2.e. 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.

Tax 11.12(3) (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.

Tax 11.12(4) (4) Statutory exemptions.

Tax 11.12(4)(a) (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:

Tax 11.12(4)(a)1. 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.

Tax 11.12(4)(a)2. 2. ‘Exclusively.’ “Used exclusively” means used to the exclusion of all other uses except for other uses not exceeding 5% of total use.

Tax 11.12(4)(a)2g. 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.

Tax 11.12(4)(a)2r. 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.

Tax 11.12(4)(a)3. 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.”

Tax 11.12(4)(a)4. 4. ‘Machines.’

Tax 11.12(4)(a)4.a. a. “Machine” means an assemblage of parts that transmit force, motion and energy from one part to another in a predetermined manner.

Tax 11.12(4)(a)4.b. 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.

Tax 11.12(4)(a)4.c. 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.

Tax 11.12(4)(a)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.

Tax 11.12(4)(a)5. 5. ‘Real property improvements.’

Tax 11.12(4)(a)5.a. 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.

Tax 11.12(4)(a)5.b. 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.

Tax 11.12(4)(a)6. 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.

Tax 11.12(4)(a)7. 7. ‘Other non-exempt sales.’ The exemption does not apply to:

Tax 11.12(4)(a)7.a. 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.

Tax 11.12(4)(a)7.b. b. Building materials used to repair or improve real estate such as cement, drain tile, fencing, light fixtures, lumber, nails, and stanchions.

Tax 11.12(4)(a)8. 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.

Tax 11.12(4)(b) (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: