Wisconsin Homestead Credit: Claim Up to $1,168, Including Back Years
Wisconsin's homestead credit is small, specific and easy to overlook: up to $1,168 for renters and homeowners with household income under $24,680. The good news is the long window. You can still file for 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 right now, and the state's Milwaukee office offers appointments to help you fill out the forms.
AT A GLANCE
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The four claims you can still file
Most tax credits disappear if you don't claim them by April. The homestead credit doesn't. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue (DOR) lists these filing deadlines:
Claim year | Filing deadline |
|---|---|
2025 | April 15, 2030 |
2024 | April 15, 2029 |
2023 | April 15, 2028 |
2022 | April 15, 2027 |
2021 | April 15, 2026 (passed) |
The DOR says claims for 2020 and earlier can no longer be filed. If a deadline falls on a weekend or legal holiday, use the next business day.
If you qualified in any of the open years and never filed, each year is a separate claim with its own form and income limit. The DOR's question-and-answer page says to use the instructions for the year you're filing, since the figures in its answers are for 2025.
If you qualified in 2022 and never filed, you still have until April 15, 2027.
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Do you qualify?
For a 2025 claim, the DOR's fact sheet and common questions list these requirements. You need to meet all of them:
Full-year resident. You were a legal resident of Wisconsin from January 1 through December 31.
Age. You were 18 or older on December 31.
Income. Your household income was less than $24,680.
One of these three: you (or your spouse, if you live together) had earned income during the year, you or your spouse are disabled, or you or your spouse were 62 or older at the end of the year.
A taxable home. You owned or rented a Wisconsin home that's subject to property tax. Mobile homes, manufactured homes and nursing home rooms that are subject to property tax can count.
Not a dependent. No one can claim you as a dependent on their federal return, unless you were 62 or older at year's end.
Things that disqualify you
The DOR lists these situations:
You lived all year in tax-exempt housing. Public housing can still count if the housing authority makes payments in place of property taxes, so ask your rental manager.
You lived in a nursing home and got Title XIX medical assistance when you filed.
You're claiming farmland preservation credit or the veterans and surviving spouses property tax credit for the same year.
You're claiming the retirement income subtraction on line 16 of Schedule SB for 2025 (per the 2025 fact sheet).
You received Wisconsin Works (W-2) payments, or county relief of $400 or more, for every month of the year. If you got them for only some months, your rent or property tax is reduced by one-twelfth for each of those months.
The claim is for someone who has died. The claimant has to be alive when the claim is filed.
Only one claim is allowed per household. A married couple living together counts as one household.
"Earned income" has a specific meaning
The instructions define earned income as wages, salaries, tips and net self-employment earnings. Unemployment doesn't count. If self-employment losses wipe out your wages, you don't meet the earned-income test, though you can still qualify through age or disability.
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How the credit is figured
The credit compares your rent or property tax with your household income. Here's what goes into it:
Household income is all income reportable for Wisconsin tax plus certain nontaxable income listed on the schedule, such as Social Security, minus $500 for each qualifying dependent.
Renters don't use their full rent. The 2025 instructions say to count 20% of rent if heat was included and 25% if heat wasn't included, using the amount on line 8a of your rent certificate.
Homeowners use the net property tax levied for the claim year, from the tax bill.
Then the 2025 tables reduce the amount as income rises, up to the $1,168 maximum. Here's an example of the rent step only: $700 a month with heat included is $8,400 a year, and 20% of that is $1,680. That's the amount that goes into the table.
You don't have to work the tables yourself. The instructions say that if you want the DOR to compute your credit, leave the credit lines blank and the department will tell you the amount.
Rent rules that trip people up
Rental assistance doesn't count as rent you paid. The DOR says payments made by someone else, such as a rental assistance program, can't be claimed as rent. Assistance paid directly to the landlord also isn't counted as household income. Assistance you receive yourself in cash is.
Roommates. If others lived with you (not counting your spouse and minor children) and didn't split costs equally, you complete the Shared Living Expenses Schedule on the rent certificate. If you leave lines blank, the DOR divides the rent by the number of occupants.
You moved. Attach a list of each address and the dates you lived there, plus a rent certificate for each rental. Don't claim more than 12 months.
Mobile home renters. If you rented the home or the lot, use a rent certificate. Any mobile home taxes or permit fees you paid count only as rent.
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The rent certificate
Renters need a rent certificate completed and signed by the landlord for each home they rented during the year. The DOR is strict about it:
Don't change anything on a certificate after the landlord signs it. Altered certificates aren't accepted. If something's wrong, the landlord has to prepare a new one.
Don't sign it yourself. Certificates signed by you or anyone other than the landlord or an authorized representative are rejected.
If the landlord won't sign
Fill in your part. Complete the fields above line 1 and lines 1 through 8b, including the landlord section.
Value any food or services. If the landlord provided food or services, list them and enter your estimated value on line 7. If not, enter 0.
Check the box in the designated area of the certificate.
Attach proof of every payment. Include canceled checks or money order receipts for each month. The DOR says any rent you can't verify won't be allowed.
That's why paying rent by check or money order, and keeping the receipts, matters for this credit.
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Filing: online, on paper or on its own
Your situation | How to file |
|---|---|
Filing with your Wisconsin income tax return | Attach Schedule H or H-EZ to Form 1 (H-EZ can't be used with Form 1NPR) |
You already filed your income tax return | File Schedule H or H-EZ by itself and write "Income Tax Return Separately Filed" at the top of a paper claim |
Filing online on your own | Use the DOR's free WisTax system, if your situation qualifies |
E-filing through software or a preparer | Within 48 hours of your acknowledgment, send the signed rent certificate or tax bill with Form W-RA, unless you attached them electronically |
Filing on paper | Mail to Wisconsin Department of Revenue, PO Box 34, Madison WI 53786-0001 |
Schedule H-EZ or Schedule H?
The shorter H-EZ works if your household's income comes only from sources such as wages, interest, unemployment, pensions, Social Security and SSI, child support, cash public assistance and gambling winnings. It also requires that you didn't marry, divorce or sell your home during the year, that you lived with your spouse all year, and that your home sat on an acre or less with no rental or business use. Everyone else files Schedule H.
WisTax has limits. The instructions say you can't use it if you have more than four rent certificates, divorced during the year, live in a nursing home, or have income that goes on lines outside the basic ones listed. WisTax also files the homestead claim separately from Form 1.
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After you file
Refund status: The instructions ask you to wait at least 12 weeks before contacting the DOR. Automated status lines are (608) 266-8100 (Madison), (414) 227-4907 (Milwaukee) and 1-866-947-7363 toll-free.
A review letter: The DOR reviews many claims, and it says being selected doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong. Send everything the letter asks for by its deadline, keep copies, and allow up to twelve weeks. The DOR says it can't take the information over the phone, but you can bring it to a local office.
A denial or adjustment you disagree with: You must appeal within 60 days of receiving the notice. Explain each item you think is wrong and include your documents. Appeal online through My Tax Account, by fax to (608) 267-0834, or by mail to Wisconsin Department of Revenue, PO Box 8906, Madison, WI 53708-8906. Results generally take eight to twelve weeks.
You made a mistake: File a corrected Schedule H or H-EZ marked as amended, with Schedule AR explaining the change.
The instructions also warn that incorrect refundable-credit claims can bring penalties, including a 25% penalty and a two-year ban on refundable credits in some cases.
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Free help in Milwaukee and statewide
DOR Milwaukee office: 819 N. Sixth St., Room 408 (James Lovell St. entrance), 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For help preparing Schedule H or H-EZ, the instructions say to schedule an appointment by calling (414) 227-3887.
VITA and AARP Tax-Aide: The DOR says VITA serves people with low to moderate incomes, people with disabilities, non-English speakers, military members, seniors and people who qualify for the homestead credit or earned income credit. Find a site at 1-800-906-9887, call AARP at 1-888-227-7669, or dial 211. Many of these sites run only during tax season, so the DOR office may be your best option in the fall.
Questions by email or phone: DORHomesteadCredit@wisconsin.gov or (608) 266-8641.
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Before you call
☐ A signed rent certificate for each place you rented, for each year you're claiming
☐ Canceled checks or money order receipts, if a landlord won't sign
☐ Your property tax bill, or a printout from the county or city treasurer, if you own
☐ Your Wisconsin income tax return for the year, if you filed one
☐ W-2s, 1099-Rs, Social Security statements and any other income records for you and your spouse
☐ Records of any W-2 or county relief payments, and the months you got them
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WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK
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Related help
Official sources
Last checked: October 23, 2026. Income limit, maximum credit and percentages are for 2025 claims; earlier years have their own instructions.
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