Town of Northfield

The property tax year at a glance

The due dates printed on your own bill control. If your bill says something different from this table, go by the bill and call the Clerk.

2025 tax roll

Where your property tax money actually goes

These are the total amounts apportioned to each taxing jurisdiction on the 2025 tax roll for the Town of Northfield, the bills mailed in December 2025. The Town's own share is the smallest piece of it.

Shares are rounded. The county figure includes $7.94 in state special charges apportioned through the county.

The school and technical college shares, broken out

Northfield is split among four school districts and two technical college districts. Which one you pay depends on where your property sits.

Credits applied to the 2025 bills

State credits come off the bills before anything is collected. On the 2025 roll they came to $196,815.07 across the Town.

Figures are from the 2025 Statement of Taxes, Form PA-632a, filed with the Wisconsin Department of Revenue for co-muni code 27040. A copy is available from the Clerk.

2025 mill rates and assessment ratio

The mill rate, called the net assessed value rate on your bill, is what you pay per $1,000 of assessed value before credits. In Northfield it depends on which school district your property is in.

Assessment ratio: 0.7399

The Town's 2025 average assessment ratio is 0.7399. That means assessed values in Northfield run at about 74% of full market value on average. It is the reason the assessed value on your bill is lower than what you think the property would sell for.

Your bill divides your assessed value by this ratio to show an estimated fair market value. A property assessed at $100,000 shows an estimated fair market value of about $135,153. Taxes are calculated on the assessed value, not on the estimated fair market value.

A ratio well above or below 100% is not by itself a sign that anything is wrong. State law requires a municipality to be within 10% of full value at least once in any five-year period, which is what triggers a revaluation.

2025 Jackson County mill rates, all municipalities (PDF)

How to read your tax bill

The bill is dense, and almost none of it is explained on the page. Here is what the boxes mean, roughly in the order you meet them.

Two plain-language handouts explain the bill and the values behind it in more detail:

• Explanation of your tax bill (PDF)
• Wisconsin's equalized values, explained (PDF)

Credits that reduce your bill

Lottery and gaming credit

This credit reduces the tax on a home you own and use as your primary residence as of January 1 of the year the taxes are levied. You can claim only one primary residence. It cannot be claimed on business property, rental units, land, garages, or any property that is not your primary residence, and a non-Wisconsin resident cannot claim it.

You apply once. After that it is applied to the December bill every year until the property stops qualifying.

• To claim it — file Form LC-100 with the Jackson County Treasurer. If you bought the property, use Form LC-110.
• If the credit is missing from your bill — you may claim it through the Town Treasurer by January 31. After that deadline, file a late claim directly with the Department of Revenue by October 1.
• If you no longer qualify — file Form LC-400 with the County Treasurer within 30 days. Leaving a credit on a property that no longer qualifies creates a problem later.

Lottery and gaming credit forms  ·  Common questions from the Department of Revenue

First dollar credit

This one you do not apply for. It goes automatically to any real estate parcel with at least one improvement on it, which in practice means any parcel with a structure. Vacant land does not get it.

2025 credit amounts for Northfield's school districts

Both credits are set per school district, so the amount on your bill depends on which district your property is in.

2025 first dollar and lottery credits, all Jackson County school districts (PDF)

School levy tax credit

A state credit that lowers the school portion of every bill. Nothing to apply for. It shows on the bill as "school taxes reduced by school levy tax credit."

Other help with property taxes

• Homestead tax credit — an income-based credit for lower and moderate income Wisconsin residents, including renters. Claimed on your income tax return.
• Property tax deferral loan — for qualifying elderly homeowners, administered by WHEDA. The loan becomes a lien and is repaid when the home is sold or transferred.
• Veterans and surviving spouses property tax credit — a refundable credit administered by the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs. Wisconsin does not offer a separate property tax exemption for veterans.

Paying your property taxes

Tax bills are mailed in December. The full payment, or the first installment, goes to the Town Treasurer, Lori Greenwold. Later installments go to the Jackson County Treasurer. The due dates printed on your bill control.

Ways to pay

• In person at the Town Hall during posted tax collection hours. The Treasurer sets those hours each year and they are posted here and at the Town Hall before the collection season opens. If you want to pay in person and no hours are posted yet, call her at (715) 533-4012 and arrange a time.
• By mail to the Town Treasurer:
  Lori Greenwold, Treasurer
  Town of Northfield
  W15666 W Mill Ln.
  Hixton, WI 54635
  Make the check payable as shown on your tax bill. To get a receipt back, enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope with the payment stub.
• Online through the Jackson County public portal at pp-jackson-co-wi-fb.app.landnav.com. Use the guest sign-in option, search for your property by address, add it to your cart, and pay. This portal is run by Jackson County, not by the Town.
• By e-check through the same portal, for a flat $1.50 fee.
• After hours, to the County — there is a drop box in the lobby of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department, 30 North 3rd Street, Black River Falls. Do not leave cash.

When the Town Treasurer collects, and when the County takes over

State law sets the outside edges of the collection period. The hours within it are up to the Treasurer.

So the short version: pay the Town through January 31, and the County after that. Mailing works throughout the Town's window — you do not have to wait for a posted in-person session. Postmark is not the test; the payment has to reach the Treasurer, so do not leave it to the last day.

If you pay late

Miss the first installment by more than five working days after January 31 and the whole remaining balance becomes delinquent as of February 1, and the installment option is lost. Interest runs at 1% per month back to February 1, and the county may add a further penalty. Delinquent taxes are collected by the Jackson County Treasurer, not by the Town.

Property with taxes left unpaid long enough is eventually taken by the county through the tax deed process. There is a redemption period, and the county publishes a notice before any property is conveyed. If you are behind, call the County Treasurer early. It is a far better conversation than the one at the end.

If you did not get a bill

Not receiving a bill does not excuse the tax or the interest. If you bought property and no bill arrives, contact the Town so the records show you as owner. If you get a bill for property you no longer own, contact the Town with the new owner's name and address.

Assessment: how your value is set

The Town's assessor is Eric Kleven, under contract, at (715) 529-1032. The assessor's job is to discover, list, and value every taxable property in the Town. The Department of Revenue, not the local assessor, values manufacturing property.

Wisconsin has an annual assessment, so each year's assessment is a new one. The assessor may change your assessment because of a building permit or sales activity even without inspecting your property. Assessments are set as of January 1. A building that burned down on January 1 is not assessed; one that burned January 2 is, and gets a bill that December.

Normal repairs and maintenance usually do not change an assessment. New construction and remodeling generally do. If an addition was only a foundation on January 1, the value of the foundation is what gets added that year.

How land is classified

Classification affects value, so it is worth understanding what yours is. State law sets eight classes of real property: residential, commercial, manufacturing, agricultural, undeveloped, agricultural forest, productive forest land, and other, which covers farm houses, barns, and sheds along with the land they sit on. Agricultural land is valued on its use rather than its sale price. Undeveloped and agricultural forest land are valued at 50% of market value. You can appeal your classification, not just your value.

Personal property is no longer taxed

Beginning with the January 1, 2024 assessment, 2023 Wisconsin Act 12 exempted personal property from property tax. Buildings, improvements, and fixtures on leased land, exempt land, or managed forest land are still assessed as real property.

Notice of Changed Assessment

If the assessor changes your total assessment, you must be notified in writing, mailed at least 15 days before the Board of Review, or 30 days in a revaluation year. The notice tells you the new amount, when and where the Board of Review meets, and how to object. Not receiving the notice does not by itself invalidate the assessment.

Can the assessor come inside?

An interior view produces a better assessment, but you are not required to allow one. If the assessor requests an interior view, it must be in writing. If you refuse, the assessment is based on the best information otherwise available, and in some circumstances the assessor may seek a special inspection warrant. For an exterior visit, entry must be on a weekday during daylight, must last no more than an hour, and the assessor must not open doors or look into windows. You may deny entry, and the assessor must leave if asked to.

If you disagree with your assessment

There is an order to this, and skipping a step closes off the ones after it.

1. Talk to the assessor

Call Eric Kleven at (715) 529-1032, or come to Open Book, the period before the Board of Review when the completed roll is open for examination and the assessor is available for at least two hours. At Open Book the assessor can still correct the roll directly. Most disagreements end here, and this is the cheapest and fastest place to end them.

What actually moves an assessment is evidence about your property's market value: a recent arm's-length sale of it, recent sales of comparable properties, or a professional appraisal. Comparing your assessment to a neighbour's assessment does not work, because the question is market value, not what someone else was assessed.

2. Object to the Board of Review

If Open Book does not resolve it:

• Give the Clerk, as Board of Review clerk, written or oral notice of intent to object at least 48 hours before the Board's first scheduled meeting. There is no form for the notice.
• File a completed, signed Objection Form for Real Property Assessment (PA-115A) with the Clerk before, or within the first two hours of, the Board's first meeting.
• You must object to the property's total value. On an improved parcel you cannot object to only the land or only the buildings.
• State in writing your own estimate of the land and improvement value, and what you based it on.

The Board operates like a court and can act only on sworn evidence. The assessor's value is presumed correct, so the burden is on you. Deliberations are held in open session and each objection is decided by roll call vote.

Objection Form PA-115A (PDF)  ·  Board of Review questions and answers

3. After the Board of Review

You cannot go to circuit court or to the Department of Revenue unless you first appeared before the Board of Review. From there you may appeal by certiorari to circuit court within 90 days, which reviews only the written record and takes no new evidence, or appeal to the Department of Revenue under sec. 70.85 for the current year, which carries a non-refundable $100 filing fee and is not available for property assessed over $1 million.

Clerical and arithmetic errors are different

An error in the property description, a double assessment, an arithmetic or transposition error, an assessment that included improvements that did not exist on January 1, property that is exempt, or property not located in the Town, is an unlawful tax claim under sec. 74.35, not a Board of Review matter. File a written, signed claim with the Town Clerk stating the circumstances and the amount, generally by January 31 of the year the tax is payable, and the tax must have been timely paid.

Open Book and Board of Review dates →

Buying, selling, or splitting a parcel

This trips people up every December. All parcels are assessed as they stood on January 1. If you sold part of a parcel during the year and kept the rest, that is a split parcel, and the new parcels are not assessed separately until January 1 of the following year.

So a lot bought on January 2 and built on immediately is still assessed for that whole year as the vacant agricultural land it was on January 1. The new parcel and the new building are not looked at until the next year, and values often change noticeably at that point.

To get separate bills in the year of purchase, either the buyer or the seller must ask for the parcels to be divided. The Jackson County Real Property Lister tries to catch splits and sends the purchaser a form. That form has to be signed and returned by October 15, and it is only sent for conveyances recorded before October 1.

If nobody asks, the original owner gets one bill for the whole parcel as it stood on January 1. There is no proration by the county. A split bill covers the full year for that piece of land, so any adjustment between buyer and seller is usually handled as a credit at closing.

Questions about splits, parcel numbers, or legal descriptions go to the Jackson County Real Property Lister.

How dividing property affects your tax bill (PDF)

Managed forest land

Managed Forest Law and Forest Crop Law are state programs run by the Wisconsin DNR. Enrolled land is taxed under those programs at a per-acre rate instead of under the general property tax, and enrollment, withdrawal, and cutting notices all go through the DNR rather than the Town.

On the 2025 tax roll, Northfield had 1,488 acres of managed forest land generating $9,692.85 in managed forest land taxes: 567 acres closed before 2005 at $1.68 per acre, and 921 acres closed after 2004 at $9.49 per acre. There was no private forest crop land on the 2025 roll.

Buildings and improvements on managed forest land are still listed and taxed as real property.

Wisconsin DNR forest tax law programs

Documents and forms

The Statement of Taxes, the assessment roll, and the tax roll are public records kept by the Clerk and open for inspection. See Public records.