Wisconsin Homestead Credit: Up to $1,168 for Renters and Owners Under $24,680

Wisconsin’s Homestead Credit pays back part of the property tax or rent that lower-income households pay [1]. Renters and homeowners can both claim it. For 2025, your household income has to be under $24,680, and the most you can get is $1,168 [1].

Who qualifies for 2025

You may be able to claim the 2025 credit if all of these are true [1]:

• You owned or rented a home in Wisconsin that’s subject to property tax, and lived in it during 2025.
• You were a legal Wisconsin resident for all of 2025.
• You were at least 18 on December 31, 2025.
• Your 2025 household income was less than $24,680.
• You, or your spouse, had earned income in 2025, are disabled, or were 62 or older at the end of 2025.
• No one can claim you as a dependent on their federal return. This rule doesn’t apply if you’re 62 or older.

What can disqualify you

You can’t claim the credit if [1]:

• you lived all year in housing that’s exempt from property tax (some public housing still counts, if the housing authority pays the city in place of taxes; ask your manager),
• 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 Schedule SB,
• you lived in a nursing home and received Medicaid (Title XIX) when you filed,
• you received Wisconsin Works (W-2) payments, or county relief of $400 or more, in all 12 months of 2025.

If you received those benefits for only part of the year, your property taxes and rent are cut by one-twelfth for each month you got them [1].

How the credit is figured

The credit compares your household income to the property taxes or rent you paid [1].

• Household income includes taxable and certain nontaxable income, minus $500 for each qualifying dependent [1].
• Owners use property taxes levied for 2025, whenever paid [1].
• Renters count 25% of the rent paid in 2025 as property tax, or 20% if heat was included in the rent [1][4].
• The property tax or rent counted is capped at $1,460 [3].

Schedule H or H-EZ

You claim the credit on Schedule H or the shorter Schedule H-EZ [1]. You may be able to use H-EZ if all of these apply in 2025 [1]:

• your income came only from wages, interest, dividends, unemployment, pensions and annuities (including Social Security), alimony and child support, cash public assistance, and gambling winnings,
• you didn’t marry or divorce,
• the home was used only as your residence, on one acre or less, and you didn’t sell it,
• if married, your spouse was a Wisconsin resident all year and you lived together in one home.

Everyone else uses Schedule H [1].

How to file

1. Renters: get your rent certificate. You must attach the original rent certificate, signed by your landlord, to Schedule H or H-EZ [2].
2. Owners: have your 2025 property tax bill handy.
3. File in 2026 or later. Don’t file a 2025 schedule before January 1, 2026 [2].
4. File by April 15, 2030. That’s the deadline for most 2025 claims [2].

Questions go to the Department of Revenue at DORHomesteadCredit@wisconsin.gov or (608) 266-2486 [1].