In 2008, the Wisconsin Tax Appeals Commission ruled that the following categories of computerized medical equipment are exempt from property tax:
Ultrasound equipment Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment Radiation oncology and linear accelerator equipment Laser equipment Cardiology equipment Nuclear medicine equipment Digital imaging equipment Diagnostic equipment City of LaCrosse v. Wisconsin Dep't of Revenue and Gundersen Clinic, Ltd. (Gundersen Clinic).1 The Dane County Circuit Court recently affirmed the commission's ruling, and the city is not appealing. Therefore, the commission's ruling is now final.
The Gundersen Clinic case has important implications not only for owners and lessees of computerized medical equipment located in Wisconsin, but also for owners and lessees of other devices that are connected to and operated by computers. Wisconsin taxpayers should take immediate steps to evaluate whether to correct their personal property tax reporting for such equipment.
Statutory Exemption of Computer Equipment
The ruling in Gundersen Clinic is based on Wis. Stat. § 70.11(39), which exempts from property tax "mainframe computers, minicomputers, personal computers, networked personal computers, ... electronic peripheral equipment, tape drives, [and] printers." The exemption does not apply to "equipment with embedded computerized components." The Computer Exemption Guidelines...
