Does Wisconsin tax capital gains?

Yes. Wisconsin taxes capital gains as ordinary income, but it allows a 30% exclusion on net long-term capital gains from assets held more than one year. Only the remaining 70% is taxed at the state's graduated income-tax rates.

What is Wisconsin's long-term capital gains exclusion?

Wisconsin lets taxpayers exclude 30% of net long-term capital gains from state taxable income (60% for qualifying farm assets). Short-term gains receive no exclusion and are taxed in full as ordinary income.

How are federal long-term gains taxed?

Federal long-term capital gains are taxed at 0%, 15%, or 20% depending on your total taxable income, with the gain stacked on top of your other income. High earners may also owe the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax.

What Wisconsin income-tax rates apply to the taxable gain?

Wisconsin uses graduated brackets of 3.50%, 4.40%, 5.30%, and 7.65% in 2024. The portion of your gain that is not excluded is stacked on top of your other income to find the marginal state rate that applies.

Is this calculator tax advice?

No. It is an estimate using 2024 federal and Wisconsin figures and ignores deductions, credits, the AMT, and loss carryforwards. Confirm your specific situation with a tax professional or the Wisconsin Department of Revenue.

Wisconsin Capital Gains Tax Calculator

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Selling a winning investment in Wisconsin means tax at two levels. Federally you pay the 0/15/20 percent long-term rate (or your ordinary rate on short-term gains), and Wisconsin then taxes the gain as income — but with a generous 30 percent exclusion on long-term gains. This calculator combines both.

How it works

For a long-term gain, Wisconsin excludes 30 percent and taxes the rest:

Wisconsin taxable gain = long-term gain × (1 − 0.30)
Wisconsin tax          = bracket tax on (other income + taxable gain)
                         − bracket tax on (other income)

Federal long-term tax stacks the full gain on your other taxable income across the 0, 15, and 20 percent bands. Short-term gains skip the Wisconsin exclusion entirely and are taxed at your ordinary federal and state rates. If your income plus gain exceeds the NIIT threshold (200,000 dollars single, 250,000 married), an extra 3.8 percent applies to the investment portion.

Example

A single filer with 80,000 dollars of other income realizes a 20,000 dollar long-term gain. Federally the gain falls in the 15 percent band, costing 3,000 dollars. Wisconsin excludes 30 percent (6,000 dollars), leaving 14,000 dollars taxed at the 5.30 percent marginal rate — about 742 dollars. The combined tax is roughly 3,742 dollars, an effective rate near 18.7 percent on the gain.

Notes

The 30 percent exclusion is one of the most valuable state breaks for long-term investors and is a strong reason to hold positions past the one-year mark. Farm-asset long-term gains qualify for a larger 60 percent exclusion, which this tool does not model. Figures use 2024 brackets; verify current numbers at revenue.wi.gov and irs.gov.