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Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce Fact Briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

Yes.

Wisconsin’s highest income tax rate is 7.65%. 

For individuals, it applies to all taxable annual income above $323,290.

For married taxpayers filing jointly, the threshold is $431,060.

Lower tax rates apply to taxable income below the two thresholds.

A married couple with taxable income of $450,000 would pay the same tax rate on the portion of their income above $431,060 as a billionaire with $50 million in taxable income would pay on the larger portion of their income above that threshold, said Jason Stein, president of the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum.

The couple and the billionaire would still have different average tax rates because a different share of their taxable income would be taxed at the highest rates, he said. 

Democrats have called for raising the top rate, which ranks 10th highest among the states. Republicans cut the top rate from 7.75% to 7.65% in 2013.

This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

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Tom Kertscher joined Wisconsin Watch as a full-time Milwaukee-based reporter in October 2024 after starting as a freelance Fact Briefs reporter in January 2023. In addition to contributing to Wisconsin Watch’s collaboration with The Gigafact Project to combat online misinformation, he reports on Wisconsin policy, labor, energy and the rapid expansion of data centers across the state. Kertscher is a former longtime reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a contributing writer for Milwaukee Magazine and the author of two sports books, on Al McGuire and Brett Favre.