Wisconsin Earned Income Credit

The Wisconsin earned income credit is real money at tax time, calculated as a percentage of your federal Earned Income Tax Credit. The percentage rises with the number of qualifying children: 4 percent with one child, 11 percent with two, and 34 percent with three or more. It stacks on top of the federal credit you already claim.

The credit is refundable, which is the part that matters most. A qualifying claimant gets the full amount even if their Wisconsin income is too low to owe any tax, so it can come back as a refund rather than only wiping out a bill.

There is one hard requirement to know up front: you must have at least one qualifying child, using the federal definition. Unlike the federal credit, Wisconsin offers no earned income credit to workers without children. If you have kids and work, though, this is money worth claiming.

The rest of the checklist tracks the federal rules: you must meet the federal EITC requirements and be a full-year Wisconsin resident. Because the state credit piggybacks on the federal one, you generally compute the federal EITC first, then apply the Wisconsin percentage.

You claim the credit on your Wisconsin income tax return, Form 1 or Form 1NPR. In some cases a Schedule I adjustment to your earned income or federal income can require recomputing the federal credit for Wisconsin purposes, so if your return is unusual, take it slowly or get help.

Free filing help exists through Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, or VITA, sites in tax season; dial 2-1-1 to find the nearest one. And the same working-family income that earns this credit often qualifies the household for FoodShare and BadgerCare Plus, so check those too.