Section 71.63. Definitions.

  In this subchapter, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

(1)  “Department" means the department of revenue.

(1m)  “Deposit" means mail or deliver funds to the department or, if the department prescribes another method of submitting or if the department of administration designates under s. 34.05 another destination, use that other method or submit to that other destination.

(2)  “Employee" means a resident individual who performs or performed services for an employer anywhere or a nonresident individual who performs or performed such services within this state, and includes an officer, employee or elected official of the United States, a state, territory, or any political subdivision thereof, or the District of Columbia, or any agency or instrumentality of any one or more of these entities. The term includes an officer of a corporation, an entertainer and an entertainment corporation, but does not include a direct seller who is not treated as an employee under section 3508 of the Internal Revenue Code or a real estate broker or salesperson who is excluded under s. 452.38 .

(3)  “Employer" means a person, partnership or limited liability company, whether subject to or exempt from taxation under this chapter, for whom an individual performs or performed any service as an employee of that person, partnership or company and includes a person, partnership or company that engages the services of an entertainer or an entertainment corporation, except that:

(a) If the person for whom the individual performs or performed the services does not have control of the payment of the wages for those services, “employer", except for purposes of sub. (6) , means the person having receipt, custody or control of the payment of those wages.

(b) If a resident person, including but not limited to a ticket agency or box office manager, has receipt, custody or control of the proceeds of an event taking place and the proceeds are paid to an entertainer or entertainment corporation or to any nonresident person who has engaged the services of an entertainer or entertainment corporation, “employer" means the resident person, firm or nonresident person having the receipt, custody or control of the proceeds.

(c) In regard to a single-owner entity that is disregarded as a separate entity under section 7701 of the Internal Revenue Code, the entity is the employer for purposes of this subchapter.

(d) With regard to s. 71.65 (6) , “employer" means a person described in s. 108.18 (2) (c) or a person engaged in the painting or drywall finishing of buildings or other structures.

(3m)  “File" means mail or deliver a document that the department prescribes to the department or, if the department prescribes another method of submitting or the department of administration designates under s. 34.05 another destination, use that other method or submit to that other destination.

(3r)  “Furnish" means mail or deliver a document that the department prescribes to the department or, if the department prescribes another method of submitting or another destination, use that other method or submit to that other destination.

(4)  “Income", “person" and all other terms not otherwise defined, have the same meaning as in the internal revenue code.

(5)  “Payroll period" means a period for which a payment of wages is ordinarily made to the employee by his or her employer, and the term “miscellaneous payroll period" means a payroll period other than a daily, weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, monthly, quarterly, semiannual or annual payroll period.

(5m)  “Remit" means mail or deliver funds to the department or, if the department prescribes another method of submitting or if the department of administration designates under s. 34.05 another destination, use that other method or submit to that other destination.

(6)  “Wages" means all remuneration, other than fees paid to a public official, for services performed by an employee for an employer, including cash value of all remuneration paid in any medium other than cash and remuneration paid to an entertainer or entertainment corporation, minus the amount of remuneration not subject to tax under this chapter, but does not include remuneration paid:

(a) For active service as a member of the armed forces of the United States for any month during any part of which such member served in a combat zone during an induction period or was hospitalized as a result of wounds, disease or injury incurred while serving in a combat zone during an induction period, but this paragraph shall not apply for any month during any part of which there are no combatant activities in any combat zone and remuneration, for purposes of this paragraph, shall not include pensions and retirement pay.

(b) For agricultural labor, including all service performed:

1. On a farm, in the employ of any person, in connection with cultivating the soil, or in connection with raising or harvesting any agricultural or horticultural commodity, including the raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training and management of livestock, bees, poultry and fur-bearing animals and wildlife;

2. In the employ of the owner or tenant or other operator of a farm, in connection with the operation, management, conservation, improvement or maintenance of such farm and its tools and equipment, or in salvaging timber or clearing land of brush and other debris left by a hurricane, if the major part of such service is performed on a farm;

3. In connection with the production or harvesting of crude gum, gum spirits of turpentine or gum rosin, in connection with the ginning of cotton, or in connection with the operation or maintenance of ditches, canals, reservoirs or waterways, not owned or operated for profit, used exclusively for supplying and storing water for farm purposes;

4. In the employ of the operator of a farm in handling, planting, drying, packaging, processing, freezing, grading, storing or delivering to storage or to market or to a carrier for transportation to market, in its unmanufactured state, any agricultural or horticultural commodity, but only if such operator produced more than one-half of the commodity with respect to which such service was performed, or in the employ of a group of operators of farms, other than a cooperative organization or an unincorporated cooperative association, in the performance of such services, but only if such operators produced all of the commodity with respect to which such service is performed, but the provisions of this subdivision shall not be deemed to be applicable with respect to service performed in connection with commercial canning or commercial freezing or in connection with any agricultural or horticultural commodity after its delivery to a terminal market for distribution or consumption;

5. On a farm operated for profit if such service is not in the course of the employer's trade or business;

6. In this paragraph, “ farm" includes stock, dairy, poultry, fruit, fur-bearing animals and truck farms, plantations, ranches, nurseries, ranges, greenhouses, or other similar structures used primarily for the raising of agricultural or horticultural commodities, and orchards.

(c) For domestic service in a private home, local college club or local chapter of a college fraternity or sorority.

(d) For service not in the course of the employer's trade or business performed in any calendar quarter by an employee, unless the cash remuneration paid for such service is $50 or more and such service is performed by an individual who is regularly employed by such employer to perform such service. An individual shall be deemed to be regularly employed by an employer during a calendar quarter only if on each of some 24 days during such quarter such individual performs, for such employer, for some portion of the day, service not in the course of the employer's trade or business, or such individual was regularly employed (as defined in this paragraph) by such employer in the performance of such service during the preceding calendar quarter.

(e) For services by a citizen or resident of the United States for a foreign government or an international organization.

(f) For services performed by a duly ordained, commissioned or licensed minister of a church in the exercise of his or her ministry or by a member of a religious order in the exercise of duties required by such order.

(g) For services performed by an individual under the age of 18 in the delivery or distribution of newspapers or shopping news, not including delivery or distribution to any point for subsequent delivery or distribution.

(h) For services performed by an individual in, and at the time of, the sale of newspapers or magazines to ultimate consumers, under an arrangement under which the newspapers or magazines are to be sold by him or her at a fixed price, his or her compensation being based on the retention of the excess of such price over the amount at which newspapers or magazines are charged to him or her, whether or not he or she is guaranteed a minimum amount of compensation for such services, or is entitled to be credited with the unsold newspapers or magazines turned back.

(i) For services not in the course of the employer's trade or business to the extent paid in any medium other than cash.

(j) To, or on behalf of, an employee or his or her beneficiary from a trust created or organized in the United States and forming part of a stock bonus, pension or profit sharing plan of an employer for the exclusive benefit of his or her employees or their beneficiaries and which trust is exempt from taxation, unless such payment is made to an employee of the trust as remuneration for services rendered as such employee and not as a beneficiary of the trust.

(k) For personal services performed in Wisconsin in the form of retirement, pension and profit-sharing benefits, received by nonresidents after retirement from the employ of the employer for whom such personal services were performed.

(L) To, or on behalf of, an employee or beneficiary from a plan or contract described in s. 815.18 (3) (j) under which the benefits are fully funded by life insurance or annuities.

(m) If the remuneration paid by an employer to an employee for services performed during one-half or more of any payroll period of not more than 31 consecutive days constitutes wages, all the remuneration paid by such employer to such employee for such period shall be deemed to be wages; but if the remuneration paid by an employer to an employee for services performed during more than one-half of any such payroll period does not constitute wages, then none of the remuneration paid by such employer to such employee for such period shall be deemed to be wages.

(n) In the form of tips paid to employees if:

1. The tips are paid in a medium other than cash; or

2. The cash tips received by an employee in any calendar month in the course of employment by an employer are less than $20. However, if such cash tips received in a calendar month amount to $20 or more none of such cash tips are excepted from wages under this section.

1987 a. 312 ; 1989 a. 278 ; 1993 a. 112 ; 1997 a. 27 ; 2005 a. 49 , 441 ; 2009 a. 28 , 288 ; 2011 a. 259 ; 2015 a. 216 , 258 . Cross-reference: See also s. Tax 2.90 , Wis. adm. code.