Overview
School boards must approve levy amounts on or before November 1 each year. The PI-401 Tax Levy Report will open in WiSFiP for district entry on or about October 15, 2025. The due date is November 3, 2025.
Each year, per Wis. Stats. 120.12 (3)(a), prior to November 1, each school board must vote a levy necessary to operate and maintain the schools of the school district. In addition, on or before November 10, the district clerk must deliver to the clerk of each municipality a statement showing the proportion of tax to be collected from the property in the school district lying within that municipality (s.120.17(8)(a) Wis. Stats).
The PI-401 Tax Levy Report is used by DPI to determine district compliance with the revenue limit statute Wis Stat §121.92. The Tax Levy Report, located in the Wisconsin School Finance Portal (WiSFiP), collects school district tax levy and is entered by fund. Once data is entered, the report automatically apportions the total levy across municipalities, creates individual municipal tax certification pages, and reports information to both the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and the Department of Revenue (DOR). The module generates the PI-1508 Tax Levy Certification forms for municipal clerks and includes the portion of the levy attributed to non-recurring operating and debt referenda approved after December 31, 2014.
Instructions
Prior to completing the Tax Levy Report, districts are encouraged to review the data in the Referenda module located in WiSFiP. Data from the Referenda module will populate into the PI-401 and PI-1508. Please note that data entered into the Debt Schedule module is separate from the Tax Levy Report and Referenda modules and does not automatically pull into the Tax Levy Report and the Referenda modules. Reminder: District’s must keep their debt schedules up-to-date and review at least annually.
Accessing the PI-401 Tax Levy Report
The annual PI-401 Tax Levy Report and the PI1508 Tax Levy Certification are available in the Wisconsin School Finance Portal (WiSFiP). Login into WiSFiP to complete the required report.
The district can begin entering data into this application after their revenue limit computation has been updated with third Friday FTE student enrollment, October 1 Tax Apportionment values, and General Aid Certification amounts have been received, thus completing all the information required to ensure the district levies within their revenue limit. Additionally, the school board must have officially voted on levy amounts for that year.
Work Across the Tabs
Home
The School Finance Team provides general information and announcements in the Home tab.
Contact Data
Complete the Contact Data with information of whom is completing the Tax Levy Report.
Tax Levy Data
Review the district’s data thoroughly prior to inputting the data by fund (see below). The total levy amount entered should match the board approved levies placed on the district’s Revenue Limit Worksheet for:
- Fund 10 General Fund Operations, (Line 14A)
- Fund 38 Non-Referendum Debt (Line 14B)
- Fund 41 Capital Expansion Fund (Line 14C)
- Fund 39 Referendum Approved Debt (Line 15A)
- Fund 80 Community Service Fund (Line 15B)
- Fund 10 Property Chargebacks (Line 15C)
Be sure to click the submit button at the bottom of the table.
Levies by Referendum
Per §74.09(3)(db) a school board is required to separately report any tax levies that exceed its annual revenue limit as a result of a successful referendum. For any approved non-permanent referenda or debt issuance that were passed after December 31, 2014, State law requires such to be listed separately on the tax levy certification form. The property tax bill must also include the year in which the non-permanent referendum to exceed the revenue limit no longer applies.
If a District has active non-recurring referenda and/or any debt issuance, data should populate into the Levies by Referendum tab. To ensure that the appropriate referenda data is populating for levy certification forms:
Verify that all passed referenda are populating into the Tax Levy Report by confirming there are annual amounts associated with each referenda in the Referenda module and confirm that an annual referenda amount for the upcoming tax year is associated with all applicable referenda in the Referenda module.
For example, if a district has a three-year nonrecurring referendum starting in 2026, ensure that data is entered for the tax year of 2026, 2027, and 2028. When completing tax levy certifications for the school year 2025-2026, WiSFiP reads the data for the 2026 tax year and pulls it into page 2 of the Tax Levy Certification and the Levies by Referendum tab. Similarly, any debt issuance will be read the same way.
If non-permanent referenda and debt is not pulling through, log into to the Referenda module that is located on the Welcome page of WiSFiP. Click on “Manage Referenda.” Select each active referendum that were approved after December 31, 2014 by clicking on the small arrow to the left of the RF-ID for each referendum. Then click on +Add new record to add the upcoming year. The Manage Referenda page can also be accessed through a link on the Levies by Referenda page in the Tax Levy Report.
After completing this step and saving the entry, the data will roll into the Levies by Referendum as well as the Tax Levy Certification, page 2.
Confirm the referenda expiration date is correct for each active entry and reflects the final year of the additional levy as stated on the referendum question.
If districts have current active referenda that were passed prior to December 31, 2014, it should not be included in the referenda section of the Tax Levy Certification. The Tax Levy Module is programed to not include these referenda.
Reasonability Check
WiSFiP offers an opportunity to view the data entered in the Reasonability Check tab of the Tax Levy Report which is automatically populated and compares the current year levy with the prior two years. If the information in the report is reasonable or can be explained, move on in the process of certifying the district’s levy. If the data draws your attention to a possible issue, review the data for a potential resolution.
Submission
After entering the necessary information in the previous tabs, the Tax Levy Report is ready to be filed in the Submission tab. Review the answers in the report prior to certifying. If any changes are made to the report after submitting, be sure to re-certify your Tax Levy Report and generate the updated Tax Levy Certifications.
The report populates contact information for the district administrator, school board clerk, and municipal clerk. Refer to the SFS web page to update the contact information populated on the Tax Levy Report.
Forms
The Forms tab of the Tax Levy Report displays the certification information. It is in this tab that districts can download and save and/or print the PI-1508 Tax Levy Certification. The school district's clerk and a notary public must sign each PI-1508 form. Once signed, the district must send a completed certification to the respective municipalities and maintain a copy for district records. A detailed PI-401 certification page can also be found in this tab to print for the district’s records.
Help
For more information, review the Help tab.
Admin
If you are assigned an administrator role, you will have additional viewing options available.
Additional Resources
Additional levy resources are posted on the DPI Website and data is updated as it becomes available.
- Budget and Adoption Process lists a typical seven-step process for developing and planning a district budget and describes the process leading up to Tax Levy Report. Step 6 of this process focuses on Preparing the PI-401 Tax Levy Report and the PI-1508 Tax Levy Certification.
- Wisconsin School District Taxes and Levy Rates provides historical data of district eqaulized levy/mill rates and tax levy rates starting in the 2005-06 school year.
- Longitudinal Data including PI-1508 Tax Certificates, Tax Levy Report, Multi-Year History of Levies by Fund, and Tax Apportionment Values, Levies, and Rates.
For questions about this information, contact dpifin@dpi.wi.gov 608-267-9114