AB2-ASA1,18,10 70.27 (1) Who may order. Whenever any area of platted or unplatted land or land and the buildings, improvements, and fixtures on that land is owned by 2 or more persons in severalty, and when in the judgment of the governing body having jurisdiction, the description of one or more of the different parcels thereof cannot be made sufficiently certain and accurate for the purposes of assessment, taxation, or tax title procedures without noting the correct metes and bounds of the same, or when such gross errors exist in lot measurements or locations that difficulty is encountered in locating new structures, public utilities, or streets, such governing body may cause a plat to be made for such purposes. Such plat shall be called “assessor's plat," and shall plainly define the boundary of each parcel, building, improvement, and fixture, and each street, alley, lane, or roadway, or dedication to public or special use, as such is evidenced by the records of the register of deeds or a court of record. Such plats in cities may be ordered by the city council, in villages by the village board, in towns by the town board, or the county board. A plat or part of a plat included in an assessor's plat shall be deemed vacated to the extent it is included in or altered by an assessor's plat. The actual and necessary costs and expenses of making assessors' plats shall be paid out of the treasury of the city, village, town, or county whose governing body ordered the plat, and all or any part of such cost may be charged to the land, without inclusion of improvements, so platted in the proportion that the last assessed valuation of each parcel bears to the last assessed total valuation of all lands property included in the assessor's plat, and collected as a special assessment on such land property, as provided by s. 66.0703.

AB2-ASA1,46 Section 46 . 70.27 (3) (a) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB2-ASA1,19,2 70.27 (3) (a) Reference to any land, or land and the buildings, improvements, and fixtures on that land as it the reference appears on a recorded assessor's plat is deemed sufficient for purposes of assessment and taxation. Conveyance may be made by reference to such plat and shall be as effective to pass title to the land so described as it would be if the same premises had been described by metes and bounds. Such plat or record thereof shall be received in evidence in all courts and places as correctly describing the several parcels of land or land and the buildings, improvements, and fixtures on that land therein designated. After an assessor's plat has been made and recorded with the register of deeds as provided by this section, all conveyances of lands or land and the buildings, improvements, and fixtures on that land included in such assessor's plat shall be by reference to such plat. Any instrument dated and acknowledged after September 1, 1955, purporting to convey, mortgage, or otherwise give notice of an interest in land or land and the buildings, improvements, and fixtures on that land that is within or part of an assessor's plat shall describe the affected land by the name of the assessor's plat, lot, block, or outlot.

AB2-ASA1,47 Section 47 . 70.27 (4) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB2-ASA1,19,16 70.27 (4) Amendments. Amendments or corrections to an assessor's plat may be made at any time by the governing body by recording with the register of deeds a plat of the area affected by such amendment or correction, made and authenticated as provided by this section. It shall not be necessary to refer to any amendment of the plat, but all assessments or instruments wherein any parcel of land is or land and the buildings, improvements, and fixtures on that land are described as being in an assessor's plat, shall be construed to mean the assessor's plat of lands or land and the buildings, improvements, and fixtures on that land with its amendments or corrections as it stood on the date of making such assessment or instrument, or such plats may be identified by number. This subsection does not prohibit the division of lands or land and the buildings, improvements, and fixtures on that land that are included in an assessor's plat by subdivision plat, as provided in s. 236.03, or by certified survey map, as provided in s. 236.34.

AB2-ASA1,48 Section 48 . 70.27 (5) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB2-ASA1,20,22 70.27 (5) Surveys, reconciliations. The surveyor making the plat shall be a professional land surveyor licensed under ch. 443 and shall survey and lay out the boundaries of each parcel, building, improvement, fixture, street, alley, lane, roadway, or dedication to public or private use, according to the records of the register of deeds, and whatever evidence that may be available to show the intent of the buyer and seller, in the chronological order of their conveyance or dedication, and set temporary monuments to show the results of such survey which shall be made permanent upon recording of the plat as provided for in this section. The map shall be at a scale of not more than 100 feet per inch, unless waived in writing by the department of administration under s. 236.20 (2) (L). The owners of record of lands or the land and the buildings, improvements, and fixtures on that land in the plat shall be notified by certified letter mailed to their last-known addresses, in order that they shall have opportunity to examine the map, view the temporary monuments, and make known any disagreement with the boundaries as shown by the temporary monuments. It is the duty of the professional land surveyor making the plat to reconcile any discrepancies that may be revealed so that the plat as certified to the governing body is in conformity with the records of the register of deeds as nearly as is practicable. When boundary lines between adjacent parcels, as evidenced on the ground, are mutually agreed to in writing by the owners of record, those lines shall be the true boundaries for all purposes thereafter, even though they may vary from the metes and bounds descriptions previously of record. Such written agreements shall be recorded in the office of the register of deeds. On every assessor's plat, as certified to the governing body, shall appear the document number of the record and, if given on the record, the volume and page where the record is recorded for the record that contains the metes and bounds description of each parcel, as recorded in the office of the register of deeds, which shall be identified with the number by which such parcel is designated on the plat, except that a lot that has been conveyed or otherwise acquired but upon which no deed is recorded in the office of register of deeds may be shown on an assessor's plat and when so shown shall contain a full metes and bounds description.

AB2-ASA1,49 Section 49 . 70.27 (7) (b) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB2-ASA1,21,4 70.27 (7) (b) A clear and concise description of the land or the land and the buildings, improvements, and fixtures on that land so surveyed and mapped, by government lot, quarter quarter-section, township, range and county, or if located in a city or village or platted area, then according to the plat; otherwise by metes and bounds beginning with some corner marked and established in the United States land survey.

AB2-ASA1,50 Section 50 . 70.29 of the statutes is amended to read:

AB2-ASA1,21,14 70.29 Personalty, how entered. The For assessments made before January 1, 2024, the assessor shall place in one distinct and continuous part of the assessment roll all the names of persons assessed for personal property, with a statement of such property in each village in the assessor's assessment district, and foot up the valuation thereof separately; otherwise the assessor shall arrange all names of persons assessed for personal property on the roll alphabetically so far as convenient. The assessor shall also place upon the assessment roll, in a separate column and opposite the name of each person assessed for personal property, the number of the school district in which such personal property is subject to taxation.

AB2-ASA1,51 Section 51 . 70.30 (intro.) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB2-ASA1,21,21 70.30 Aggregate values. (intro.) Every For assessments made before January 1, 2024, every assessor shall ascertain and set down in separate columns prepared for that purpose on the assessment roll and opposite to the names of all persons assessed for personal property the number and value of the following named items of personal property assessed to such person, which shall constitute the assessed valuation of the several items of property therein described, to wit:

AB2-ASA1,52 Section 52 . 70.34 of the statutes is amended to read:

AB2-ASA1,22,9 70.34 Personalty. All For assessments made before January 1, 2024, all articles of personal property shall, as far as practicable, be valued by the assessor upon actual view at their true cash value; and after arriving at the total valuation of all articles of personal property which the assessor shall be able to discover as belonging to any person, if the assessor has reason to believe that such person has other personal property or any other thing of value liable to taxation, the assessor shall add to such aggregate valuation of personal property an amount which, in the assessor's judgment, will render such aggregate valuation a just and equitable valuation of all the personal property liable to taxation belonging to such person. In carrying out the duties imposed on the assessor by this section, the assessor shall act in the manner specified in the Wisconsin property assessment manual provided under s. 73.03 (2a).

AB2-ASA1,53 Section 53 . 70.345 of the statutes is amended to read:

AB2-ASA1,22,18 70.345 Legislative intent; department of revenue to supply information. The For assessments made before January 1, 2024, the assessor shall exercise particular care so that personal property as a class on the assessment rolls bears the same relation to statutory value as real property as a class. To assist the assessor in determining the true relationship between real estate and personal property the department of revenue shall make available to local assessors information including figures indicating the relationship between personal property and real property on the last assessment rolls.

AB2-ASA1,54 Section 54 . 70.35 (1) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB2-ASA1,23,4 70.35 (1) To For assessments made before January 1, 2024, to determine the amount and value of any personal property for which any person, firm, or corporation should be assessed, any assessor may examine such person or the managing agent or officer of any firm or corporation under oath as to all such items of personal property, the taxable value thereof as defined in s. 70.34 if the property is taxable. In the alternative the assessor may require such person, firm, or corporation to submit a return of such personal property and of the taxable value thereof. There shall be annexed to such return the declaration of such person or of the managing agent or officer of such firm or corporation that the statements therein contained are true.

AB2-ASA1,55 Section 55 . 70.35 (2) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB2-ASA1,23,16 70.35 (2) The For assessments made before January 1, 2024, the return shall be made and all the information therein requested given by such person on a form prescribed by the assessor with the approval of the department of revenue which shall provide suitable schedules for such information bearing on value as the department deems necessary to enable the assessor to determine the true cash value of the taxable personal property that is owned or in the possession of such person on January 1 as provided in s. 70.10. The return may contain methods of deriving assessable values from book values and for the conversion of book values to present values, and a statement as to the accounting method used. No person shall be required to take detailed physical inventory for the purpose of making the return required by this section.

AB2-ASA1,56 Section 56 . 70.35 (3) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB2-ASA1,23,25 70.35 (3) Each For assessments made before January 1, 2024, each return shall be filed with the assessor on or before March 1 of the year in which the assessment provided by s. 70.10 is made. The assessor, for good cause, may allow a reasonable extension of time for filing the return. All returns filed under this section shall be the confidential records of the assessor's office, except that the returns shall be available for use before the board of review as provided in this chapter. No return required under this section is controlling on the assessor in any respect in the assessment of any property.

AB2-ASA1,57 Section 57. 70.35 (4) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB2-ASA1,24,8 70.35 (4) Any For assessments made before January 1, 2024, any person, firm or corporation who refuses to so testify or who fails, neglects or refuses to make and file the return of personal property required by this section shall be denied any right of abatement by the board of review on account of the assessment of such personal property unless such person, firm, or corporation shall make such return to such board of review together with a statement of the reasons for the failure to make and file the return in the manner and form required by this section.

AB2-ASA1,58 Section 58 . 70.35 (5) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB2-ASA1,24,13 70.35 (5) In For assessments made before January 1, 2024, in the event that the assessor or the board of review should desire further evidence they may call upon other persons as witnesses to give evidence under oath as to the items and value of the personal property of any such person, firm or corporation.

AB2-ASA1,59 Section 59 . 70.36 (1) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB2-ASA1,24,24 70.36 (1) Any For assessments made before January 1, 2024, any person in this state owning or holding any personal property that is subject to assessment, individually or as agent, trustee, guardian, personal representative, assignee, or receiver or in some other representative capacity, who intentionally makes a false statement to the assessor of that person's assessment district or to the board of review of the assessment district with respect to the property, or who omits any property from any return required to be made under s. 70.35, with the intent of avoiding the payment of the just and proportionate taxes on the property, shall forfeit the sum of $10 for every $100 or major fraction of $100 so withheld from the knowledge of the assessor or board of review.