Marshfield Clinic Sues City over Tax Issue

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Marshfield (OnFocus) – The Marshfield Clinic has filed a lawsuit against the City of Marshfield alleging it was overcharged for personal property tax for the 2019 tax year.

According to the complaint filed by the Marshfield Clinic, the City overvalued its personal property by $4,042,300. The dispute revolves around two exemptions for the personal property tax, machinery, tools, and patterns and the exemption for computers and computer equipment. The Clinic is claiming their tax bill was $97,361 too high for the 2019 tax year.

The Marshfield Clinic filed a claim to refund the unlawful personal property tax. The City disallowed the claim.

The City responded in a court filing that the Marshfield Clinic filed their personal property tax return untimely and therefore the higher value made by the City Assessor was used to determine the tax bill and that Marshfield Clinic has no exceptions.

An answer to the summons asserted that the City of Marshfield lacked sufficient information and denied that the Marshfield Clinic, Inc. notified the City of Marshfield Assessor of a mathematical error on the submitted 2019 Return and reported a corrected assessable value consistent with the personal property exemption stated in Wis Stats. 70.111(27) and 70.11(39) exempting machinery, tools and patterns and computers.

The City of Marshfield admitted that the Marshfield Clinic Inc, timely paid the personal property tax the City alleged was owed pursuant to the Tax Bill.

The Marshfield Clinic Inc. alleged that the correct assessable value for its Property is $4,431,500 and, thus, such tax due is no more than $104,567.68. The City of Marshfield accepted that the Marshfield Clinic Inc. is making this claim, however denied all other allegations.

Mayor Bob McManus did not reply for comment at the time of this publication.

Steve Barg, City of Marshfield Administrator, said, “I’ve spoken with City Attorney Wolfgram. He advised that the summons filed in Wood County Circuit Court stands for itself, and there’s nothing more that I can tell you. This case is not being handled by the City Attorney, but rather by legal counsel provided through LWMMI (League of Wisconsin Municipalities Mutual Insurance).”

No further proceedings have been scheduled for this case.

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News Desk
Author: News Desk

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