Brian Dake

On Thursday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced the tax year 2027 annual inflation adjustments for almost 70 tax provisions, including the tax rate schedules, standard deduction amounts and other tax changes. Revenue Procedure 2026-35 PDF provides details about these annual adjustments.

The tax year 2027 adjustments described below generally apply to tax returns filed in 2028. The tax items for tax year 2027 of greatest interest to most taxpayers include the following dollar amounts:

• Standard Deduction. For tax year 2027, the standard deduction increases to $33,200 for married couples filing jointly, up $1,000 from 2026. For single taxpayers and married individuals filing separately, the standard deduction rises to $16,600 for tax year 2027, and for heads of households, the standard deduction will be $24,925.
• Marginal Rates: For tax year 2027, the top tax rate remains 37% for individual single taxpayers with incomes greater than $661,375 ($793,650 for married couples filing jointly). The other rates are:

  35% for incomes over $264,550 ($529,100 for married couples filing jointly);
  32% for incomes over $208,325 ($416,650 for married couples filing jointly);
  24% for incomes over $109,125 ($218,250 for married couples filing jointly);
  22% for incomes over $52,025 ($104,050 for married couples filing jointly);
  12% for incomes over $12,800 ($25,600 for married couples filing jointly).

  The lowest rate is 10% for incomes of single individuals with incomes of $12,800 or less ($25,600 for married couples filing jointly).

• The maximum amount of the child tax credit for 2027 is $2,300, an increase of $100 from 2026. For tax year 2027, the amount of credit that may be refundable is $1,800, also up $100 from 2026.
• Alternative Minimum Tax Exemption Amounts. For tax year 2027, the exemption amount for unmarried individuals is $93,000 and begins to phase out at $515,950 ($144,700 for married couples filing jointly for whom the exemption begins to phase out at $1,031,900).
• Estate Tax Exclusion. Estates of decedents who die during 2027 have a basic exclusion amount of $15,480,000, up from a total of $15,000,000 for estates of decedents who died in 2026. For calendar year 2027, the first $20,000 of gifts to any person are not included in the total amount of taxable gifts made during the year – up from $19,000 for calendar year 2026. 
• Annual Exclusion for Gifts. For calendar year 2027, the annual exclusion for gifts increases to $20,000, up from $19,000 for calendar year 2026. (However, the annual exclusion for gifts to a spouse who is not a citizen of the United States increases to $201,000 for calendar year 2027, up from $194,000 for calendar year 2026.)
• Expensing. For tax year 2027 taxpayers can expense up to $2,640,000 of section 179 property, up from $2,560,000 for tax year 2026. The limit for sport utility vehicles for tax year 2027 is $33,100, up from $32,000 for tax year 2026.
• Adoption Credits. The maximum credit allowed for adoptions for tax year 2027 is the amount of qualified adoption expenses up to $18,250, up from $17,670 for 2026. For tax year 2027, the amount of credit that may be refundable is $5,280.
• Employer-Provided Childcare Tax Credit. The WFTC significantly enhanced an important credit for employers; For tax year 2027, the maximum amount of employer-provided childcare tax credit rises to $515,943.67 up from $500,000 for 2026 ($619,132.40 if the employer is an eligible small business).

For the first time in 16 years, Democrats will have full control of the Wisconsin state Legislature after Tuesday night’s election flipped both the Senate and Assembly.

And the two presumptive leaders in those chambers say they have big plans for the upcoming legislative session.

Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, and Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, both took the stage Tuesday night at a Milwaukee victory party for Governor-elect David Crowley, to share the news that, coupled with Crowley’s win, Democrats had achieved the state trifecta they’d hoped for all year.

“With this trifecta, we will end decades of Republican obstructionism,” said Neubauer, who is expected to be elevated by her Democratic colleagues to Assembly Speaker. “We will show that government can be a force for good in people’s lives, and that things will be different when Democrats are in charge.”

In postmortem interviews, Neubauer and Hesselbein, who is expected to be tapped by Democrats as Senate Majority leader, offered a range of priorities they’ll tackle upon taking power.

Both said lowering costs for families was a top priority, alongside increasing public school funding, legalizing cannabis and expanding abortion access.

They’ll have a state surplus of more than $3 billion to achieve their goals. But they also have their work cut out for them. With slim margins, the leaders will need to maintain control of diverse caucuses that include progressives and centrists, and lawmakers from safe districts alongside those who Republicans will be all too eager to run against in two years.

Wisconsin voters approved 45 of 79 school district referendums on the Nov. 3 ballot, authorizing more than $1.3 billion in new property taxes and debt for public schools. Thirty-four measures failed.

The 79 questions across 72 districts sought approximately $1.6 billion in total. Capital projects for facilities were more likely to pass than recurring or multi-year operating requests, which raise property taxes to cover salaries, benefits, and operating expenses.

Large operating asks that passed included Green Bay’s $158 million non-recurring measure over four years and Middleton-Cross Plains’ $118.5 million increase. Whitefish Bay voters passed a $90 million facilities package after rejecting a $135.6 million proposal earlier in the year. Elmbrook, Greenfield, and Waunakee also approved measures totaling tens of millions.

Failed measures included Bloomer’s $77 million capital request, which received about 65 percent opposition, and Geneva J4’s operating referendum, which lost by a single vote. Pulaski’s $59.8 million facilities measure failed by approximately 127 votes. Oconto Unified, Gillett, Palmyra-Eagle, Hillsboro, and others also rejected additional funding. Several districts were making a second attempt after being turned down in the spring.

These results come amid long-term enrollment declines. Statewide public school enrollment has dropped over 9 percent since 2010-11, while overall staffing has increased by about 7 percent, according to Wisconsin Policy Forum data. Many districts attribute repeated referendums to the state’s revenue limit formula, which has not kept pace with inflation for over a decade. Critics argue that districts continue to add staff and seek ongoing or multi-year tax increases even as student numbers decline and competition from private and charter schools increases.

Official results are still being certified; unofficial tallies from county clerks and local reports indicate a passage rate of about 57 percent, which is lower than rates from a few years ago and similar to the spring 2026 cycle, when 46 of 75 measures passed.

Democrats won the governor’s office and both chambers of the Legislature on Tuesday, securing unified control of Wisconsin state government for the first time in 16 years.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley defeated U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany to become the state’s next governor while Democrats also claimed an 18-15 majority in the Senate and a 53-46 edge in the Assembly after flipping three Senate seats and eight more in the Assembly.

Democrats swept the statewide races, with Attorney General Josh Kaul winning a third term, JoCasta Zamarippa winning the Secretary of State election, and Yee Leng Xiong defeating incumbent Republican John Lieber to become Wisconsin’s new State Treasurer.

The Democratic gains were part of a broader national wave. Democrats also flipped two U.S. House seats in the state, with Rebecca Cooke defeating Derrick Van Orden in the 7th Congressional District and Mitchell Berman unseating Bryan Steil in the 1st.

Democrats won control of both houses of Congress, winning at least 250 House seats and flipping seven Republican Senate seats.

Wisconsin’s pool of licensed commercial truck drivers is shrinking even as the state’s reliance on trucking to drive the economy has grown, a new study from the Wisconsin Policy Forum shows.

The number of people licensed to handle big rigs hasn’t kept pace with this demand, and with an aging workforce behind the wheel of those heavy trucks, the supply could shrink even further, authors wrote.

The report found 70% of goods, by weight, move through Wisconsin via highways, with an increase of 33% in those shipments between 2019 and 2023. And federal officials project an increase nationally of 50% by 2050 for the amount of freight shipped by truck.

But as the volume of those shipments has increased, the number of people in Wisconsin licensed to drive them has dropped by more than 20,000, or 8.9%, over the past 15 years.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation produced a white paper in 2022 that identified some factors at play. That includes retirements and a loss of licenses due to rule-based disqualifications, drug tests and poor driving records. The study also cited a drop in pay and working conditions.

There have been several efforts to help boost the number of licensed CDL drivers, including a state grant program created in 2024 that helps cover the cost of training. That led to $250,000 in grants in 2026 awarded to help 170 new license holders.

Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Policy Forum suggested autonomous vehicles may eventually be part of the solution, though the deployment of the technology is not moving rapidly enough to make up for the shortage in licensed drivers.

The owners of a proposed $1 billion gas-fired power plant in northern Wisconsin are officially calling it quits on the Nemadji Trail Energy Center in Superior.

La Crosse-based Dairyland Power Cooperative and South Shore Energy notified the Public Service Commission that they’re canceling the project in a letter filed Wednesday by Daniel McCourtney, manager of strategic environmental initiatives at Allete. Allete is the parent company of Duluth-based Minnesota Power, which backed away from the plant in December.

“No construction has occurred on NTEC or the (generation tie line),” McCourtney wrote. “Accordingly, the owners respectfully request that the commission acknowledge their relinquishment of all rights associated with the (approvals).”

In 2020, the PSC granted approvals, or certificates of public convenience and necessity, to the project’s owners to build a natural gas plant that would produce between 550 and 625 megawatts of power. The utilities said the project would provide a reliable source of electricity as they shifted away from coal and invest in renewable energy.

However, the project faced years of legal challenges from Indigenous and environmental groups, local opposition and permitting delays.

In December, Jennifer Cady, vice president of public policy for Minnesota Power, highlighted in a filing to the commission that air, wetland and construction permits had expired due to project delays. The company ended an agreement with its subsidiary South Shore Energy to buy power from the plant.

The city of Superior had also denied local approvals. Residents, tribes and environmental groups had raised concerns about the plant’s contribution to heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, air and noise pollution, and effects on wetlands.

Many Wisconsin voters will again be asked to approve tax increases for their local public schools on Tuesday’s ballot.

There are 79 school referendums on the November 3 ballot in 72 different school districts. In total, they will decide on $1.6 billion in operational and capital referendums.

Public school officials say state-imposed revenue limits make it impossible for districts to fund day-to-day operations. But opponents say school districts receive more than $18,000 per pupil — slightly above national averages — so the problem is how that money is being spent.

Green Bay, Middleton-Cross Plains and Janesville have the three largest operating referendums on the ballots this year at  $158 million, $119 million and $98 million, respectively. All three are non-recurring.

There are 16 school districts that had a failed referendum in April and are trying again on Tuesday.

In April, more than 60 percent of school districts saw their referendums approved. But polling shows voter fatigue.

In March, when the Marquette Law School Poll asked if people would be inclined to vote for or against a school referendum, 51 percent said no, while 48 percent voted yes. That changed from June 2025 when 46 percent of people said no and 52 percent said yes.

The policy-setting board for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is set to vote Wednesday on whether the agency can begin crafting groundwater standards for roughly two dozen pesticides.

The DNR is proposing to set health-based standards for 22 pesticides that have already been detected or are highly likely to be found in groundwater, said Carla Romano, the agency’s groundwater section manager.

The DNR has requested that the Department of Health Services develop those health-based standards, which state health officials intend to provide in November. Some farm groups want to see the Natural Resources Board postpone any decision until those thresholds are developed, said Jason Mugnaini, executive director of government relations for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation.

“It’s kind of something that is making people anxious at the moment because it could potentially impact farmers’ bottom lines down the road,” Mugnaini said.

He said restrictions on pesticides could cause farmers to use alternative practices that may be more damaging to the environment or force them to use more costly alternatives that could affect their livelihood. He questioned the DNR’s stance that the economic impact of any rule would be minimal without knowing recommended standards.

In a joint statement, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the Wisconsin Dairy Alliance and Venture Dairy Cooperative said the 2023 survey showed most pesticides proposed for regulation were found in only a handful of locations at low levels.

“The most recent evidence cited by the state suggests a low risk and a limited prevalence of most of the listed compounds contaminating groundwater at a meaningful concentration or geographic distribution,” the groups wrote.

GE HealthCare and Milwaukee Tool are leading the pack for organizations filing AI-related patents in Wisconsin, followed closely by Johnson Controls.

That’s according to research conducted by Prof. Rina Ghose, a data scientist with UW-Milwaukee whose work explores AI adoption and workforce readiness. As part of a Microsoft-backed effort, she assessed where AI-related jobs are headed and how prepared various regions of the state are for the coming changes.

“There’s higher adoption in urban tech, healthcare and education hubs, and rural areas show slower AI uptake,” she said.

Ghose also noted the study data “highlights where AI could widen disparities or create new opportunities,” as it found white-collar and “routine” office roles are at greater risk of AI displacement relative to more hands-on roles.

Part of the research project looked at which organizations are filing AI-related patents in the state, and found GE HealthCare had the most during the study period of 2022-2024 with 536 filings. That just beat Milwaukee Tool with 532, while Johnson Controls had 486 over that period.

Other top contenders include the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation with 253 AI patent filings, Snap-on Inc. with 135, Oshkosh Corp. with 127 and Kimberly-Clark with 124, followed by Kohler Co. with 65, the Medical College of Wisconsin with 43 and Briggs & Stratton with 35.

“Companies span multiple sectors: healthcare, manufacturing, research and tools,” Ghose said.

The White House on Friday said it would drop tariffs on some Canadian goods, but replace them with other products from the major U.S. trade partner.

President Donald Trump earlier Friday signed a proclamation “removing certain products” from the list of items that he slapped 50% tariffs on over the summer using a 96-year-old trade law.

But he is “replacing those products with certain valves, carpets, waste products, and others,” according to a White House fact sheet detailing the proclamation.

The changes are being made to “further refine the scope of the tariffs on certain Canadian products,” according to the fact sheet, which does not mention Maine.

The new additions and removals from the list of goods covered by the “Section 338” tariffs will take effect October 30.

The products being exempted from the Section 338 tariffs include corrugated paper, plastic boxes and packing bags, refrigeration equipment, multiple forms of machinery and seaweed and algae products.