Residential Parking Rent & WI 5% Sales Tax

[Ben Jacobs]

Landlords differ in "opinion" and "assumption" regarding parking fee WI sales use tax of 5%. The WI tax law is not very clear as the DOR says:

Sales tax is imposed on retailers who make taxable retail sales, licenses, leases, or rentals of the following products in Wisconsin (unless an exemption applies):

• *Tangible personal property

• *Leased tangible personal property affixed to real property, if the lessor has the right to remove the leased property upon breach or termination of the lease agreement.
  
  *Exception: A lessor's charge for the lease of tangible personal property affixed to real property is not taxable if the lessor of the leased property is also the lessor of the real property to which the leased property is affixed.

https://www.revenue.wi.gov/Pages/FAQS/ise-taxable.aspx

If we have a parking fee as a "subcategory" of "Rent Income" with "leases longer than 30 days", does Wisconsin still consider the "non-temporary" parking rent income sales taxable at 5%

Of course, some landlords simply just consolidate the extra fee into the rent amount and say parking included, but I’d like to have a clearer idea how WI treats lease add-on fees. The sales tax parking language seems to be written towards B2B commercial relationships and hotel short-term operations.

Opinions welcome, but professional tax advisory most appreciated.  I've stumped several CPAs.