Updated July 29, 2026. Quick answer: Wisconsin’s statute classifies assets as marital property and never uses the phrase “community property.” What brings it inside IRC §1014(b)(6) is a single legislative-intent sentence: “It is the intent of the legislature that marital property is a form of community property.” No other state needs that bridge.
Why the wording is unusual
The other eight community property states use the term directly. Wisconsin adopted a marital property system and then declared its relationship to community property in a separate intent provision. The IRS treats Wisconsin as a community property state — its Internal Revenue Manual and Publication 555 both include it in the list of nine.
The distinction worth noticing: that sentence addresses no federal tax purpose expressly. It is a general statement of legislative intent, and the federal recognition rests on the IRS accepting it. It has been accepted for a long time and appears in the agency’s own published list — which is a materially stronger position than the opt-in trust states, where the agency has said the opposite.
What it means in practice
A Wisconsin couple gets the same treatment as a California or Texas couple: at the first death, both halves of community property take a new basis, provided at least half was includible in the gross estate. The route to the result is unusual; the result is not.
Sources
IRC §1014(a), (b)(6), (c) and (e); Treas. Reg. §1.1014-1(a) and §1.1014-2(a)(5); IRC §2040(b); IRC §691. State law as cited on each page from the state’s own codified statutes. The nine-state list is attributed to IRS Internal Revenue Manual 25.18.1.2.3 and Publication 555 rather than to fifty separate statutes. All read July 2026.
This states what the cited authority says. It is not tax advice, and retirement-plan design turns on facts about your business and your other entities that no page can see. Every dollar limit referenced here is indexed and changes annually.