Are Groceries Taxed in Wisconsin? Taxable Categories and Rates

Most groceries are not taxed in Wisconsin. The state’s 5% sales tax exempts “food and food ingredients” under Wisconsin Statute § 77.54(20n), so fresh produce, meat, dairy, bread, eggs, canned goods, frozen dinners, coffee, and similar staples ring up tax-free.¹² Five categories are carved out and remain fully taxable: candy, soft drinks, prepared food, dietary supplements, and alcoholic beverages.

The general test is simple. If a product is sold for human consumption and doesn’t fall into one of those five categories, no sales tax. The complications live inside the categories, and a handful of common items sit right on the line.

The Five Taxable Categories

Candy

Wisconsin defines candy as a sweetened preparation (sugar, honey, or artificial sweeteners) combined with chocolate, fruit, nuts, or other flavorings and shaped into bars, drops, or pieces.³ A standard chocolate bar, gummy bears, hard candy — all taxable.

Two things pull a product out of the candy definition. If the word “flour” appears anywhere on the ingredient label, it isn’t candy. If the product requires refrigeration, it isn’t candy. The flour rule is the one that produces odd results at checkout. A Twix bar contains flour and is tax-exempt. A granola bar listing “peanut flour” is also exempt. A nearly identical granola bar that lists “whole grain” without the word “flour” is taxable candy.⁴ Any flour counts: wheat, rice, peanut, whatever the label calls out.

Soft Drinks

A soft drink is any beverage under 0.5% alcohol that contains a natural or artificial sweetener. Soda, energy drinks, sweetened iced tea, and sweetened water are the standard examples.³ Two things pull a sweetened beverage out of the soft drink category:

It contains milk or a milk product (including soy, rice, and similar milk substitutes).
It’s more than 50% vegetable or fruit juice by volume.

A sweetened latte in a bottle is exempt. Lemonade that’s 60% real juice is exempt. A fruit-flavored drink with 10% juice and added sugar is a taxable soft drink. Unsweetened bottled water is exempt whether it’s plain, carbonated, or flavored; add a sweetener and it becomes a taxable soft drink.⁵

Prepared Food

Food becomes taxable “prepared food” when any of these apply:³

It’s sold heated (hot deli items, rotisserie chicken from the warming case, soup from a hot bar).
The retailer heated it for you (a sandwich toasted at the deli counter).
The retailer provides eating utensils — plates, bowls, forks, spoons, knives, cups, napkins, or straws — at the point of sale.
The retailer mixed two or more ingredients into a single item for sale (a made-to-order deli salad).

The utensil trigger surprises people. If the deli sets out forks and napkins next to the pasta salad, the salad is taxable whether or not you take one. The same rotisserie chicken sold cold in a sealed container is exempt; sold hot from the warmer, it’s taxable.

Dietary Supplements

Vitamins, mineral tablets, herbal supplements, protein powders, and amino acid capsules are taxable. The statute keys the definition to federal FDA labeling: if the label carries a “Supplement Facts” panel rather than a “Nutrition Facts” panel, the product is a dietary supplement and sales tax applies.³

Alcoholic Beverages

Any beverage with 0.5% alcohol by volume or more is taxable. Beer, wine, spirits, hard seltzer, and cooking wine all qualify, and they’re excluded from the “food and food ingredient” definition entirely, so the grocery exemption never reaches them.³

Items That Sit Right on the Line

A few products are easy to guess wrong on. The label is what decides.

Snack and granola bars. Check the ingredients. Flour listed anywhere means exempt. No flour and it meets the candy definition means taxable.⁴

Bottled and sparkling water. Unsweetened is exempt in every form, including flavored seltzer. Sweetened water is a soft drink.⁵

Coffee and tea. Beans, grounds, freeze-dried coffee, and unsweetened tea are exempt.² A ready-to-drink sweetened coffee or tea is a taxable soft drink unless it contains milk or a milk substitute, in which case it’s exempt.

Juice and fruit drinks. Over 50% real fruit or vegetable juice by volume: exempt, even with added sweeteners. At or below 50% with any sweetener: taxable soft drink. That’s why 100% orange juice rings up tax-free and a 10% “fruit punch” doesn’t.

Deli items. Cold, unmixed, no utensils out: exempt. Heated, mixed to order, or sold with utensils available: taxable.

Non-Food Items You Buy at the Grocery Store

Anything at a grocery store that isn’t food or a food ingredient is taxed at the full rate. Buying it in the same trip as your groceries doesn’t change that. Cleaning supplies, paper products, shampoo and other health and beauty items, pet food, batteries, foil, and trash bags are all taxable. Over-the-counter medicines like aspirin and antacids are taxable too, as is gum.² A can of tuna for people is exempt; the same brand’s tuna cat food isn’t.

Diapers and Menstrual Products Are Exempt

Wisconsin exempts both diapers and menstrual products from sales tax. The exemption was added through the 2023 budget and covers tampons, pads, menstrual cups, panty liners, and similar products.⁶ These items used to be taxed like any other personal care product. At checkout now, you should see no sales tax on them.

The Rate You’ll Actually Pay

The 5% figure is only the state share. Seventy of Wisconsin’s 72 counties add a 0.5% county sales tax that applies to the same items the state tax covers, so most taxable grocery items ring up at 5.5%.⁷

Milwaukee is different. Milwaukee County’s rate is 0.9%, and the City of Milwaukee adds its own 2% sales and use tax on top. In the City of Milwaukee, a taxable grocery item hits a combined 7.9%.⁷

Certain tourist destinations — Wisconsin Dells, Lake Delton, Eagle River, Bayfield, and others — impose a premier resort area tax of 0.5% to 1.25% on covered businesses. Regular grocery stores usually aren’t covered, but the tax can reach restaurants, bakeries, candy shops, and specialty food stores in those areas.⁸

None of these local taxes change what’s taxable; they only change the rate. An exempt item stays exempt everywhere in the state.

SNAP and WIC Purchases

When you pay with SNAP or WIC benefits, no sales tax applies to that portion of your purchase. Federal law bars states from taxing items bought with SNAP, and that overrides Wisconsin’s rules. Even items the state normally taxes, like candy or soft drinks, come through tax-free when SNAP pays for them. If you split the bill between benefits and your own card or cash, the taxable items covered by the cash or card portion still get taxed.

1
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Statutes 77.54 (2025) – General Exemptions
2
Wisconsin Department of Revenue. Publication 220 – Grocers
3
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Statutes Taxation (Ch. 70 to 79) 77.51
4
Streamlined Sales Tax. Rule 327.8 – Food and Food Ingredients Definitions – Candy
5
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Administrative Code Tax 11.51
6
Wisconsin State Legislature. 2023 Budget Bill – Sales Tax Exemption for Diapers and Feminine Hygiene Products
7
Wisconsin Department of Revenue. DOR Tax Rates
8
Wisconsin Department of Revenue. DOR Premier Resort Area Tax