Register of Deeds
Criteria for an Electronic Real Estate Transfer Return (eRETR)
Introduction
This guideline will assist you in making a judgment as to when a particular eRETR Receipt warrants rejection of the conveying document from recordation.
All information on the return is useful to the local assessor, other municipal and county officials and staff of the Department of Revenue who have a statutory responsibility in the administration of Wisconsin tax laws. Section 77.22(1) of the Wisconsin Statutes provides that "submission of a completed real estate transfer return and collection by the register of the fee shall be prerequisites to acceptance of the conveyance for recording." Since your refusal to record an instrument which conveys an interest in real estate is a matter of considerable consequence to the parties concerned. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue has designed business rules for the eRETR so that all required fields must be completed by the filer before they are allowed to "Submit" and obtain the Receipt for recording their documents. In general: all required fields of the eRETR are complete before a return can be "Submitted" eliminating the Register of Deeds to verify all the fields is filled in.
Required eRETR Receipt Review per s. 77.22(1), Stats.
- VERIFY that the Receipt belongs to the document being recorded and is for the proper county as you will not be able to "Add recording information" if Receipt and document is for another county.
- All items: Document to be recorded, Receipt, payment (if due), weatherization papers (if needed). The Receipt, under Instruction 2 will have a list of the items needed.
- All grantors and grantees named on the document are on the Receipt. Exceptions:
- Husband and wife with the same last name may have both first names on the first name line and only one social number is required.
- Middle initials are not a required entry field and do not have to be on the Receipt.
- All parcels listed on the document are on the Receipt. When there are five or fewer parcels, each must be listed in a separate parcel section (Add Parcel). When there are more than five, the first five must be listed separately under "Parcels"; and the remainder may be listed separately here or listed under the "Short legal description." If your county does not require parcel numbers on the document (they are required on the return), you can verify the property using the legal description. The return does not require a legal description when the Subdivision/Condominium section is completed, unless there are more than five parcels and the additional parcels are listed here.
- Transfer fee amount, if due, is the same as the amount on the check or other method of payment. Fee is automatically calculated for the filer based upon the Value subject to fee that is given.
Immediate rejection if any information on the Receipt has been altered in any way, such as being crossed out or white out, and something else is inserted or information added, REJECT recording. Changing information on the RECEIPT creates inconsistency with the information on the eRETR. It is acceptable to have signatures or initials written on the Receipt, so long as the data is not changed in any way.
NO ATTACHMENTS, all data such as legal description, all grantors and grantees must be entered on the eRETR.
Optional eRETR Receipt Review
The following items are not "rejects" under the Department of Revenue's rules. However; they may result in an audit by the Department.
- Does tax bill address appear to be going to the correct party such as the grantee or agent?
- Does transfer fee exemption appear to be proper? Type of transfer checked a sale and an exemption taken, generally only applies to exemption 2 and 8m.
When ready to "Add recording information to an eRETR filing":
Go to Department of Revenue web site Real Estate Transfer at http://www.revenue.wi.gov/ust/retn.html , click on Assessors and Government Offices Access and then click Log-in to eRETR to view or process returns
VERIFY THE DOCUMENT NUMBER AND THE DATE RECORDED before submitting data by pressing the button "Add recording information." To correct errors is very time consuming for both the Register of Deeds and Revenue.
PE-100e (R. 08-07)
Last updated August 28, 2007