*UPDATE: As of 10/1/19, this is no longer your responsibility. Etsy will be collecting and remitting Wisconsin Sales Tax as they are classified as a Marketplace Facilitator.
Who wants to think about all that stuff? You made it, took pictures of it and described it in great detail. If you're in Wisconsin and someone from another state buys your creation, great, send it out and you're done. However, if a fellow Wisconsinite goes ahead and purchases something from your shop, you have to collect the sales tax applicable to whatever address they're having your item shipped to. WHAT!? It would be nice if Wisconsin just said, "Hey, you know what, why don't we just apply the tax at the point of origin?" No, that would be way too easy. So, what do you do now?
Etsy allows you to set up a State Tax collection rate. It also lets you set up individual tax rates pertaining to specific zip codes. The current tax rates for Wisconsin can always be found at https://www.revenue.wi.gov/Pages/FAQS/pcs-taxrates.aspx
Then find yourself a list of zip codes for the Wisconsin counties. Here's a good resource: http://www.zipcodestogo.com/Wisconsin/
I created a .txt file with all of the zips and delimited them with commas since Etsy requires them.
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5.0% Tax Rate
-----------------------
-----------------------
MANITOWOC
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53015,
53042,
53063,
54207,
54214,
54215,
54220,
54221,
54227,
54228,
54230,
54232,
54240,
54241,
54245,
54247,
-----------------------
MENOMINEE
-----------------------
54135,
54150,
-----------------------
OUTAGAMIE
-----------------------
54106,
54113,
54130,
54131,
54136,
54140,
54152,
54165,
54170,
54911,
54912,
54913,
54914,
54915,
54919,
54922,
54931,
54942,
54944,
-----------------------
WINNEBAGO
-----------------------
54901,
54902,
54903,
54904,
54906,
54927,
54934,
54947,
54952,
54956,
54957,
54963,
54964,
54980,
54985,
54986,
-----------------------
5.1% Tax Rate
-----------------------
-----------------------
WAUKESHA
-----------------------
53005,
53007,
53008,
53018,
53029,
53045,
53046,
53051,
53052,
53056,
53058,
53064,
53066,
53069,
53072,
53089,
53103,
53118,
53119,
53122,
53127,
53146,
53149,
53150,
53151,
53153,
53183,
53186,
53187,
53188,
53189,
-----------------------
RACINE
-----------------------
53105,
53108,
53126,
53139,
53167,
53177,
53182,
53185,
53401,
53402,
53403,
53404,
53405,
53406,
53407,
53408,
53490,
-----------------------
5.6% Tax Rate
-----------------------
-----------------------
MILWAUKEE
-----------------------
53110,
53129,
53130,
53132,
53154,
53172,
53201,
53202,
53203,
53204,
53205,
53206,
53207,
53208,
53209,
53210,
53211,
53212,
53213,
53214,
53215,
53216,
53217,
53218,
53219,
53220,
53221,
53222,
53223,
53224,
53225,
53226,
53227,
53228,
53233,
53234,
53235,
53237,
53244,
53259,
53263,
53267,
53268,
53274,
53278,
53288,
53290,
53293,
53295,
-----------------------
WASHINGTON
-----------------------
53002,
53017,
53022,
53027,
53033,
53037,
53040,
53060,
53076,
53086,
53090,
53095,
-----------------------
OZAUKEE
-----------------------
53004,
53012,
53021,
53024,
53074,
53080,
53092,
53097,
-----------------------
5.5% Tax Rate
-----------------------
ALL OTHER COUNTIES
-----------------------
Notice I didn't add all the 5.5's? Even though the STATE tax rate is 5.0%, only a small portion of counties have that as their total rate. So, if you make the STATE tax rate in Etsy 5.5%, you'll catch most of the buyers in the state. You now have to enter all the other zip codes and apply the corresponding tax rates to them and check the shipping box if it applies as well. These rates will override the catchall state rate when anyone living at an address with one of these zip codes purchases something.
I encourage you to make your own file as I make no claim to the level of accuracy of the above list. It's meant to be a visual aid that demonstrates how one would go about doing all of this without pulling their hair out.
Happy selling!