Personal Property Tax

A substantial amount of the household properties is exempted from any form of personal property tax. Such properties could however be subjected to taxation provided they are used for business purposes. Personal property tax cannot be collected from intangible properties and business inventories.

The forms are an important aspect of the personal property tax system in most of the countries. According to the laws that govern such affairs the taxpayers need to fill up personal property tax listing form by a certain date each year.

The forms are important as they are used by assessors in order to fix the worth of the taxable properties for the succeeding year. Following are the essential components of such forms:

Indicating the date when each item was bought

Listing of all assets owned and controlled

Including the total purchase cost of every item

Identifying each personal property category

The payment of personal property taxes has to be done on specific dates in each and every country. In Washington the dates are 30th of April and 31st of October. Provided the amount of tax payable is less than $50, it has to be paid on the 30th of April itself. If the amount exceeds $50, then half the amount could be paid on the 30th of April and the rest on the 31st of October.

The tax liens are placed on personal property taxes when a certain amount of tax is left. The tax lien is operational from the time when the assessor makes his assessment till the date when the particular taxpayer clears the debts. The treasurer has the right to impose liens on other personal and real properties of a taxpayer if that person does not pay off the debts.

The following items fall under the jurisdiction of personal property taxes:

• Vehicles - vehicles used totally on private property, special highway construction equipment like earth moving and paving
• equipment, farm vehicles, off - road vehicles, and racing vehicles
• Machinery equipment, fixtures and furniture
• Signs
• Office fixtures and furniture
• Commercial fishing equipment
• Office equipment
• Leased equipment
• Store fixtures and equipment
• Farm equipment, machinery, supply and tools
• Canned and embedded computer software
• Leasehold improvements
• Manufacturing machinery and equipment
• Supplies, materials and tools
• Construction equipment
• Watercraft - vehicles used totally upon private property, vessels for commercial fishing, documented vessels like tugs, barges, dredges and similar watercraft, charter vessels
• Office trailers