Business Personal Property Assessments

The value of personal property is stated on the assessment notice. The county assessor usually mails this notice to you by the first Monday in June.  If you start a new business after January 1, the assessment notice for your personal property is usually mailed by the fourth Monday of November. When you get your notice, look at it carefully to make sure all the information is accurate.

Idaho law defines personal property as everything that’s the subject of ownership and that isn’t included within the term real property. Examples are tools, unattached store counters and display racks, desks, chairs, file cabinets, computers, office machines, and medical instruments. Buildings, structures, and fixtures are not personal property. To determine if an item is a fixture, a “three factor test” is applied to each item. If all three factors of the test apply to the item, it’s considered a fixture. Otherwise, the item is personal property.

The three factor test consists of annexation, adaptation and intent as explained below.

1. Annexation. Although once moveable chattels, articles become accessory to and a part of improvements to real property by having been physically or  constructively incorporated therein or annexed or affixed thereto in such a manner that removing them would cause material injury or damage to the real property; and
2. Adaptation. The use or purpose of an item is integral to the use of the real property to which it is affixed; and
3. Intent. Items should be considered personal property unless a person would reasonably be considered to intend to make the articles, during their useful life, permanent additions to the real property. The intent depends on an objective standard and what a reasonable person would consider permanent and not the subjective intention of the owner of the property.

If an item of property satisfies all three factors of the three factor test, the item becomes a fixture and therefore real property

Please note: This list is not all-inclusive. Contact the Ada County Assessor’s Office at (208) 287-7200 for more information.

Unless specifically exempted, all personal property in Idaho is subject to assessment and taxation.

• Any stand-alone item purchased after January 1, 2013, with a total acquisition and installation cost of $3,000 or less. Items must be reported as a unit and must include the total purchase price of all components if they don’t function independently.
• The first $250,000 of a taxpayer’s personal property not otherwise exempt in each county. Taxpayers using the property in a common enterprise or in related organizations with essentially the same management are eligible for only one $250,000 exemption per county. See Property Tax Administrative Rule 35.01.03.627 for an explanation of common enterprise.
• Personal effects, clothing, and household items (unless used in a business)
• Vehicles and vessels properly registered in the state of Idaho
• Livestock
• Business inventory
• Equipment used for nonprofit educational purposes
• Medical equipment owned or leased by qualifying hospitals
• Property owned by fraternal, benevolent, and religious organizations
• Facilities for water or air pollution control
• Agricultural machinery and equipment used exclusively in production of crops, livestock, or nursery stock
• Certain intangible personal property
• Transient Business Personal Property:  “Transient personal property” is personal property, specifically such construction, logging or mining machinery and equipment which is kept, moved, transported, shipped, hauled into or remaining for periods of not less than thirty (30) days, in more than one (1) county in the state during the same year.
• Other exemptions are allowed by law.
  *Taxable personal property does not include an improvement to real property, an item that will become an improvement, structures or anything defined as a fixture.

The lien date is the date taxes are secured by the property being taxed. Nonpayment of taxes that are secured by property may result in the owner losing their property. The lien date for real property and most personal property is January 1. For personal property brought into Idaho after January 1, the lien date is the first day in which the property was brought into the state.

Personal property is assessed at market value. This value includes shipping and installation charges. Appraisers use several methods to arrive at the value. Depreciation tables, sales information, cost guides and other resources are used in this process.

Market Value Defined: Market value is the amount of United States dollars or equivalent for which, in all probability, a property would exchange hands between a willing seller under no compulsion to sell and an informed, capable buyer, with a reasonable time allowed to complete the sale.

If you have taxable personal property in Ada County, you are required to report it to the Ada County Assessor. This is done by using a Personal Property Declaration, a form available from the Ada County Assessor’s Office. The form contains sections for listing personal property by make, manufacturer, year of manufacture, serial number, year acquired and cost.

You must return your personal prop­erty declaration to the Ada County As­sessor’s Office by the date indicated on the declaration, or no later than March 15. A different deadline maybe given if your personal property is missed or your business starts after January 1. You should file the declaration for transient personal property on or before the first Monday of November of each year with the assessor of your home county. If you own transient personal property, you should notify the county assessor within ten days of entering a county other than the property’s home county.

Submittal of lists of personal property and application is necessary only if the total taxable value of your items is in excess of $250,000. If your aggregate value is less than $250,000, you are only required to track any single purchases over $3,000, which will be reported on your declaration if and when you exceed the one hundred thousand dollars ($250,000) limit on the exemption.

Lists of personal property are required annually for taxpayers when the total value of their personal property exceeds $250,000. Do not include any items of personal property acquired after January 1, 2013, at an acquisition price of three thousand dollars ($3,000) per item or less. When such lists are required, the taxpayer must list all otherwise taxable personal property, not just the property constituting value in excess of $250,000.

“Knowingly failing to report changes in the value of personal property, exceeding the amount of the exemption allowed, shall subject the taxpayer to a fine not to exceed $10,000,” in addition, the statute also subjects improperly claimed exemptions to recovery.

Idaho Code §63-602KK(2) grants the personal property exemption to each taxpayer.

If you own personal property taxes on your business, you must fill out a declaration and return it to the assessor no later than the date stated on the form. A Personal Property Report is required each year if there is no change from the prior year. Anyone failing to report will be subject to appraisal at a value estimated by the assessor or at two times the value.

Report electronically! The PERSONAL PROPERTY DECLARATION forms are now available online!
Download the declaration in Microsoft Excel (.xls) format.

The Valuation Schedules provided by The Idaho State Tax Commission are available here in .pdf format.

If your business opens mid-year, you are required by law to report your business assets as soon as the business opens. Please advise us as to when the business opened, and we will pro-rate the assessed value by quarter. This means you will not pay tax for the whole year, unless you open between January–March.

The Ada County Assessor is required to assess property that has not been declared. The assessment is based on the best information available. Idaho law provides that county officials must double the assessed value of any personal property they discover which has been willfully concealed in order to avoid paying taxes. The assessment is doubled for each year the property escaped assessment. County officials may sell personal property immediately after taxes become delinquent and pay off the tax lien from the pro­ceeds of the sale.

Contact the Ada County Assessor’s Office if you disagree with the assessed value. The Assessor’s Office maintains a file of information on your personal property. If you have questions about your assessment; you should review this information with an appraiser to ensure its accuracy. If you cannot resolve your disagreement with the appraiser, you may appeal to the Ada County Board of Equalization, which consists of the Ada County Commissioners. Your appeal must be filed with the Ada County Clerk by the fourth Monday in June. If you received your assessment notice in the latter part of the year, your appeal must be filed in January. Please be prepared to document your reasons for requesting a change in your property’s assessed value. You will need to prove that the appraiser’s value is not the current market value of the personal property. If needed, you can obtain an appeal form from the Ada County Commissioner’s Office or on-line from the APPEALS link, using the menu on left.

The market value of your property is one factor in setting the amount of tax you pay. However, appraisers do not determine tax amounts. The amount of taxes is determined by the budgets of the taxing districts in which your property is located. There are many kinds of taxing districts in Ada County. Some, like cities and the county, provide a wide range of services. Other districts levy taxes for specific purposes, like highways, schools or fire protection. Each taxing district is administered by officials who determine how much money the district needs to provide services. After a district’s budget is set, the budget is divided by the total taxable value of all property within the taxing district to arrive at a tax rate. The tax rate is multiplied by the taxable value of your property, resulting in the amount of taxes you owe. Each property is located within several independent taxing districts. This means your property tax bill includes taxes for all the districts in which your property is located. This combination of taxing districts is known as a “tax code area,” Each of these areas is assigned a number that appears on your assessment notice and tax bill. Within each tax code area, the total tax rate is the same for all classes of property:

You will normally receive your personal property tax bill by the end of Novem­ber from the Ada County Treasurer. For sub-roll assessments, you should receive the bill in January or February of the following year. If you have questions about your property tax bill, please contact the Ada County Treasurer’s Office at (208) 287-6800

Usually, personal property taxes are due on or before December 20th, and may be paid in two halves – the first half due December 20th, and the second half by June 20th of the following year.

Taxes are delinquent if not paid by the due date. Delinquent taxes accrue interest and penalties, which are also a lien, against your property. At this point, the Ada County Sheriff can seize and sell your property.

It’s a misdemeanor to sell your personal property or remove it from the county without first paying the tax due. If you sell or close a business, you should notify the county assessor as soon as possible. The assessor will explain how your assessment will be handled.  Please contact us if you are closing or selling your business.