Business Personal Property Taxes

What are Personal Property Taxes?

Personal Property taxes (PPT) have the worst name of any type of tax in the history of taxes. PPT has nothing to do with your personal life.

Well then, what is personal property?

The straight up accounting definition of personal property is anything which is not real property. Makes a lot of sense, right? Real property includes things like land and buildings; businesses pay real estate taxes on land and buildings. So, personal property is the remaining depreciable property of the business (office furniture, computers, and equipment). Vehicles are not included as they pay the tax with their license plates.

What am I supposed to do for PPT?

Businesses are required to file a PPT return by the 15th of May. The forms which most small businesses are supposed to file are the Form 103 and Form 104. There are two Form 103s: a short form and a long form. In some cases, filing one form over the other will result in a lower self assessed value which will result in a lower tax bill. You can go to your local assessor’s office or find them online.

It is important to remember that Indiana businesses pay the PPT in arrears. Thus, you will receive a tax bill for the PPT form you filed on May 15, 2022 in the early spring of 2023.

You can amend a timely filed PPT form up to 12 months after the due date.

The website for the Indiana Allen County Assessor is www.allencounty.us/personal-property. Ironically, there are no formal instructions on how to file the forms. Every year, our firm has discussions with the Allen County Assessor’s office regarding this and to understand the form because of the lack of formal guidance. We are here to help make this process simpler for you.

In 2022, our firm prepared over 250 property tax returns for our clients. The rules governing what is taxable and the instructions (if there are any) themselves change every year. It is our job to keep up to date with the changing rules so that we can file these returns appropriately.