Welcome to Ask an Expert Business Series with Misty Lambrecht, the owner of Webfoot Marketing and Design, sharing valuable insights based on her extensive 15 years of experience in business startups and advising in Lincoln County Welcome to January and the pesky little Personal Property Tax form that most likely arrived in your mailbox at the beginning of the month. The good news, if it did not, you can always download one. I know most of us would love to toss that and other time-consuming government forms in the circular file, but alas.
For those who are not sure what we are talking about or are new to business, getting their first form, or lucky enough to have magically been missed this year, here are the basics. If you operate a business in the State of Oregon, you must file an annual return listing the equipment used to run your business. By Oregon law, business personal property is taxable in the County where it is located as of January 1. Each individual, partnership, firm, or
corporation that has taxable business personal property must file an annual business personal property return to the County by March 15th. Examples of taxable business personal property include:
● Furniture
● Machinery
● Equipment used in a business (including items not being used or
placed in storage)
● Leased equipment
● A list of items that are taxable and need to be reported can be
found on the final page of the business personal property return.
Examples of business personal property that do not need to be reported
include:
● Land and physical structure
● Software and business records
● Farm Animals, farm machinery, and equipment
● Licensed vehicles (other than fixed-load equipment)
● Inventory held for sale
Luck for you if you filled this out last year; you have the task most likely
close to completion. Construction companies have a more daunting task
of tools, ladders, power equipment, special machinery, and anything non-
inventory. Of course, us small office folks have a much simpler list of
desks, printers, our office houseplant, and yes, the houseplant and
artwork should be listed. Anything you have disposed of from the list last
year should be noted.
