Business Personal Property Assessments This page provides an overview of the personal property assessment process in King County. Click on the section listed below for additional information. Or, you can scroll down to the information you’d like to review. Summary of the Personal Property Assessment Process Illustrated Overview - The Basics Summary of the Assessment Process In Washington State, both real and personal property are assessed for property tax purposes. In this state, personal property refers to assets used in conducting a business. The chief characteristic distinguishing personal property from real property is mobility. Improvements to land are generally considered real property. Unless specifically exempt by law, all other property is taxable as personal property. A complete definition of personal property is provided in RCW 84.04.080. This and other laws pertaining to personal property assessment can be accessed at: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw in the section, Title 84 - Property Taxes. Taxable personal property includes (but is not limited to): office machinery and equipment as well as supplies and materials which are not held for sale or do not become an ingredient or component of an article being produced for sale. Furniture and fixtures in commercial use, leased equipment, leasehold improvements, lessee-owned improvements on public land and commercial vessels not subject to excise tax also are assessed and taxed as personal property. Additionally, agricultural machinery and equipment, manufacturers', contractors' and logging machinery and equipment also are assessable as personal property. A more complete listing of the categories of taxable personal property is available on our Forms page. Many types of personal property are exempt from taxation. These include household goods and personal effects. However, such items, if used in a business would be eligible for assessment and taxation. Other personal property exempt from taxation includes: custom software, livestock, inventories held solely for resale and intangible personal property. King and other counties in Washington State use a self-reporting system to assess personal property used
in a business. This means, personal property assessments are based on information provided by taxpayers on personal
property listing forms furnished by the Assessor. These forms provide a format for providing a description
of the personal property, its total cost and year of acquisition. The Assessor uses this information to determine
value, taking into consideration the type of property, its cost and age. Owners of floating homes and mobile homes defined by state law as personal property are not sent reporting forms and are not required to file. Extensions of the filing date are not granted. A tax penalty of 5% per month will be applied to listings received after April 30. The Assessor may waive the penalty if the late filing is due to reasonable cause. A penalty of up to 25% of the tax due in the following year will be applied for failure to file a listing. When the listing is processed and the property valued and entered on the assessment roll, a Personal Property Assessment Notice is mailed to the taxpayer. This notice shows the assessed value that will be used to calculate the tax bill for your property. Contact this office if you have any questions about how this value was determined. We can review the value with you to confirm it is accurate according to the assessment guidelines we use. If you have decided to sell or close your business, please contact us to obtain an Advance Tax Request form. Click here to download a copy of this form (.doc), (.pdf). It provides us with information needed to update the business's account with the new owner's information when a business sells or to cancel the account if the business is closing. This update will be provided to the Finance Division to ensure the final tax bill is sent to the appropriate person. More detail about the personal property assessment process is provided in the Department of Revenue’s
publication, Personal Property Tax . The
Department of Revenue provides county assessors with general supervision and control in the administration of state
assessment and tax laws (RCW 84.08.010). An illustrated overview of the personal property assessment process is provided here. If you have additional questions, please contact us at 206-296-3914 or by e-mail at Personal.Property@kingcounty.gov. We’d be happy to help! Personal Property Basic Overview (.pdf file, 219k) Updated: March 4, 2008
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