What is Personal Property?
Personal property refers to movable items used in a business that are not permanently attached to land or buildings. These assets play a key role in daily operations and are assessed separately from real property for tax purposes. Examples include: office furniture, fixtures, machinery, tools, business signs and more as well as equipment such as computers, phones or similar items. The County Assessor of Property offers E-filing for Personal Property schedules. Participation is optional, and paper filing is still permitted. Should you use the online system, your business’s unique login details can be found in the upper‑right corner of the mailed schedule. This information is renewed annually.
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Tennessee Code § 67-5-501
classification and assessment For purposes of classification and assessment of property: (1) "All other tangible personal property" includes all tangible personal property, including that used in agriculture, except public utility tangible personal property and commercial and industrial tangible personal property; (2) "Commercial and industrial tangible personal property" includes personal property, such as goods, chattels and other articles of value that are capable of manual or physical possession, and machinery and equipment that are: (A) Used essentially and principally for the commercial or industrial purposes or processes for which they are intended; and (B) If affixed or attached to real property, can be detached without material injury to such real property; (3) "Farm property" includes all real property that is used, or held for use, in agriculture as defined in §§ 1-3-105 and 43-1-113, including, but not limited to, growing crops, pastures, orchards, nurseries, plants, trees, timber, raising livestock or poultry, or the production of raw dairy products, and acreage used for recreational purposes by clubs, including golf course playing hole improvements; (4) "Industrial and commercial property" includes all property of every kind used, directly or indirectly, or held for use, for any commercial, mining, industrial, manufacturing, trade, professional, club whether public or private, nonexempt lodge, business, or similar purpose, whether conducted for profit or not. All real property that is used, or held for use, for dwelling purposes that contains two (2) or more rental units is hereby defined and shall be classified as "industrial and commercial property"; (5) "Intangible personal property" includes personal property, such as money, any evidence of debt owed to a taxpayer, any evidence of ownership in a corporation or other business organization having multiple owners, and all other forms of property, the value of which is expressed in terms of what the property represents rather than its own intrinsic worth. "Intangible personal property" includes all personal property not defined as "tangible personal property"; (6) "Modern market telecommunications provider" means: (A) An incumbent local exchange telephone company that elects market regulation pursuant to § 65-5-109; (B) A telephone cooperative organized pursuant to § 65-29-102; or (C) A nongovernmental entity or separate operating division within the entity if the business activity of the entity or division is limited to providing: (i) Competitive local exchange telephone services; or (ii) Interconnected voice over internet protocol services; (7) "Movable structure" includes a mobile home or such other movable structure that is constructed as a trailer or semitrailer and designed to either be towed along the highways or to be parked off the highways, and that may be used, temporarily or permanently, as a residence, apartment, office, storehouse, warehouse, or for any other commercial or industrial purpose; (8) "Personal property" includes every species and character of property that is not classified as real property; (9) "Public utility property" includes all property of every kind, whether owned or leased, and used, or held for use, directly or indirectly in the operation of a public utility, which includes, but is not necessarily limited to, the following business entities, whether corporate or otherwise: (A) Railroad companies; (B) Telephone companies other than the following: (i) Companies providing cellular telephone service as defined in § 65-4-101(6)(A)(vi); (ii) Companies providing radio common carrier service as defined in § 65-30-103; (iii) Companies providing long distance telephone service; and (iv) Modern market telecommunications providers; (C) Freight and private car companies that are defined as any business, other than a railroad company, that owns, uses, furnishes, leases, rents or operates to, from, through, in or across this state or any part thereof any kind of railroad car, including, but not necessarily limited to, flat, tank, refrigerator, or similar type cars; (D) Street car companies; (E) Power companies, whether hydroelectric, steam, atomic, or other kinds for the transmission of power; (F) Express companies; (G) Pipeline companies; (H) Gas companies; (I) Electric light companies; (J) Water and/or sewerage companies; (K) Motor bus and/or truck companies holding a certificate of convenience and necessity or contract hauler's permit from the department of safety or the federal highway administration and domiciled in this state and/or owning or leasing real or personal property located in this state; (L) Taxicab, transit and limousine companies; (M) Commercial air carrier companies holding a certificate of convenience and necessity from the department of transportation, civil aeronautics board, federal aviation administration, or any other federal or state regulatory agency; excepting those companies whose operations are solely chartered operations; and (N) Water transportation carrier companies which operate boats and barges over the waterways of this state for hire, which are registered for these purposes with the United States army corps of engineers or any other federal or state agency and which are domiciled in this state or own or lease real or personal property located in this state; provided, that the portion of property of these companies used for water carriage that was exempt from regulation by the interstate commerce commission under federal law in effect on November 1, 1995, shall not be considered public utility property for classification and assessment purposes; Important Dates February 1 Personal Property Schedules mailed to each business owner by this date. March 1 Personal Property Schedules should be returned by this date. May 20 Assessments should be complete and change notices mailed. June (first Monday) County Board of Equalization meets for appeals regarding Personal Property Schedules. September 1 Last day to file an amended Personal Property Schedule for the previous tax year. |
