Personal Property FAQ

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.

The following list includes some of the major categories exempt from taxation:

• Personal effects
• Household items
• Non-business apparel
• Registered motor vehicles
• Livestock
• Business inventory
• Equipment used for education
• Facilities for water or air pollution control
• Property owned by a fraternal, benevolent or religious organization
• Most Farm Equipment
• 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.

Transient personal property is unregistered construction, logging and mining equipment which spend more than 30 days in more than one county in the state during the same year.
If you own transient personal property, you should consider the county in which you maintain a residence or usual place of business as your home county.

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.

The appraisal staff at the Ada County Assessor’s Office.

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.

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.

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.