Personal Property Statements: Don’t make This Costly Mistake!

Urgent! Personal property statement deadlines have already passed, but make sure you didn't make a costly mistake!
If you have assessable commercial or industrial personal property you were probably required to file a 2012 Form L-4175 by February 1, 2012. Many taxpayers make the costly mistake of attaching tax asset detail sheets to the personal property statements. These sheets typically include acquisitions costs and dates and provide a basis for completing your personal property statement. However, the sheets often include information for income tax purposes that should not be disclosed to the assessor! Leasehold improvements that are already taxed as real property and are listed on the tax asset detail sheet only for income tax depreciation purposes can be caught by the assessor and entered into your personal property assessment, resulting in double taxation. Sometimes it is necessary to include support for Section M of the personal property statement, the leasehold improvements section. But you should limit the supporting documents to the items that you must disclose in Section M to support the return and not include the entire tax asset detail sheet. Avoiding this problem requires detailed analysis of your personal property statements and asset details. Contact me and I can help you avoid address this problem and avoid it in the future!