Real Estate Taxes vs. Personal Property Taxes

Lots of people, like you, are living in confusion. Uncertainty clouds their minds and keeps them from “seeing” the truth as it really is. Take for example, distinguishing real estate taxes from personal property taxes. There are some individuals that don’t know the difference between the two. One reason behind that can be traced back to our teachers during the good old schooling days. That is completely understandable, because the way they explain the subject matter is so damn boring! When they finally hammer the information needed into the back of our heads, it’s quickly forgotten – who would want to remember a boring part of their life anyway? SO without further delay, I’ll be discussing the difference between the two in the simplest terms possible.

First and foremost, real estate taxes are slapped on to real property. Real estate is immovable prop, like land and all the infrastructure or improvements on it. For deeper understanding of what the immovable is, check out the following examples: a house is considered to be attached to the land permanently, which cannot be moved whatsoever, so it belongs to this particular category. Other examples include buildings, ranches, farmhouses, and other infrastructure attached to these are classified under real property, which means they’ll be charged real estate taxes. Moving forward, personal prop includes your movable assets, almost everything not belonging to real property.

An example of this would be your car, the animals or livestock you own, your furniture, and even your money. They aren’t permanently attached to the ground on which they stand, which makes them more than qualified to be grouped as personal prop. Getting back to the topic on tax, personal property taxes are assessed on property that’s used in business only, my friend. The local assessor in your area has the responsibility of providing you with a form, in which you’ll be given the obligation of filing it up. With it, you’ll be required to state the value of your property.

On the other hand, real estate taxes will be assessed on either residential or industrial property – how much will you be expecting to pay here? Well that’d depend on the market value of the real property. Here’s t tip for you to always keep in mind that you may gain an idea on how more or less it works: know the value of it. This is important because the higher the value, the higher the real estate taxes will be. They rise in numbers accordingly. The value is assessed yearly by the assessor’s department. They send a notice to the tax payer each January that you may know it (obviously).

There are some instances though when you’ll be “tax exemptions”. The most common criteria for judging whether or not you’ll be qualified for the exemption would be your age, and the state of your disability (if any). Basically, this is the difference between the two types of taxes. If you’d like to get into the details, it’d be wise to do some research.