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Responsibilities of The County Assessor -- It is the duty of The Assessor to appraise and assess all real and
personal property in the county. All property in this State shall be assessed according to its value on the First of January, except business inventory, which is assessed at its average value during the year immediately preceding the First of January.
Responsibilities of the Individual Owner of Real and Personal Property -- Between the first Monday in January and the 31st day of May of each year, the individual taxpayer
has the legal
responsibility of reporting to the assessor all personal property in his possession as of January 1st or acquired between January 1st and May 31st. A ten percent (10%) late assessment penalty will be charged on personal property assessed after May 31st with one exception: if the personal property was acquired within thirty (30) days prior to May31st, the owner then has thirty (30) days from the date of acquisition to assess it without penalty.
Homestead Tax Credit -- Homesteads
used as a principal place of residence must be reported to the Assessor's Offices in order for the $300 tax credit to be granted. Homeowners may report anytime before October 10th and receive their $300 credit. Property owners must also report when their homestead is no longer eligible for the tax credit.
Property Exemption -- According to
the Constitution of the State of Arkansas, Article 16 Section 5B, the following property shall be exempt from taxation: public property, churches, cemeteries, school buildings, libraries and buildings, grounds and materials used exclusively for public charity.
Assessment of Commercial Personal Property -- The business community of any area consists primarily of retail sales and service-oriented businesses. A retail
business, or merchant,
buys products from a supplier and resells them for profit. A service-oriented business profits by the performance of actions or duties for a fee. The same community may also contain manufacturers who process raw materials into finished goods and wholesalers who purchase product in bulk and resell them in smaller quantities to other businesses.
The personal property of most commercial
enterprises consists of three basic types: automobiles; inventory; and such fixed assets as furniture, fixtures, machinery and equipment. Automobiles will not be addressed here as it may be considered to be seperate from the other equipment owned by a business. For more information, please call (870)741-3783 during regular business hours.
Inventory -- the second type of business personal property -- is the merchant's stock-in-trade of any retail business, consisting
of goods held for sale. The same characteristics of retail inventory will generally be true for wholesalers and distributors. The inventory of manufacturers, however, is quite different, consisting of raw materials; work-in-progress; and finished goods. Some or all of the inventory of a manufacturer may not be assessable if it qualifies as transient property under the provisions of A.C.A. 26-26-1102.
Inventory should be assessed according to the business' prior year average. Inventory is to be valued at its "usual
selling price", which should be construed to include the concept of sale at the proper level of trade, i.e., the inventory of a retailer should be valued as it would sell to another retailer. The most practical measure of value of inventory is generally the owner's total cost.
The third type of business personal property consists of furniture, fixtures, machinery and equipment, generally referred to here as fixed assets or FF&E. FF&E constitutes the
principal source of taxable personal property in a service-oriented business, though some FF&E will be found in any business, regardless of its nature. Manufacturers, for
example, will possess greater amounts of machinery and equipment than, say, retailers, who in turn will own more furniture and fixtures.
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