The assessment date is March 1 each year. On that day businesses or local assessors fix the assessed value of the inventories the business has on hand. This is why the end of February always sees the tax sales. Businesses try to sell their inventories so their assessment on March 1 is as small as possible. Most personal property is inventories and depreciable equipment owned by commercial, industrial, farm and utility businesses.
Personal property is reassessed every year.
Business taxpayers or local assessors value their inventories and equipment as of March 1, by filling out a personal property form. Taxes on the value of this property are due in the following year. The form has 28 lines, all of which are important to a business accountant. The citizen trying to understand how inventory assessment works can focus on a few of these lines, however. The business must enter a dollar figure on this line.