Business Property

You were identified as having taxable personal property in San Bernardino County and per the California R & T Code section 441 every person owning taxable personal property must file a business property statement with the County Assessor.

YES, if you receive a Business Property Statement (Form 571-L) or a request to file a Business Property Statement you must file. If you have an aggregate cost of taxable personal property over $100,000 you are required to file a Business Property Statement. The Assessor does not have to make the request for you to file. R & T 441

Failure to file your property statement will result in the Assessor making an Assessor Estimate of value for your property and a 10% penalty for failure to file. R & T 501 & 463

Yes, Property Statements are due April 1. If you file a timely property statement you may file an amended property statement by May 31. R & T 441

When it can be ascertained by the Assessor, from an audit of books and records, that there has been a defect of description or clerical error by the tax payer on the filed property statement, the error on the roll may be corrected. R & T 4831.5 There is a four (4) year statute of limitations for making corrections to the assessed value. R & T 532

No, the owner of the property on January 1 (lien date) is the responsible party for the assessment and property taxes. Any arrangement regarding the tax liability must be worked out between the buyer and seller. Any failure to pay the property taxes will be the responsibility of the assessed party on January 1. It is important for the seller to be sure the property taxes are paid.

The California Constitution and the Revenue and Taxation Code state that all property is taxable, including business property, unless it is specifically exempt by law.

Examples of taxable business property are: Supplies, machinery & equipment used in the profession or trade, tools, office furniture & equipment, computer hardware and operating systems, leasehold or tenant improvements to the building for the business, including electrical and plumbing for the machinery, equipment or business use. Property leased, loaned, or rented to others, construction in progress, underground & above ground tanks, vending machines, and water dispensers.

Examples of exempt property are: Inventory for sale, computer application software such as payroll programs, excel, word.

Inventory is items subject to sale, rent or leases. Supplies are things consumed in your normal course of business. Inventory will lose its exemption if used by the owner in the course of the business or trade.

For most personal property the Assessor uses the cost reported by the current owner and applies an equipment and fixtures index and percent good valuation factors provided by the State Board of Equalization to arrive at the market value. (AH 581)

If you disagree with the value assessed once you receive your tax bill from the County Tax Collector, read the back side of the tax bill for your appeal rights. If you filed your property statement, contact our office for an informal review of the assessment. If the assessment made for failure to file your property statement, then you must file an appeal. R & T 1603

No, if you previously mailed in your current year’s property statement, you do not need to e-file. E-file invitations are mailed out a few weeks after the property statements for the current year. However, if you do use e-file, your filing will be stored and accessible to you during the filing time frame of March 1 – May 30. E-filing will allow you to easily electronically file next year.

Yes, the e-file system accepts amended property filings, within the time frame per State Tax Law. Log onto the website and enter your account number and BIN. Click the Start Filing button and you can then File Amendment. You may amend the return twice before the mandated deadline. If you have amended the return twice and additional changes are necessary please contact our office at (909) 382-3220.

Yes, call our office at (909) 382-3220 Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:00 am and 5:00 pm.

Yes, you can use the same BIN number to make the changes to the business name or location. You can also enter the updated business or location in the remarks section.

It could be that you are using an old BIN number (Business Identification Number); a new BIN number is issued each year. It could also be because of heavy traffic around April 1st and May 9th.

Yes, each location requires its own account number and BIN. However, you can register on the website to manage multiple accounts. To register go to the page where you would normally enter your account number and BIN. Click on the button marked ‘Register and Manage My Statements’. You can now consolidate all of your BINs and account numbers into one registered account.

If you e-filed your 2015 property statement, for 2016 you may not receive a 571-L form but only an invitation to e-file. If you would like to file a paper copy of this form instead, you can request a form to file by contacting our office at (909) 382-3220, or downloading a Business Property Statement Request form.

The tax is collected by the Auditor-Controller/Treasurer/Tax Collector. The Auditor-Controller/Treasurer/Tax Collector sends the tax bills at the end of July. No amount of taxes due is shown in the e-file system.

The preview only shows DBA and 2 assessee names, a list is attached that shows the rest of the assessee names entered. In the first section of the e-file website (Situs Section) enter the Assessees as stated on the Business Property Form. Individual partners are entered in the Ownership Section and each partner can be entered as necessary.

No, by submitting the e-file Property Statement and receiving a confirmation number, we consider this to be a valid business property filing. Just attach the confirmation number and printed e-filed return to the paper form and keep for future reference if necessary. If you do not receive a confirmation number the e-filing did not go through.

After completing the e-file, you should print a copy for your records for future reference, but you do not need to print a copy to send to the Assessor. We will receive your e-filing electronically.

Yes you need Adobe Reader, which most computers do have. If you do not have Adobe Reader it can be downloaded free from Adobe.

If this is your first year e-filing or if last year you changed locations, the costs will not be in the system. If you e-file this year and again next year, the costs you are entering now will be in the system for next year.

Go to “Property Belonging to You” section and click on Update button to the left side of the listed schedule. Select the common list of categories or more categories and enter the costs by year of acquisition. To add or delete costs and proceed to the next schedule, you must click Update. Be sure to save each page as complete them so you will not lose any data if your online session times out.

The Assessor’s Office does not send out tax bills. The bill will come from the Tax Collector for one of two reasons. Either we failed to update our records after a deed transferring real property was recorded, or the property was transferred by means other than a recorded deed and no notification was sent to the Assessor’s office. Personal property (including boats, aircraft, manufactured homes, and business property) is typically not transferred by a deed, so it is imperative that you notify the Assessor as soon as possible after selling it. The same is true for real property transactions in which a deed is not recorded until the buyer has paid the seller in full and/or satisfied any other conditions of the sale. Please visit the Tax Collector’s website for more information: https://www.mytaxcollector.com/