Personal Property Assessment

• Assessment is the process of assigning value to property for the purpose of property taxation. In the case of personal property most people think of this in terms of automobiles and other licensed vehicles. However, personal property is more than cars and trucks. Personal property also includes things like livestock, income furniture, grain crop, farm machinery, business equipment, manufactured homes, and planes, to list a few.
• The assessed value of personal property depends on the type of and use of the property and is arrived at by applying the correct assessment percentage to the value of the property. For instance a vehicle with historic plates would be assessed at 5% of its value. Farm equipment and livestock would be assessed at 12%. Other property like cars, trucks, trailers, recreational vehicles and equipment, heavy equipment and business equipment, just to mention a few, would be assessed at 33-1/3%.
• In Missouri, it is the taxpayer's responsibility to file their personal property declaration in the county where they lived on January 1 and to list what they owned as of January 1. In January, the assessor mails assessment forms to those who are on the rolls at that time. It is the responsibility of people moving into the county who have eligible personal property to notify the assessor's office they are here so they can be added to the assessment rolls for the year they first live here January 1. It is important to have filed a form by March 1, since penalties for late assessment may be applied to the account.
• The assessment process was computerized by former assessor, Jack Harris. Each year in January, assessment forms are computer generated and mailed to all the accounts on file at that time. Each form has a barcode on it that helps us to speedily process the forms as they are returned. Scanning the barcode tells the computer we have received a response from the property owner and then we are able to alphabetize and file the forms so they can be retrieved easily and quickly. Since the property that was owned the prior year is still listed on the computer we can tell at a glance if there are any changes. After all the updates are made and the vehicle value tables have been updated, we then run a program that assigns values to all the vehicles and adds up the other valuation components to determine the final assessed value for each account. Assessment lists and tax books are all computer generated.

New Residents and Personal Property

• New residents to the State of Missouri must bring in their registration paper(s) or title(s) and establish an account with the Assessor's office for the upcoming tax year. New residents are exempted from personal property taxes for the first year they were not residents of Missouri January 1. The Assessor's office issues statements of no personal property tax due (waivers) to those individuals who qualify for them.

Missouri Residents and Personal Property

• To license your vehicles with new tags you need proof that you paid personal property taxes for the prior year. This is done with either a paid tax receipt or a waiver (certificate of no tax due or a statement of non-assessment) stating the exemption.
• The paid tax receipt indicates that you were assessed (RSMo137.075 and 137.080) in the County that you resided in January 1 of that year and that you paid on the vehicles that you owned January 1 of that year. Each county's receipts are valid at any licensing bureau or DMV agency throughout Missouri.
• Every individual owning a vehicle on January 1 with Missouri license plates should see to it that they get assessed in their county (RSMo137.090 and 137.280) during January or February of each year.
• If you have moved here from another county in the State of Missouri, you will need to obtain proper tax papers from THAT county for those years that you lived there January 1.

Military and Personal Property

• Military personnel are provided Missouri personal property tax exemption papers ONLY if (1) they were in the military January 1 of the tax year in question, (2) claimed a state other than Missouri as their home of record (verified by seeing their Leave & Earnings Statement for the month of January), and (3) have Missouri license plates on their vehicles. We do this on the basis that by Federal law they are to pay personal property taxes to the state/county from which they entered the military.
• Otherwise for a Missouri resident who is active duty (even if out of state or out of country) and resided in Phelps County when they entered the military, then in accordance with the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act, they are to be assessed for personal property taxes in Missouri county of residence (Phelps County) regardless of where they have titled and licensed their vehicles. Other states where they are stationed are supposed to be waiving personal property taxes on those vehicles.

Where Military Personal Property is Taxed

The assessment of military personnel continues to be an area of confusion, judging from the number of calls we receive on this subject. The law in this area is controlled by the federal Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act of 1940 and the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act. The United States Supreme Court has stated that military personnel shall not lose their residence or domicile in their home state solely because they are absent from the state in compliance with military or naval orders. However, military personnel (and/or their spouses) stationed away from Missouri still must pay personal property taxes in Missouri assuming they retain Missouri as their State Home of Record (HOR) or have Missouri as their State of Legal Residence (SLR).

The military personnel (and/or their spouses) are treated as though they never left their home state and county. Consequently, assessors should treat the tangible personal property of Missouri personnel (and/or their spouses) stationed in other states or countries the same as if the taxpayer is living in the county and the personal property is present in the state. The other side of the matter, is that the personal property of any [non-resident] individuals residing in your county by means of military orders are not taxable in your jurisdiction, with the exception of business personal property located in Missouri and owned by non-resident military personnel.

The Attorney General issued an opinion [Burrell, Op. Att'y Gen. No 95 (Feb 16, 1966)] concluding that non-resident military personnel stationed in Missouri may obtain a certificate of no tax due (a waiver) from the collector and license their cars in Missouri without paying property tax on them.

If the vehicle is registered jointly with a non-resident military person and their military spouse, or the non-resident military spouse is the sole owner, the vehicle may not be taxed in Missouri.

Verification of the home of record (or State of Legal Residence) is easily ascertainable by looking at the bottom portion of the "Leave and Earnings Statement" (i.e. pay stub) which indicates the individual's claimed home state of record; the State to which income taxes are being paid to.