Schedules

In January of each year the Knox County Assessor sends approximately 17,000 tangible personal property schedule forms to every business in Knox County.  These forms are used by the taxpayers for listing the costs and dates of acquisition of all personal property such as furniture, fixtures, and equipment used in the conduct of the business.  The property is in turn usually valued from the information submitted with the schedule.  The Assessor may disagree and disallow the return in part or in total.  If so, the Assessor will make an “adjusted value” which is an assessment based upon the Assessor’s estimate and not the value from the schedule.  Actual assessments of personal property are made at thirty (30%) per cent of the full value calculated by the Assessor.  Prevailing tax rates are then applied to the final assessment.

The taxpayer must file the schedule on or before March 1 or the taxpayer will be denied the automatic application of the equalization factors computed by the State Board.  In some years this adjustment may be significant. 


Forced Assessments

The schedules are due to be returned to the Assessor on or before March 1 or a “Forced Assessment” will be made.  This is intended to be an estimate of the value of personal property at the particular location.  In Davidson County the forced assessment is usually made by extracting a median value for similar businesses which have business codes assigned to them.   
     
If the taxpayer thinks any forced assessment is excessive, the remedy is to file an appeal with the County Board of Equalization usually in June of each year. The completed property schedule must also be submitted to the Board.  In practice, these are usually submitted to the Assessor who processes them through the Board.  

If the deadline for filing schedule and appeal to the County Board is missed by the taxpayer, the taxpayer may "mitigate" the forced assessment with the Assessor.  This usually calls for a 25% assessment penalty being added to the actual value of the property.  The taxpayer has up to two years to mitigate the forced assessment with the Assessor.

Depreciation

If the Assessor accepts the schedule as filed by the taxpayer, the property is valued using State mandated depreciation tables which are standard for each county throughout the State.  There are deviations allowed from the standard depreciation tables if the taxpayer can justify to the Assessor, or one of the appeals boards, that the standard depreciation does not properly reflect the true value of the property.   This may occur, for example, if a property rapidly depreciates because of changing technology and suffers from obsolescence.  The lower value resulting from the additional allowed depreciation is called “non-standard” value.  There are many other reasons why the standard depreciation tables may not properly value the property.


Amended Schedules

State law allows a taxpayer to amend a schedule if done so prior to September 1st of the year following the tax year in question.  However, only those taxpayers who filed the required schedule timely, meaning on or before March 1, may file an amended schedule.  The Assessor may accept or reject the amended schedule.  If the schedule is accepted the property will be revalued in accordance with the new schedule and appropriate refunds issued.  Should the Assessor refuse to accept the schedule, the taxpayer may file an appeal directly to the State Board of Equalization for determination on the amended schedule.  This appeal period is presumably forty five (45) days from the date of the Assessor’s notice of refusal to accept the amended schedule.   If the taxpayer has not heard from the Assessor by sixty (60) days from filing the amended schedule, the schedule is presumed not accepted and the forty five (45) day appeal period begins.


Leased Property

Not typical of most states, Tennessee requires that leased property be assessed and taxed to the user or Lessee.  A list and description of property leased by the taxpayer is required to be furnished to the Assessor with the required reporting schedule.  The property is not assessed separately, but is included with the assessment of property owned by the taxpayer. 


Audits

Each year the Assessor is required to make full audits of a number of the personal property accounts.  Davidson County has already completed one cycle of audits of all accounts over $50,000 in value.  Presently, the Office is conducting a new cycle of accounts having a value greater than $100,000.  The Assessor uses the assistance of a professional audit firm, Tax Management Associates, also known as TMA.