An important deadline for business owners is fast approaching. Businesses with personal property and fixtures valued at $100,000 or more must file an annual Business Personal Property (BPP) Statement by April 1. This is required by state law. However, a business can file up to May 8th without a penalty. After that a 10% penalty will be applied.
Generally, businesses with personal property and fixtures valued less than $100,000 are not required to file a BPP annually. Instead, a value is established based on an initial BPP filing or by an on-site appraisal. That value may be adjusted by subsequent annual on-site appraisals. Moreover, each year BPP statements are mailed by the Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office to most commercial, industrial, and professional firms throughout the County.
BPP is typically all property owned or leased by a business except real property and inventory items.
Business Personal Property includes, but is not limited to:
- Machinery
- Computers
- Equipment (e.g. FAX machines, photocopiers)
- Furniture (e.g. desks, chairs, bookcases)
- Vessels
It’s important to remember that BPP is valued annually as of January 1. BPP statements are private documents and are held confidential by the Assessor’s Office.
For businesses going through difficult times, the Assessor’s Office invites those struggling to provide this Office with information about the business equipment for the possibility of tax relief. The Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office has a track record of proactively securing these reductions. As an example, this Office proactively in years past has reduced BPPs for about 47,000 businesses countywide. For more information on this relief go to assessor.lacounty.gov/div.
The bureaucratic name for the BPP form is the 571-L and as mentioned must be filed no later than May 8th (since May 7th falls on a Sunday, the date by which statements can be submitted without penalty is the next business day, May 8th). To file the form online or just to learn more about this go to assessor.lacounty.gov/571L.
Moreover, to help businesses navigate and complete this often-confusing form, the Assessor’s Office is hosting a virtual workshop at noon on March 30. Please avail yourself of this link to register at https://assessor-lacounty-gov.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0lfuihqDwjH9ImEfQOfE60BF88yuPJjVOG
Furthermore, over the last several years the Assessor’s Office has hosted 571-L tutorial virtual workshops that are available for viewing now on the website.