Property tax comparison by state

Owning and managing a property or business can be demanding and time-consuming. It often requires long hours of multitasking and decision-making, as well as many unexpected challenges. Understanding the nuances of property tax deadlines and policies can be one of the most challenging of them all — particularly if you own property in multiple states.

Though you can’t control how states determine tax rules, you can offload the complexity of managing your obligations by staying up to date on the various deadlines for each state. Doing so can keep you ahead of the game in knowing if and where you owe, and when you need to pay.

Aside from it being your legal responsibility to pay property tax in most jurisdictions, failure to do so can significantly impact your business. Even late payments or underpayments can result in negative outcomes for your business. Here are just a few of the unpleasant consequences:

• Government tax liens or foreclosures
• Financial penalties and accumulated interest charges
• Audits or investigations by tax authorities
• Damage to your reputation in the community

It’s essential to make timely, informed decisions about your business and keep your tax obligations in check.

Companies of all sizes may face new tax obligations when they acquire other companies, expand into new jurisdictions, or purchase major assets. Having multiple locations in different states adds an even bigger layer of complexity to staying tax compliant. 

It’s important to note that property tax generally falls into two distinct categories: real and personal.

Real property taxes:

• Include land, plus the buildings and fixtures permanently attached to it
• Are assessed on agricultural, commercial, industrial, residential, and utility property
• Apply in all 50 states

Personal property taxes: 

• Include movable items such as machinery, fixtures, and other equipment — property not permanently affixed to land 
• Are assessed only on property used in business
• Only apply in 43 states

Growing your business and owning more real or personal property is usually considered a good thing, but the added obligation of more taxes tends to come with more property. Tracking and managing property tax compliance across states is challenging due to varying laws, due dates, rates, and filing requirements. The process often involves handling numerous documents, creating a complex and burdensome task for property owners.

We’ve put together this handy state-by-state guide to real and personal property tax to provide an at-a-glance view of some of the most important details, giving you a clear idea of what to do to stay compliant.

Whether you’re a homeowner or a business owner, our guide can help you easily find and compare tax policies and regulations across states plus track key deadlines.

• Is personal property taxable?
• When is the personal property tax return deadline?
• When are the assessment dates?

We understand that property tax can be a headache, but with this information, we hope to make the tax compliance process for both personal and real property taxes more straightforward and manageable.

For details on whether personal property is taxable and a breakdown of deadlines and dates for returns and assessments, see below.

Avalara Property Tax simplifies property tax management across the United States by capturing and validating historical tax rates and other key data points from over 20,000 assessing and collecting jurisdictions automatically. That means you can skip looking up due dates, mailing addresses, and depreciation tables — and spend your time on more valuable tasks, like reducing your organization’s tax liability or growing your business.

Learn more about how Avalara Property Tax can help your business.

Whether you’re a homeowner or a business owner, our guide can help you easily find and compare tax policies and regulations across states plus track key deadlines.

Updated September 21, 2023.