Question: “What are personal property taxes?”

Answer: Property can be either real property or personal property.  In simple terms, real property is land and buildings.  Personal property, on the other hand, refers to “movable” items such as furniture, equipment, electronic devices, pipes and wires.

In Massachusetts, personal property owned by certain individuals and businesses can be taxed.  For example, the personal property in a second home –such as a Cape Cod summer home – and the fixtures in some businesses are taxable.  Massachusetts’ laws delineate the many exemptions to being assessed personal property taxes.

The state Department of Revenue has a “Frequently Asked Questions” (FAQ) about personal property taxes available at: www.mass.gov/doc/personal-property-faqs/download.

In the fiscal year that ended on June 30, personal property in Holliston was assessed at $116,505,750 – about 3.3% of the town’s total taxable valuation.  NSTAR, owned by Eversource Energy, has the two largest personal property accounts, with more than $50 million worth of electric and gas equipment in the town.

To assist small businesses, the Town of Holliston has voted at the past two Annual Town Meetings to exempt all personal property valued at less than $5,000.  The town’s auditors have recommended that we increase this exemption to the maximum $10,000 allowed by state law.

To calculate personal property’s worth, assessors rely on businesses to submit a “Form of List” that is mailed by our office at the end of each calendar year and due back by March 1.  We determine who gets mailed these forms by looking at commercial buildings as we drive throughout the town, cross-checking the list of businesses registered with the Town Clerk’s office, and looking at tenant information supplied by the owners of income-producing properties.

Assessors also have the right, under state law, to audit the books, papers, records and other data of personal property taxpayers in order to determine whether the taxpayer has accurately reported all taxable personal property.

The state Department of Revenue also provides us with information on the telephone and pipeline companies that it values, such as Verizon New England and Algonquin Gas Transmission, which were valued at $7.3 million and $5.7 million, respectively, in the past fiscal year.

Note that NSTAR, Verizon and Algonquin amount to about half of the total value of personal property in town.

Next Article: “How do you calculate the value of my home?”