Tangible Personal Property

What is ‘Tangible Personal Property’

Tangible personal property is a tax term describing personal property that can be physically relocated, such as furniture and office equipment. Tangible personal property is always depreciated over either a five- or seven-year period using straight-line amortization, but is eligible for accelerated depreciation as well.

Explaining ‘Tangible Personal Property’

Tangible personal property includes a wide variety of equipment, from small office fixtures to light trucks and buses. It also includes any and all miscellaneous assets that do not inherently qualify for any other class life, such as jewelry, toys and sports equipment. Tangible personal property is the opposite of real property, in a sense, as real property is immovable.

Further Reading

  • Estimating the manufacturing employment impact of eliminating the tangible personal property tax: Evidence from Ohio – journals.sagepub.com [PDF]
  • The Diminishing Difference Between Selling and Leasing Tangible Personal Property – heinonline.org [PDF]
  • Assessment and Taxation of Tangible Personal Property on Farms – www.jstor.org [PDF]
  • Bona diagnosis, bona curatio: How property economics clarifies the degrowth debate – www.sciencedirect.com [PDF]
  • SALES AND USE TAX EXEMPTIONS FOR MACHINERY USED IN THE RECYCLING OF TANGIBLE PERSONAL PROPERTY – www.jstor.org [PDF]
  • INTERIM REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PERSONAL PROPERTY TAXATION ON THE TAXATION OF TANGIBLE PERSONAL PROPERTY USED IN BUSINESS – www.jstor.org [PDF]
  • Massachusetts Applies the Operational Approach for Sourcing of Sales other than Sales of Tangible Personal Property – heinonline.org [PDF]
  • Taxation of tangible personal property used in agriculture. – www.cabdirect.org [PDF]