Carl
Level 15

Investors & landlords

The rental I refer to is a condo unit with no furniture.

Then you don't have any tangible property.

In FL (where I am at and own rental property also) if you use tangible property in the production of income, most of the 67 counties in FL impose a "tangible property tax" on that tangible property each and every tax year it's used to produce that income.

So for example, if you have a furnished rental *AND* you are claiming and depreciating that furniture as a physically separate rental asset, the county considers that furniture to be "equipment" that is utilized on a recurring basis in the production of income. They impose a tax on that "equipment" every single year.

So for those with furnished rentals that think they're saving money by claiming and depreciating the furniture as a separate asset (furniture is depreciated over 5 years) end up paying to their local county their federal tax "savings" in the form of the intangibles property tax. Generally, what you pay for that tax exceeds what you "save" by depreciating it as a separate asset.

So if you have tangible property and download the FL state module (which is not free by the way) what that module does for you, is help you complete the DR-405-Tangible Personal Property Tax Return.

The DR-405 can "NOT" be e-filed either. It has to be mailed or taken to the local county property tax appraiser office of whatever county the rental property is located in.

For rental property owners that put themselves in a situation where they have to deal with this, is just not worth it. When furniture breaks or reaches a point where you have to dispose of it and/or replace it, the paperwork nightmare it creates at the county level is a real PITA. FL counties also absolutely "LOVE IT" when you mess up the paperwork. That means they get to audit your rental business and impose some pretty hefty fines to help increase their tax revenue.

This is one reason why I don't deal with "furnished" in any of the three rentals I own.