Personal Property Filing Penalties

What happens if a taxpayer doesn't file a listing of their personal property with the county?

The county appraiser is required by law to apply a penalty to the assessed value of personal property that is not listed by the March 15th deadline. Previously, by law, only the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals (BOTA) had the authority to abate or refund filing penalties whenever excusable neglect on the part of the person required to file the statement could be shown. However, beginning July 1, 2024, the county appraiser will also have the authority to abate or refund filing penalties whenever excusable neglect is shown. Whenever the taxpayers do not agree with the filing penalty applied to their personal property, the taxpayer must file a grievance application with the BOTA requesting that the penalty be abated or refunded. All grievance applications are filed in the county where the penalty was incurred. Grievance applications are available from the county appraiser’s office or the BOTA website @ http://www.kansas.gov/bota [K.S.A. 79-1422]]

Motor Vehicles, Other PP and Watercraft: By law, failure-to-file and late-filing penalties are applied only to personal property that is owned on January 1. Therefore, motor vehicles, other personal property and watercraft that can be prorated onto and off of the tax roll when they are purchased or sold during the year are not subject to filing penalties. Filing penalties are not applied to property that is not owned on January 1st. [K.S.A. 79-306d; 79-306e]

Oil and Gas: The same filing penalties apply to Oil and Gas property, except that the filing deadline is April 1st instead of March 15th. Refer to K.S.A. 79-332a for more information on oil and gas filing penalties. [K.S.A. 79-332a]