2022 Winter Newsletter

BEST PRACTICES

In November 2018, the Standard on Valuation of Personal Property revision was approved and was a complete rewrite of the December 2005 Standards. There are three principles outlined in Section 3 of the Standard: Personal property valuers should develop a comprehensive process to discover all personal property in their jurisdiction. Personal property valuers must identify all property, subject to taxation and ensure that it is included on the assessment roll. Discovery provides the basis for determining if the property is subject to taxation or exempt from property taxes.

Section 4, Discovery of Personal Property, states that the extent to which we can assess personal property depends on discovery and that complete discovery requires supporting resources. Aside from the self-declaration form (in Florida, the DR 405, Tangible Personal Property Tax Return), conducting an annual canvass is the best tool for discovery. The Tangible Department of the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office has been conducting an annual canvass for well over 20 years. Each ap- praiser has a territory consisting of 2,000 or more accounts, and the department canvasses over 37,000 businesses annually (this does not include utility, telecommunications, leasing or centrally as- sessed accounts). This is no small task in the county with the largest land area in Florida. We do our field data collection for annual canvassing using Microsoft Surface Pro tablets, GPS don- gles and our “Tangible Field App.” This app was originally designed “in house” for our department in 2012 since our CAMA system vendor does not have any field app for tangible (or any plans to pro- duce one). It was originally a spreadsheet-based format. It included GPS and a map that appraisers viewed separately from the account data. In 2018, an outside GIS programmer redesigned it to be GIS based, with the map and account data viewable on a split screen.

Here is how it works. The appraiser drives to the area they will be canvassing and opens the app. The GPS will automatically open the map to their current location. “Dots” appear on the map. Red dots are accounts to be canvassed (one dot per parcel) and black dots are individual situs points (addresses). Red dots turn green once canvassed. The appraiser selects a red or green dot and a small spreadsheet displays opposite the map showing any accounts on that parcel (above left). The appraiser selects the accounts one at a time (above right display) and makes any additions or edits to the account. The appraiser selects an action code (canvassed, delete business, new business) and hits “save.”

16

Winter

2022 Newsletter of the FCIAAO