If you’re part of a corporate tax department, there are plenty of resources providing information about tax issues and strategies related to real property, but few doing the same for personal property—even though personal property offers similar opportunities for tax savings. To help with strategizing on both fronts equally, this article starts by defining each term at a basic level, then highlights the differences between real and personal property that are relevant to tax practice.

Cable companies, railroad companies, natural gas and oil companies—these are some of the types of organizations whose primary assets tend to cross county or jurisdictional borders. Because taxes are assessed on property located in specific jurisdictions, that creates a challenge when it comes to business personal property tax filings: How do you properly distribute the value of those assets over the various jurisdictions in which they’re located? This article examines the most efficient method for doing that, as well as how to choose the right allocation metrics to ensure the fairest possible distribution of value.

If you’ve read our blog at all, you know our stance on using software to manage your team’s property tax processes: We’re all about automating commercial property tax management workflows, so you get back time for high-value tasks, like determining how to protest unfair assessments.

While it might be desirable to handle all aspects of property tax in-house, it’s not always practical. In many instances, there’s a good business case to be made for outsourcing. For instance, you may be part of a corporation with limited resources to devote to the tax function or a team that lacks personnel with specialized knowledge. You may even need expert advice on tax matters if your organization is implementing new venture strategies. (What’s one case where outsourcing isn’t the best solution? If you’re simply looking for ways to improve your team’s efficiency, software can take care of that.)

If you’re wondering about the difference between secured vs. unsecured property taxes, I’d wager a guess you live in California. Why? Because it’s the only state in the union that uses this terminology in reference to this common ad valorem tax. Everywhere else, “secured property tax” is simply called real estate tax (real estate is attached to or secured by land); and “unsecured property tax” is called personal property tax (movable property not permanently affixed to a particular location).

Planning to appeal your property taxes? If you’ve done your homework, your efforts will likely save your organization a fair amount of money. You might be wondering, though, if property tax appeal software would be a helpful tool to have at your disposal. Will it help streamline the process? Will it prevent errors? Will it give you a leg up in meeting deadlines?

Managing the business personal property tax cycle is a herculean task for companies of every size. But mid- to large-size businesses, who may have hundreds of property tax assessments to deal with annually, face exceptional challenges staying on top of information tracking, due dates, filing paperwork, and more. When their workload has outgrown the standard organizational tools—like Excel spreadsheets and online project management tools—most teams know it’s time to make the leap to property tax software.

It’s no secret that the nature of work is changing, which is why a growing number of business leaders like yourself are beginning to assess what their future workforces might look like. Part of that assessment includes identifying which capabilities and tools will be most needed by their teams. In recent years, your research may have identified robotic process automation (RPA) as the answer to future challenges; today, there’s an advanced version of automation that will prove to be even more valuable for organizations: smart process automation, or SPA.

Taxes may be a certainty, but when it comes to property tax, the amount of taxes owed is not. That’s because commercial properties can be appraised in different ways, depending on who’s doing the appraising: an assessor or a fee appraiser. It’s important to know the differences in these commercial property appraisal methods so you’re better prepared to advocate for a fair assessment—and the appropriate amount of taxes owed.

There’s no question about it: Artificial intelligence (AI) is reinventing the way tax professionals approach tax season. To better understand the use of artificial intelligence in tax, it’s important to know what tax bots are, how they’re beneficial to tax teams, and why some professionals are still hesitant to adopt automation technology.