City of Winooski, Vermont ~ Property Assessment Home Page

James C. Trzepacz, City Assessor
jctrzepacz@winooskivt.org

Municipal Building
27 West Allen Street
Winooski, Vermont 05404

(802) 655-6410 voice ext. 17
(802) 655-6414 fax

Have your 2011-2012 tax bill available and file online [HERE].

FORM HS-131 THE VERMONT HOMESTEAD DECLARATION - A Homestead Declaration must be filed when you purchase a property that will be used as your homestead or there is a change in the use of your current homestead. This is no longer an annual form. If you filed a 2010 or 2011 Homestead Declaration on your property, you do not have to file another declaration until there is a change in the use of the property or a different property becomes your homestead.

FORM HS-132 NOTICE TO WITHDRAW VERMONT HOMESTEAD DECLARATION - Use this form to withdraw a Homestead Declaration if:

you have sold the property;
it is no longer being used as a homestead;
the property is owned by an estate and it has been more than one year since the homeowner's death; or
the declaration was submitted in error;

FORM HS-145 2012 PROPERTY TAX ADJUSTMENT CLAIM: This claim must be filed every year. Generally, a Property Tax Adjustment is not available to households whose income is $97,000 or more. You may be eligible for an adjustment if:

You HAVE A Vermont Homestead declaration on file
You were a VT resident all of calendar 2011; and
You are not claimed as a dependent of another taxpayer for tax year 2011.

Documents you will need to file:

Copy of 2011/2012 property tax bill
Income information for you, your spouse/civil union partner, and all other members of the household such as W-2, 1099, SSA-1099, SSA-1042S, RRB-1099, RRB-1045, business income information

Due Date: APRIL 17, 2012

HS-131 and HS-145 may be filed up to September 1, 2011. Late filing penalties apply.

Vermont Tax forms may be downloaded from: http://www.state.vt.us/tax/forms.shtml.

Personal Property report forms are due by April 20, 2012.

Download the 2012 Personal Property Report Form [HERE]
Taxpayers filing in 2011 will receive a reporting form in the mail.
(requires Acrobat Reader )

“32 V.S.A. § 3618. Business personal property: "Business personal property" means tangible personal property of a depreciable nature used or held for use in any trade, business, professional practice, transaction, activity or occupation conducted for profit including, without limitation, all furniture and fixtures, apparatus, tools, implements, books, machines, boats, construction devices, and all personal property used or intended to be used for the production, processing, fabrication, assembling, handling or transportation of anything of value, or for the production, transmission, control or disposition of power, energy, heat, light, water or waste. "Business personal property" does not include inventory, or goods and chattels so affixed to real property as to have become part thereof, and which are therefore not severable or removable without material injury to the real property, nor does it include poles, lines and fixtures which are taxable under sections 3620 and 3659 of this title.” Personal property does not include rolling stock, leased software, or service/maintenance plans.

“§ 3618. Business personal property (a): If a town does not vote to exempt business personal property under section 3849 of this title, such property shall be appraised at fair market value ...”

Property owners report their estimated fair market value to Winooski each year on or before April 20th.

Report forms are available from the State of Vermont and a local Winooski form is available for simple reporting by small businesses. Many filers report depreciated book value. The reporting form asks the filer to estimate fair market value even though depreciated values are provided.

Where IRS-accepted depreciation methods are not utilized, the City permits a depreciation of 10% per year for the first eight years with a 20% residual value thereafter.

Leased property is considered as taxable personal property (photocopiers, telephones, credit card readers, etc.). Only equipment is taxable; eg. the “maintenance agreement” fee on a photocopier is netted from the lease value. Filers are asked to report the type of equipment and leasing company information if they are not responsible for taxes. The goal is to avoid having both lessor and lessee pay personal property tax on those items.

By law, itemized personal property filings are confidential, though, the total value is not as it is reported in the Grand List and utilized to determine the tax owed.

Only the municipal component of the tax rate is applied to personal property.

Personal property is subject to “special assessment tax” (in Winooski this is the veterans exemption make-up) and a 20% “commercial adjustment” as required by approved voter initiatives.

Example of a tax calculation on a reported fair market value of $10,000:

2010 Municipal tax rate: $0.8911 ($0.89 +0.0011)

Grand list value: $10,000 X 1% = $100.00

Unadjusted municipal tax = $100.00 X 0.8911 = $89.11

Plus 20% commercial adjustment, tax is: $89.11 + 17.82 = $106.93

Personal property is taxed on a separate bill from real estate in for quarterly installments, thus the above example would have a tax due of $26.73 for 3 installments and $26.74 for one installment.

REPORTING: Personal property report forms should be returned by April 20th. Fax available at 802-655-6414.

EMAIL COMMUNICATION POLICY

Due to technical issues (time stamp variability, undeliverable email, full in-box, virus and SPAM delayed delivery, etc.) associated with sending and receiving email, the use of email as a communication mode for tax appeals is NOT PERMITTED by the Winooski Assessor. Please communicate in person, by US Mail or other carrier, or via fax. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.