DC Personal Property Tax: Form FP-31, Deadlines, and Exemptions

The District of Columbia personal property tax applies to tangible property used in a trade or business, at a rate of $3.40 per $100 of assessed value above a $225,000 exemption. It is reported annually on Form FP-31, filed electronically through MyTax.DC.gov, with the return and full payment due by July 31.

Who Has to File

The tax reaches any individual, corporation, partnership, trust, estate, or other entity that owns tangible personal property used in a trade or business within the District.¹ “Any business” is the operative phrase. A sole proprietor consulting from a home office with a laptop and a desk owns reportable property.²

You must file Form FP-31 even if your total assessed value falls below $225,000. The exemption zeroes out the tax bill; it does not remove the reporting obligation.

Leased equipment is the owner’s problem, not the user’s. The instructions require filing by any entity that owns tangible personal property “held for rent or lease or similar business arrangement with third parties, government agencies or non-profit entities.”³ If a national leasing company owns the copier in your office, they report it. If you own the copier and lease the office, you report it.

What Counts as Taxable Property

Taxable items include office furniture, computers, printers, manufacturing equipment, restaurant fixtures, construction machinery, signage, and professional tools. One item that surprises people: computer software is explicitly included in the District’s definition of tangible personal property, which differs from many jurisdictions that treat software as intangible.²

Motor vehicles and trailers registered with DC under the standard vehicle registration system are exempt, because they already pay registration fees. Special equipment mounted on a vehicle that is not primarily used to transport people or goods, such as a crane on a truck bed, is taxed separately as personal property.⁴

How the District Values Your Property

July 1 is the valuation date. Whatever you own or hold in trust on that date is what goes on the return for the tax year, which runs from July 1 through the following June 30.² You report each asset’s original cost, then apply the District’s prescribed depreciation rate to reach its current taxable value.

Depreciation categories sort assets by expected useful life, each with a fixed annual rate and a floor. Most assets cannot be depreciated below 25% of original cost. Qualified technological equipment has a lower floor of 10%.⁵

The main categories:

Category A depreciates 10% per year over a 10-year life. It covers the widest range of business assets, including office furniture, restaurant equipment, hotel fixtures, banking equipment, medical and dental office equipment, printing machinery, signs, solar panels, and most general commercial fixtures.
Category B depreciates 6.67% per year over a 15-year life. It covers longer-lived items such as transmitting towers, fiber optic cables, satellite dishes, safes, pianos and organs, and watercraft.
Category C depreciates 12.5% per year over an 8-year life. It covers construction equipment, car wash equipment, and building and lawn maintenance equipment.

Technological equipment such as computers, servers, and networking hardware depreciates faster and uses its own schedule with the 90% depreciation cap. The FP-31 instructions published each year list which specific assets belong in which category. Property that is fully depreciated but still in use still has to be reported at its floor value.

Calculating What You Owe

The rate is $3.40 for every $100 of taxable personal property value above the $225,000 exemption.¹ So a business with $400,000 in total depreciated personal property subtracts the $225,000 exemption to get $175,000 in taxable value, multiplies by 0.034, and owes $5,950. A business at $225,000 or below owes nothing but still files.

Filing Form FP-31

Form FP-31 must be filed electronically through MyTax.DC.gov. The District no longer prints or mails paper booklets.⁵ You will need a taxpayer identification number appropriate to your entity type: a Federal Employer Identification Number, Social Security Number, Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or Preparer Tax Identification Number.

The return asks for a detailed schedule of every tangible asset, including acquisition date, original cost, and depreciation category. The system applies the depreciation rates and calculates taxable value. You also report property disposed of during the prior year so the District removes it from your account, and you list fully depreciated property still in use. A running asset inventory with digital copies of purchase invoices and disposal records makes July far less painful than reconstructing everything from receipts.

Payment goes through the MyTax.DC.gov portal by ACH debit or credit card at the time of filing.⁶ Save the confirmation number as proof of filing and payment.

Deadline, Extensions, and Penalties

The filing window opens July 1 and closes before August 1, making July 31 the effective deadline. The full tax is due at filing. There is no installment option.⁷

You can request an extension in writing before August 1, but the request must include payment of the tax. The maximum extension is three months past July 31, so the latest possible filing date is October 31. An extension to file is not an extension to pay.⁷

Missing the deadline stacks consequences quickly. The late filing or payment penalty runs 5% of unpaid tax per month or partial month, capped at 25%. Interest accrues at 10% per year, compounded daily.⁸ A one-time collection fee equal to 10% of the balance applies if the tax remains unpaid 90 days after a notice of enforcement. Undervaluing property brings its own charges: a 20% negligence penalty on underpayments caused by failure to keep adequate records or make a reasonable attempt to comply, and a valuation misstatement penalty of 20% where the correct value is 200% or more of what you reported, climbing to 40% where the correct value is 400% or more of reported. Thorough acquisition records are the simplest defense against both.

Nonprofit Exemption

Organizations with 501(c)(3) status can apply for a certificate of exemption from the DC Office of Tax and Revenue by filing Form FR-164 through MyTax.DC.gov. Property used in activities generating unrelated business income under IRC Section 511 stays taxable even for otherwise exempt organizations.³

1
D.C. Law Library. District of Columbia Code 47-1522 – Levy of Annual Tax on Personal Property
2
D.C. Law Library. District of Columbia Code 47-1521 – Definitions
3
District of Columbia Office of the Chief Financial Officer. FP-31 District of Columbia Personal Property Tax Instructions
4
D.C. Law Library. District of Columbia Code 47-1508 – Exemptions
5
Office of the Chief Financial Officer. FP-31 District of Columbia Personal Property Tax Instructions
6
District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue. How to File a Personal Property Tax Return (FP-31)
7
D.C. Law Library. District of Columbia Code 47-1524 – Form of Tax Return; Filing; Extensions
8
D.C. Law Library. District of Columbia Code 47-4201 – Interest on Underpayments