Welcome to your Thurston County Assessor's website
We are making an effort to update this site with current issues as they emerge and to provide appropriate links for easy access to greater detail.
Attention Thurston County Businesses!
Click here for Personal Property Amnesty Online Filing or Printable Amnesty Form.
It may be helpful to have a list of your equipment prior to filing.
Please submit only ONE copy of either the online form or the printable form as duplicate entries filed may result in a double assessment.
A post card was recently mailed to 22,000 business and individuals who have been (or currently are) registered with the State of Washington. These accounts include businesses that are currently engaged in business activity. However, you could also be an individual, or business, who no longer has any business activity, but your account was never closed.
- If you no longer own or operate a business in Thurston County there would be nothing you would need to report to the Thurston County Assessor's Office.
- If you would like to close your business account with the State of Washington, go to: http://dor.wa.gov from the Department of Revenue "Home" page go to "I need to..." and select "Close my account"
If you are visiting our homepage as a result of interest in the recently adopted, amnesty program for businesses who have failed to report Business Personal Property, it is our intention to provide links on this page which should walk you through the filing process and afford you quick access to common questions.
In March of this year, the Governor signed into law SHB 2149 and on April 10th Thurston County Commissioners authorized immediate implementation of this One Time Business Personal Property Amnesty Program. Businesses who have failed to report taxable personal property are subject to penalties up to 25% and interest for the current and preceeding three years.
Prior to getting started, it is important to understand the program and that you are aware of two key deadlines:
- Participating businesses must apply for this program (using our on line form or printable form) and submit a correct list of their business personal property for the present year and the preceeding three years, if applicable, on or before July 1st 2012
- Participating businesses are required to make payment in full, of the back taxes owed, on or before September 1st 2012
The following link will take you to a Department of Revenue publication detailing who owes personal property tax and explaining which personal property is subject to this tax: Click Here
For information about this amnesty program provided by the Department of Revenue, click the following link: Click Here
Some property and businesses are eligible for exemptions.
For a link to information about the Farm exemption, Click Here
For a link detailing the head of family exemption an overview of the Personal Property Appraisal Process and answers to Frequently Asked Questions, Click Here
In preparation for this new program, we have devoted considerable energy aimed at making your participation in this program as easy and efficient as possible. We encourage you to make use of our online program application and personal property reporting form. Use of this form will also save our staff a considerable amount of processing time. The following link will take you to the form and related instructions: Personal Property Amnesty Instructions
If for some reason, you require a printed form to fill out a PDF will also be available using the above link.
What happens next?
After you submit your form, the taxable value of each item will be determined and the total taxable value for each year involved will be communicated to the Treasurer who will mail out your tax statement by August 1st giving you 30 days to comply with requirement to pay the taxes owed on or before September 1st. Due to the limited processing time provided for in this new program, our staff may well be working long hours seven days a week in late June and early July to keep up with related work and you will be advised of the per year values on your tax statement. A letter will also be enclosed detailing your right to appeal the value and the process for doing so.
In Closing:
My staff stands ready to answer any questions you may have about this ONE TIME Amnesty program, though I respectfully request that you seek the answer first, by review of the information linked to above. Though I will confess that this new program was learned of only days before the Governor signed it into law, my staff and I immediately went into action and advocated for our County Commissioner's to authorize its implementation. This is the single best opportunity businesses will ever get to voluntarily come into compliance without owing penalties or interest.
Sincerely,
Steven J. Drew
Thurston County Assessor
County Offers Amnesty Program for Business Personal Property Taxes (Posted April 2012)
Over the past few weeks, the State Legislature passed SHB 2149 which has been signed into law by the Governor and authorized here in Thurston County by Commissioners at their 4/10/12 meeting.
In Washington State, Businesses are required to report all business property to the County Assessor for purpose of calculating its actual cash value or market value which is then used to calculate the businesses personal property tax. Businesses who fail to report this property are subject to a 25% penalty and interest.
25% Penalty and Interest to be waived for those businesses who respond and pay within the prescribed dates.
- On or before July 1, 2012, the taxpayer files with the assessor:
- A correct list and statement of the taxable personal property required to be listed under state law, and
- A completed application for penalty waiver in the form and manner prescribed by the Assessor
- A correct list and statement of the taxable personal property required to be listed under state law, and
- Full payment of the tax must be made to the county on or before September 1, 2012, to include the entire balance due on all tax liabilities for which a penalty waiver is requested.
- Taxpayer receiving penalty relief may not seek a refund or otherwise challenge the amount of tax liability.
- Personal property listed by the taxpayer is subject to verification by the assessor and any unreported or misreported property remains subject to taxes, penalties, and interest.
- Taxpayer receiving penalty relief may not seek a refund or otherwise challenge the amount of tax liability.
STAY TUNED and check our home page for the application form which is in development now.
My staff is working hard to solve the challenges this new program presents. We will post an application form in the next few days and will be mailing out over 20,000 notice cards in the near future.
It is my hope that good job producing businesses make use of this ONE TIME opportunity in order to come into compliance with respect to Business Personal Property tax law and in doing so, save the 25% penalty and interest that would otherwise be owed.
Sincerely,
Steven J. Drew
Thurston County Assessor
Tax Statement Notification (Posted Feb 2012)
To our valued customers:
Tax statements should reach taxpayers this year, on about February 13th. Even though the value of most properties continued to decline in 2011, for many a combination of factors will produce an increase in your tax liability.
Particularly in these difficult times, it is understandable that many taxpayers have questions as they review their tax statements. We in the Assessor’s office continue to work collaboratively with your County Treasurer, Shawn Myers and her staff in order to provide taxpayers improved access to meaningful information about how each taxpayers taxes have been calculated. With this in mind, we have made some additional changes to both web sites and added what we hope will be helpful content.
It is important to remember that questions about how your taxes were calculated, or regarding how to pay your taxes should be directed to the Treasurer’s Office. Your Treasurer, Shawn Myers provides great information on the Treasurer web site or her customer service staff can be reached by phone at (360) 786-5550.
Questions about your assessed value or eligibility in tax exemption programs should be directed to the Assessor’s Office. Our customer service staff is available from 8AM to 5PM five days a week in person or by phone at (360) 867-2200.
First, however, my hope is that you will review some or all of the following information:
- To review our 2012 Levies and Property Tax Fact Sheet including detailed answers to frequently asked questions please: click here
- To access your specific property taxes for 2012: click here
- To view the Property Tax Flow Chart: click here
- For greater detail about how your property taxes are determined: click here
- To see a breakdown of property taxes by taxing district: click here
It is my sincere hope that this brief explanation and the linked to reference tools will resolve any questions you may have upon receipt of this year’s tax statement. Should this not be the case, the staffs of both the Treasurer’s office and my office look forward to serving you.
Sincerely,
Steven J. Drew
Thurston County Assessor
Revaluation Information (Posted Fall 2011)
All properties in Thurston County are inspected every 6 years. This year our office inspected over 1,500 commercial and 16,000 residential properties in order to verify and update condition and quality and to identify new structures and improvements. A great deal of care and analysis has been invested to assure that each property is fairly and equitably valued. Still, we recognize that in some instance a reexamination of a given property value is in order.
Two remedies’ exist for property owners who have a concern about the accuracy of their assessed values. The first is to contact our office to review your concern with our skilled staff during the appeal period. My entire staff is motivated to have productive dialogue aimed at rapidly resolving valid concerns about your property value within the newly extended 60-day appeal period. If your concern cannot be resolved prior to the appeal deadline of
We have made some significant changes since the first of the year aimed at improving transparency, improving customer service and to provide a longer more productive period to achieve immediate resolution of taxpayer concerns.
These changes include:
- Making Cost Valuation Reports and property characteristics available on this website.
- Posting a complete copy of our characteristics and conditions manual for reference.(22MB)
- Extending the appeal period from 30 – 60 days.
- Restoring our permanent office hours to 8:00am to 5:00pm (including the lunch hour) Monday through Friday.
- Adding phone lines and realigning staff to assure calls are routed to the proper professional for prompt action.
- Revised the revaluation card for greater clarity and comparison with values in prior years.
By next June (when revaluation notices will go out next year), we intend to add photographs for all properties to our website. Our goal is to continually improve taxpayers’ ability to research and verify their properties assessed value from home.
