California Personal Property Tax

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Fixed Assets and UltraTax CS 2023 help is now on Help and Support. We're still moving articles, but you can find most content for the 2023 tax year there. Continue using the Help & How-To Center for tax years 2022 and older.

The UltraTax/California Personal Property Tax application supports 1040, 1041, 1065, 1120, 1120S, and 990 entities. It prepares property tax statements from depreciation data entered in the Asset Detail dialog.

Note: The California State Board of Equalization does not allow personal property forms to be reproduced by application providers. You must complete and sign the original return. Returns generated by UltraTax CS are only for record-keeping purposes.

California forms and schedules (non-submittable, transcription required)

  • Form 571-L - Business Property Statement
  • Form 571-F - Agricultural Property Statement
  • Form 571-A - Agricultural Property Statement
  • Form 571-D - Supplemental Schedule for Reporting Monthly Acquisitions and Disposals of Property Reported on Schedule B of the Business Property Statement
  • Schedule A (571-L) - Cost Detail: Equipment
  • Schedule A (571-A & 571-F) - Supplies
  • Schedule B (571-L) - Cost Detail: Buildings, Building Improvements and/or Leasehold Improvements, Land Improvements, Land and Land Development
  • Schedule B (571-A & 571-F) - Animals
  • Schedule C (571-F) - Fixed Machinery and Equipment
  • Schedule C (571-A) - Cost Detail: Equipment
  • Schedule D (571-F) - Moveable Farm Equipment
  • Schedule D (571-A) - Moveable Farm Equipment and Harvesters
  • *Form 571-LA - Alternate Schedule A (Non-calculating form)

Depreciation treatments required for all CA PPT assets

The Book or CA treatment must be entered for California Personal Property Tax returns. By default, the Book treatment transfers to the return. However, the CA treatment will transfer to the return if the Complete return using the CA treatment within the Asset module field is marked on Screen Gen in the General folder for UltraTax/California Personal Property Tax.

Note: If you previously entered depreciation data for only the Tax treatment, you can copy asset data from the Tax treatment to the Book treatment or to the CA treatment.

Associations required for all CA PPT assets

  • Situs: Each asset must have California selected in the Situs field to transfer to the California Personal Property Tax return.
  • Location: Enter the street address of the company where the assets are located. A property tax return is created for each location entered. This information transfers to the Form 571-L or the 571-F Property Location Street Address field. The property type (PPT type - CA) determines which form is applicable. The maximum number of characters that transfer is 35.
  • County - CA: Select the county the asset is located in from the drop-down list.
  • PPT type - CA: Select the appropriate personal property type for the asset from the drop-down list. Assets with property types that are preceded by "Farm" transfer to the Agricultural Property Statement. All other property types transfer to the Business Property Statement. The property types and the forms they transfer to are listed in the following table.
    Property Type Form
    A1 - Machinery & equipment Form 571-L, Sch A, Section 1
    A2 - Office furniture & equipment Form 571-L, Sch A, Section 2
    A3 - Other equipment Form 571-L, Sch A, Section 3
    A4 - Tools, molds, dies, jigs Form 571-L, Sch A, Section 4
    A5a - Personal computers Form 571-L, Sch A, Section 5a
    A5b - LAN equipment & mainframes Form 571-L, Sch A, Section 5b
    B1 - Bldings/Leasehld imp(structure) Form 571-L, Sch B, Section 1*
    B2 - Bldings/Leasehld imp(fixtures) Form 571-L, Sch B, Section 2*
    B1 - Land improvements Form 571-L, Sch B, Section 3
    B1 - Land and land development Form 571-L, Sch B, Section 4
    Farm - Animals Forms 571-F and 571-A, Sch A
    Farm - Bldings/Lease imp(fixtures) Form 571-A, Sch E, Column B**
    Farm - Bldings/Lease imp(structure) Form 571-A, Sch E, Column A**
    Farm - Fixed machinery/equipment Forms 571-F and 571-A, Sch C
    Farm - Harvesters Form 571-A, Sch D, Column C or D
    Farm - LAN equipment & mainframes Form 571-A, Sch C
    Farm - Land and land development Form 571-A, Sch E, Column C or D**
    Farm - Land Improvements Form 571-A, Sch E, Column C or D**
    Farm - Movable farm equipment Forms 571-F and 571-A, Sch D
    Farm - Office furniture/equipment Form 571-F Sch E and 571-A Sch C
    Farm - Other equipment Form 571-A Sch C
    Farm - Personal computers Form 571-A, Sch C

    *Current-year acquisitions and disposals also transfer to Form 571-D.

    **Current-year acquisitions and disposals also transfer to Part 3 of Forms 571-F and 571-A.

Note: The associations listed above are maintained by UltraTax CS and Fixed Assets CS and cannot be modified. If the association fields are left blank or X - Exempt is selected, the asset will not transfer to Form 571-L, 571-F, or 571-A.

Associations required for the Agricultural Property Statement

Note: If a client is not completing the Agricultural Property Statement (Form 571-F or 571-A), you can turn off these associations. To do so, choose Setup > Associations, clear the checkbox next to an association, and click OK.

  • Location ID#: Used for Forms 571-F and 571-A. Enter the Parcel number for the Real Property Alterations section of the Agricultural Property Statement. The Parcel number transfers to the Improvements Added or Removed field when you use the Farm - Bldings/Lease Imp(fixtures) or Farm - Bldings/Lease Imp(structures) property types. The Parcel number transfers to the Parcel field for Changes in Land Surface when you use the Farm - Land and land development or Farm - Land Improvements property types. The maximum number of characters that transfer is 12.
  • Year built: Used for Form 571-F only. Enter information in this field when you use the Farm - Fixed machinery/equipment or Farm - Movable farm equipment property type. The maximum number of characters that transfer is 4.
  • Quantity: Used for Forms 571-F and 571-A. Enter information in this field when you use the Farm - Animals property type to transfer the information to the Number field. Also use this field when you use the Farm - Land and land development or Farm - Land Improvements property types to transfer the information to the Acres field for Changes in Land Surface.
  • Equip - Model: Used for Form 571-F only. Enter information this field when you use the Farm - Fixed machinery/equipment or Farm - Movable farm equipment property types. The maximum number of characters that transfer is 15.
  • Equip - Make/mfr: Used for Form 571-F only. Enter information in this field when you use the Farm - Fixed machinery/equipment or Farm - Movable farm equipment property types. The maximum number of characters that transfer is 15.

See also

Entering de minimis assets

UltraTax CS personal property tax returns

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