The Personal Property Division of the
Department of Assessment is charged with the responsibility of discovery,
listing and valuing of all taxable personal property situated within the City of
Hartford. This work must be done annually during the assessment year
October 1 through September 30 and completed so as to coincide with the
finalizing, by January 31, of the Grand List of taxable property.
The basis for assessing personal property is
contained in Connecticut assessment law which directs all Connecticut
assessors in the performance of their prescribed duties.
As it concerns all taxable property,
including personal property, the laws specifically direct that "The
present true and actual value of all property shall be deemed by assessors and
boards of assessment appeals to be the fair market value thereof and not its value at
a forced or auction sale." This directive is commonly known as the
assessors Rule of Valuation and is identified as
§12-63 of the Connecticut
General Statutes.
For assessors to be able to carry out their
duties, as mandated, Connecticut assessment directives requires close
familiarity with many assessment laws and awareness of others pertaining to
the discovery, listing and valuing of personal property. Assessor's
staff must be familiar with accounting terms and principals and be aware of the different types of personal
property. They also must have more than a
general idea of the value of personal property items and/or be able to quickly
reference one or more sources which would provide a myriad of supportive
values for a large number of tangible, taxable personal property
items.
