Taxpayer: Owners of real property and tangible personal property located in Indiana on the date of assessment. The assessment date is March 1.

Tax Base: Property taxes in Indiana are imposed at the local level on real property (land and buildings) and certain types of personal property. Business personal property consists of inventories, machinery and equipment, special tooling, and construction in progress.

Tax Rate: Property tax rates are based on a "rate per hundred" dollars of assessed value. Township and county officials determine the assessed value of personal property annually and real property every four years. The property is assessed at one-third the true tax value (not market value). True tax value is determined through the application of the rules of the State Board of Tax Commissioners. Click here for Jennings County property tax rates.

Credits: The state, through the Property Tax Replacement Credit, rebates to every property-taxpayer, individual and corporate, approximately 20% of their property taxes, both real and personal. A credit against a taxpayers net property tax liability on personal property equal to a maximum of $12,500 in assessed value through 2002 and a maximum of $37,500 in assessed value after 2001.

Major Deductions and Exemptions: Property-tax deductions reduce the assessed value of taxable property. Major deductions include economic-revitalization-area deductions for real and personal property (property tax abatement), deduction for resource-recovery and hazardous-waste-recovery systems, deduction for coal-conversion systems, and solar-energy deductions. Major exemptions include air- and water-pollution control equipment; property used for educational, scientific, literary, or charitable purposes; inventory located within an enterprise zone; certain property stored in a warehouse pending shipment out of state (even if repackaging of the product takes place in Indiana); and imports and exports stored in a Foreign Trade Zone.

County Individual Adjusted Gross Income Tax (CAGIT)

Taxpayer: Individuals who reside in a county that elects to impose the tax or have their principal place of business or employment in a county that imposes the tax. Fifty-four counties in Indiana have elected to impose this tax.

Tax Base: Indiana adjusted gross income.

Tax Rate: .25% for nonresident county taxpayers; .5%, .75%, or 1% for resident county taxpayers, as determined by the county council. Revenues are allocated on a formula basis and have the impact of reducing local property taxes.

Major Deductions and Exemptions: Same as those for statewide adjusted gross income tax.

Credits: A portion of the federal credit for the elderly and totally disabled. Credit for taxes imposed by governmental entities outside the state.