How to Fill Out Indiana Form 104: Business Tangible Personal Property Return

To fill out Indiana Form 104, complete your supporting schedule first — Form 102 for farms or Form 103 for all other businesses — then transfer the total assessed value, your business identifiers, and your taxing district information onto the Form 104 cover sheet and file both with your township or county assessor by May 15, 2026.¹ Form 104 is only the summary sheet; the figures it carries come entirely from the schedule behind it.

One threshold matters before you start writing anything. For the 2026 assessment date, businesses whose total acquisition cost of personal property within a county is less than $2,000,000 are exempt from the tax under IC 6-1.1-3-7.2. The old exemption limit was $80,000, so many businesses that used to owe tax now only need to file a one-time declaration.² Whether you are exempt or taxable changes which parts of the schedule you fill in, so settle that question first.

What to Have in Front of You

Pull these together before opening the forms:

Your legal business name, principal address, and federal employer identification number.
Your county, township, and taxing district codes. Rates vary between districts, so the codes matter. A prior-year tax bill or the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance website will show them.
Your fixed-asset ledger, with acquisition dates and costs for every piece of depreciable personal property. Acquisition cost drives the whole return.
Any prior-year Form 102 or 103 you filed, as a cross-check on what has already been reported.

Tangible personal property for this return means things like office furniture, computers, manufacturing equipment, and tools. It does not include real estate, inventory held for sale, or vehicles already subject to Indiana excise tax.

Step 1: Complete the Supporting Schedule

Form 104 cannot be filled out in isolation. Start with Form 102 (agricultural) or Form 103 (every other business). What you put on that schedule depends on whether you qualify for the exemption.

If You Qualify for the Exemption

If your total acquisition costs in the county are below $2,000,000, check the exemption box on Form 103, enter your total acquisition cost, and complete only Sections I, II, and IV. You can skip the depreciation schedules entirely. Your return must declare that your property is exempt, state whether you have property in one location or several, and give the address of the location with the highest total acquisition cost.²

You only need to file this exemption declaration once. In future years you do not need to file again unless your acquisition costs reach or exceed $2,000,000. If you already filed under the old $80,000 threshold, that earlier declaration carries forward and you do not need to refile. If you were above $80,000 but below $2,000,000, file this year to claim the exemption for the first time.³

If You Owe the Tax

With $2,000,000 or more in acquisition costs within a county, you fill out Form 103 in full, including the depreciation schedules. Every asset is grouped into one of four pools based on useful life: Pool 1 covers 1–4 year assets, Pool 2 covers 5–8 years, Pool 3 covers 9–12 years, and Pool 4 covers 13 years or longer.⁴

Within each pool, you apply a “true tax value” percentage that depends on when the asset was placed in service. For the 2026 assessment date, property acquired between January 2, 2025, and January 1, 2026, enters each pool at 40% of adjusted cost; older assets depreciate from there according to the tables printed in the Form 103 instructions. Add the pools together to get your total true tax value.

Then check the 30% floor. Indiana has long required that total assessed value of depreciable personal property in a single taxing district cannot fall below 30% of adjusted cost.⁵ Starting with the 2026 assessment, the floor no longer applies to property placed in service after January 1, 2025. For older assets, and for property in a TIF allocation area whose base assessed value was established before January 1, 2025, the floor still applies.⁴ You compare the depreciated TTV against 30% of adjusted cost on the property still subject to the floor and report whichever is higher. If every asset was purchased after January 2025, the floor is irrelevant and you simply report the depreciated TTV.

Step 2: Fill In Form 104

With the schedule done, Form 104 is quick. The top of the form takes your business name, address, EIN, county, township, and taxing district. The body asks for the total assessed value from your supporting schedule. That is the figure the county uses to calculate your bill.

Make sure the assessed value on Form 104 matches the figure on Form 102 or 103 exactly. A mismatch between the cover sheet and the schedule is one of the easiest ways to draw a follow-up from the assessor’s office.

If You Have Property in More Than One Township

Tax rates vary between townships, so a business with property in more than one township within a county has to report that separately. Indiana publishes Form 104-SR (Single Return) and Form 103-SR for exactly this situation, consolidating multi-township reporting into one filing with the county assessor. Both are on the DLGF personal property forms page.⁶

How and Where to File

File Form 104 and its schedule with your township assessor, or with the county assessor if your township does not have one. Three options:

Mail. A postmark by May 15 counts as timely.
Hand delivery to the assessor’s office.
PPOP-IN, Indiana’s Personal Property Online Portal, which accepts electronic submission and reduces the chance of handwriting errors or missing pages.⁷

If May 15 falls on a weekend or legal holiday the deadline shifts to the next business day. In 2026 it falls on a Friday, so no adjustment applies.¹

If You Need More Time

You can ask for up to 30 additional days. The request has to be in writing or electronic, submitted to your assessor before May 15, and must explain why you need the extension (illness, absence from the county, or another good reason). The assessor decides whether to approve or deny the request, and the approval has to be in writing as well.⁸ If the request is denied or you never sent one, the May 15 date governs and late penalties apply.

Penalties for Filing Late or Low

Missing the deadline, or the extended deadline if you have one, adds a $25 penalty to your next property tax installment. This applies even when your property qualifies for the exemption. The obligation is to file the declaration on time, not just to owe tax.⁹

If the value you report turns out to be more than 5% below what it should have been, the county adds a penalty of 20% of the additional tax owed on account of the undervaluation. An increase in assessed value that comes from a denied deduction, exemption, or abnormal obsolescence adjustment does not count as an undervaluation for penalty purposes, provided you met the requirements to claim those items.⁹

After You File

Catch your own mistakes with an amended return. Indiana allows amendments within 12 months of the original filing date, but only if the original was filed on time. A return filed late cannot be amended.¹⁰ Your township or county assessor’s office can tell you which amended form to use and what documentation they want.

If the assessor disagrees with your reported value, you will receive a Form 113/PP, the formal Notice of Assessment/Change.¹¹ You have 45 days from the mailing date on that notice to file Form 130 with the local assessing official to initiate an appeal, laying out the facts that support your position. From there the appeal moves through an informal conference, the county Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals, the Indiana Board of Tax Review, and finally the Indiana Tax Court if it goes that far.¹²

1
Indiana Department of Local Government Finance. Indiana Form 104 Business Tangible Personal Property Return
2
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 6-1.1-3-7.2 – Exemption for Certain Business Personal Property; Information Required on Return
3
Allen County, IN. Personal Property
4
Howard County Assessor, IN. Form 103-Long – Personal Property Return 2026
5
Indiana General Assembly. 50 IAC 4.2 – Assessment of Tangible Personal Property
6
Department of Local Government Finance. Personal Property Forms
7
Indiana Personal Property Online Portal. Indiana Personal Property Online Portal
8
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 6-1.1-3-7 – Filing Returns; Extension of Time; Consolidated Returns; Churches and Religious Societies
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Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 6-1.1-37-7 – Personal Property Return; Various Violations and Penalties
10
Allen County, IN. Personal Property
11
Department of Local Government Finance. Department of Local Government Finance Forms
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Department of Local Government Finance. Appeals Property Tax