Legal-Ease: Grain bins no longer taxable as real estate

Lee R. Schroeder is an Ohio licensed attorney with Schroeder Law LLC in Ottawa. He limits his practice to business, real estate, estate planning and agriculture issues in northwest Ohio. He can be reached at lee@leeschroeder.com or at (419) 523-5523. This article is not intended to serve as legal advice, and specific advice should be sought from the licensed attorney of your choice based upon the specific facts and circumstances that you face.

Ohio traditionally taxed tangible personal property, which most often affected businesses that used expensive machinery and equipment. After a few changes in the law, the question came up whether grain bins are more like doors and windows, which are taxed as part of real estate, or light fixtures, which are not taxed as real estate.

Last week, the Ohio Supreme Court made a decision that confirms that grain bins are fixtures that aren’t real property, and they are therefore not subject to real estate taxes.

Attorneys and governments typically classify everything in the world into three categories. People are people. Real estate and buildings are real property. Everything else is personal property.

Of course, personal property is classified into two sub-categories: tangible (that you can touch) personal property and intangible personal property (such as reputation and goodwill).

Read more about the process that led to grain storage bins no longer being taxable in the state of Ohio in Lee’s article in the Lima News here: Legal-Ease: Grain bins no longer taxable as real estate

Source: LimaOhio.com, “Legal-Ease: Grain bins no longer taxable as real estate,” by Lee R. Schroeder, July 18, 2015

Posted in Agriculture and tagged , , , .