Are breast pumps taxable for personal property taxes?  Now I understand that this may be a question that you never contemplated…..You may be wondering, “what’s the relevance between property taxes and breast pumps?”  Or even “how can an item that might only cost $200-$500 be taxable for property taxes?”  Those are great questions.

Let’s say your company distributes breast pumps to hospitals for use in the maternity ward……  For instance, a commercial style, double pump, electric, adjustable speed breast pump complete with battery pack and a nice travel bag….not that I would know.  Even though this pump sounds really fancy, and I’m sure it is, the resulting property tax on that pump will only be around $10.  Yet, many jurisdictions (and remember 39 states tax personal property) will still require you to report it and pay tax on it.

Don’t we all file enough personal property tax returns already (Los Angeles County alone has 1.7 million personal property tax returns filed annually)….. why the need to pump out more?  Why give taxpayers an additional cost for processing a personal property return that will only result in a $10 tax (not to mention their costs for processing a $10 check to pay that tax)?  It sure would be nice to wean taxing jurisdictions off these nuisance returns.