St. Charles County residents may see increase on personal property assessment

ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. – Personal property assessment forms will be hitting mailboxes soon and people may see an increase in the assessed value of certain items.

St. Charles County will be mailing out about 181,000 personal property assessment forms for 2022 by January 26. Those completed forms need to be returned to the Assessor by March 1.

The increase in accessed value is likely to be seen in other counties as well.

“Taxpayers may see an increase in assessed value of certain items on their assessment form,” says St. Charles County Assessor Scott Shipman. “The used automobile market has seen an uptick in prices since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many factories were closed and a number of car dealerships either temporarily closed or had little or no inventory, forcing many to purchase used vehicles.”

Scott Shipman, the St. Charles County Assessor, says large fleet companies that sell a large number of cars in the used market also were reluctant to sell their fleet because they were uncertain when they would be able to replace them. Shipman says the uptick in prices is a result of supply constraints.

He says as supplies return to normal, prices should eventually return closer to normal as well.

State statutes say the value is to be determined using information from the National Automobile Dealers’ Association Official Used Car Guide. The statute says a vehicle “shall not be assessed at a value greater than the average trade-in value without performing a physical inspection of the vehicle.”

There are several ways you can file your personal property:

• Online – Individual personal property owners have the option to file online after receiving the assessment form in the mail. The e-filing website, account number, and unique secure access code for the individual personal property owner are printed in a green box on the top third of the form. The e-filing website also will be available through the Assessor’s website, sccmo.org/Assessor. Those who filed online in previous years should note that the unique access code changes each year. E-filing also allows personal property owners to save and print their completed 2022 assessment for their records after it’s submitted. 
• Mail – Complete the form and send to: St. Charles County Assessor, 201 N. Second Street, Room 141, St. Charles, MO 63301. 

• Drop Box – Completed assessment forms must be submitted in a blue-labeled “County” drive-up drop box on the  island in front of the County Administration Building at 201 N. Second Street in St. Charles. 
• In Person – Again, taxpayers are strongly encouraged to file personal property through contactless methods due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those who wish to file in person can do so from 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday, excluding holidays, at the Assessor’s service windows at the County Administration Building, 201 N. Second Street in St. Charles. Forms also may be submitted in the indoor drop box located on the first floor of the Administration Building. Visitors will need to register for the Assessor’s queue through the QLess kiosk in the lobby, through the QLess app on their mobile device, or through the QLess link available at sccmo.org/Assessor or sccmo.org/QLess. Monitors in the lobby and a text notification on a mobile device will update those in the queue, and visitors will be alerted visually and audibly through the monitor or their mobile device when it is their turn to approach the windows. Staff at the security desk in the lobby are available to assist with QLess registration.

Residents can visit https://lookups.sccmo.org/assessor/form to verify the Assessor has received their completed assessment. For questions about assessments, or if you are a new resident in the county and need to be added to the Assessor’s records, call the Personal Property office at 636-949-7420. For information about assessments and taxes, visit sccmo.org/Assessor.