Texas Business Personal Property Rendition: The $125,000 Exemption

Starting with the 2026 tax year, Texas exempts the first $125,000 of business personal property at each location, up from $2,500. If what your business owned on January 1 at a location is worth more than that, you still file a rendition by April 15. If it is less, you can stop rendering, but you do it by filing once with a certification, not by doing nothing. For most small shops, this is the year to make a list and file that certification.

What changed: HB 9

House Bill 9, passed by the Legislature in 2025, raised the exemption for income-producing business personal property from $2,500 to $125,000 of appraised value. Voters approved the constitutional amendment behind it as Proposition 9 in November 2025, and it took effect January 1, 2026.

Two details decide whether you are under it:

• It is per location, per taxing unit. A shop with a yard in one county and a second office in another measures each location separately.
• Related businesses at one location are combined. Splitting equipment between two LLCs at the same address does not give you two exemptions.

What counts as business personal property

Anything the business owns and uses to produce income that is not land or buildings:

• Equipment and tools, from the drain machine to the hand tools on the trucks
• Trucks and trailers used to produce income, which are generally business personal property; ask your appraisal district about vehicles also used personally
• Furniture, computers, phones and office equipment
• Inventory and supplies on hand, including stock on the trucks

You list each item at original cost and the year acquired. The appraisal district then works out market value, which is usually lower than cost for anything a few years old. Cost is the starting point, not the bill.

Do you still have to render?

The certification is the part owners miss. The law lets you skip rendering if you believe your property is within the exemption, but the way you tell the appraisal district that is to file a rendition or property report that includes the certification. After that, the election lasts until the business's ownership changes. The chief appraiser can still require a rendition from you.

One open question: the law says the election takes effect beginning with the tax year after the year you file it, and the wording on whether a first certification covers 2026 itself is unclear. Call your county appraisal district and ask before relying on it for this year.

Deadlines

April 15 is also the federal return deadline for Schedule C filers and the first quarterly estimate of the year, so it is a crowded day. Put the rendition on the calendar in January, when you are already pulling the year-end numbers. See what your CPA needs at year end and quarterly estimated taxes.

Example: a plumbing shop's January 1 list

A three-truck plumbing shop with one yard, everything at that one location:

At cost, this shop is over $125,000, so it renders by April 15. The appraisal district will value the older trucks and tools below cost, but whether the shop ends up under the exemption is the district's determination, not the owner's. A two-truck shop with older equipment, at maybe $90,000 at cost, files the certification once and is done until ownership changes.

The list itself comes from two places in the books: the fixed-asset register (the trucks, trailer and equipment) and inventory (the truck stock). If those are current, this is a fifteen-minute job. If the asset register stopped in 2023, it is an afternoon with old invoices.

The other Texas deadline

A month later, on the May franchise tax deadline, LLCs and corporations file either a franchise tax report or, under $2.65 million in revenue, a Public Information Report. See Texas franchise tax for small businesses. For the federal side of the year, see the 1099 threshold for 2026 and how much to set aside for taxes.

How Poof handles it

For a business with a Texas address, Poof's Taxes tab lists what you owned on January 1, at cost, from the fixed-asset register and inventory, against the $125,000 exemption. At or under it, it points you to the one-time certification and ticks the calendar when you say it is filed. Over it, it gives you the Form 50-144 deadline and a CSV list to copy. Poof prepares and reminds; it files nothing and makes no market-value judgment, which is the appraisal district's.

General information, not tax advice; your CPA has the final word.

*Written by Austin Semple, a former controller: three years in audit, seven running the books for small businesses, and the founder of Poof. Poof keeps the fixed-asset register and truck stock that a Texas rendition is built from. Start a 30-day trial, no card required.*