County Levies Tax of About 1% on Businesses’ Tangible Assets

Q: I get a tax bill each year from Los Angeles County that relates to my business equipment. Can you explain exactly what is being taxed? Also, if I have purchased computers for personal use but brought them into the office to use them there, do I have to pay taxes on them?

--Ben Rodriguez

Creative Development Associates,

Burbank

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A: The tax you are referring to is known as the personal property tax, business property tax or unsecured property tax. It is imposed annually by the county of Los Angeles and is based on the market value of “tangible property” used in a business. Tangible property includes office furniture, equipment, computers, office supplies, building or leasehold improvements and fixtures such as signs. Only inventory and vehicles are not subject to the tax. Real estate is taxed separately through a real property tax.

To calculate the amount of tax, the county sends out Form 571-L to business owners each year asking for information on the total spent on tangible assets by category and year purchased. The tax rate is approximately 1%, although the exact rate varies according to the business’ location within Los Angeles County.

As far as the computers you brought in from home, if they were returned home before the assessment date (Jan. 1, 1997), they should not be included in the tax. If they were still in your office on Jan. 1, even if they will be returned home sometime later, they should be included in the assessment.

For more information on the personal property tax, or if you think there is an error in your billing, you can call the Los Angeles County assessor’s office at (213) 974-3211.

--Steven J. Coker

Certified financial planner and

tax preparer, West Los Angeles

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Q: I have six years of management experience, two years of outside sales experience and a degree in business administration. I am looking into starting an on-site preventive medical checkup and testing service. How can I prepare myself for this type of business, in which I have limited knowledge? Where can I get some help?

--Errol E. Hingco, Carson

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A: I recommend that you start by making some strategic alliances. Your best bet would be to identify someone who has served as a public health nurse and has an interest in preventive medicine. Such a person could tell you what kinds of preventive services you could and should offer and usually, if she has a master’s degree in public health as well as a registered nurse’s degree, she will have a good sense of what public health and preventive medicine is all about in the larger picture.

This person may wind up becoming a partner in your business, supervising the day-to-day medical operations of the company. She (the overwhelming majority of public health nurses are women) can also advise you or help you research questions on medical insurance billing. There are a lot of entrepreneurial nurses out there who have a good idea about what’s going on in the health-care delivery system.

A good way to find someone like this would be to run an ad in a nursing publication. There are several that you could look up in a medical library at a school, such as UCLA or USC, that has an active school of nursing.

For more information and additional resources, you might also want to contact the UCLA School of Public Health or the American Board of Preventive Medicine.

--Dr. Vincent Riccardi

President, American Medical

Consumer, La Crescenta

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Q: I am going through a divorce and starting with almost nothing importing from Mexico. I imported successfully 10 years ago, but this time I am having a hard time finding the manufacturers of the items I need--for example, sponges, shopping bags and shawls. The manufacturers I do find say they deal only with so-called gigantic companies. I have called the local chambers of commerce, the world trade center and the Mexican Embassy. What else can I do?

--Deborah Kamisher,

Beverly Hills

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A: With 6 million Mexicans running around Los Angeles, there must be a lot of products that they know and are used to that cannot be purchased here. There’s also a great number of other ethnic groups that also like Mexican products and artifacts. So finding customers should be very simple. Finding a very good supplier and somebody that’s going to give you a good price is harder.

Get in touch with the Mexican trade commissioner, a man named Carlos Casas. His agency is actually responsible for promoting not only Mexican multinationals but also small and medium-sized Mexican companies. The agency, at 350 S. Figueroa St., Suite 296, Los Angeles 90071, has a very good computer system that identifies a number of Mexican exporters. You should be able to find a company you can work with there. The telephone number of the commissioner is (213) 628-1220, fax (213) 628-8466.

I am an officer of the Foreign Trade Assn., the oldest international trade group in Southern California. The nonprofit association was founded in 1919 to promote international trade for the benefit of Southern California, and we organize a number of trade events throughout the year to assist foreign investors, exporters, importers and other professionals involved in international trade. To get more information on the organization, call (213) 627-0634 or fax us at (213) 627-0398. Our office is at 900 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1434, Los Angeles 90017.

--Carlos Valderrama

Director for Latin American

operations, law firm

of Carlsmith, Ball

If you have a question about how to start or operate a small business, please mail it to Karen E. Klein in care of the Los Angeles Times, 1333 S. Mayflower Ave., Suite 100, Monrovia 91016 or e-mail it to business@latimes.com. Include your name and address. The column is designed to answer questions of general interest. It should not be construed as legal advice.

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