2021 -- H 5676 SUBSTITUTE A
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND
IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2021
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AN ACT
RELATING TO TAXATION -- LEVY AND ASSESSMENT OF LOCAL TAXES
Introduced By: Representative Alex D. Marszalkowski
Date Introduced: February 24, 2021
Referred To: House Finance
It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:
1 SECTION 1. Section 44-5-12.1 of the General Laws in Chapter 44-5 entitled "Levy and
2 Assessment of Local Taxes" is hereby amended to read as follows:
3 44-5-12.1. Assessment of tangible personal property.
4 (a) All tangible personal property subject to taxation shall be assessed for taxation based
5 on the original purchase price (new or used) including all costs such as freight and installation.
6 Assets will be classified and depreciated as defined in this section.
7 (b) The following classification and depreciation table shall be used in determining the
8 assessed value of tangible personal property.
9 State of Rhode Island Tangible Property Classification
10 Class of Assets Class I Short Life Class II Mid-Life Class III
11 Long Life
12 Age 1-5 yrs 6-12 yrs 13+ yrs
13 1 95 95 95
14 2 80 90 90
15 3 60 80 85
16 4 30 70 80
17 5 20 60 75
18 6 20 50 70
19 7 20 40 65
 1 8 20 30 60
2 9 20 30 55
3 10 20 30 50
4 11 20 30 45
5 12 20 30 40
6 13 20 30 35
7 14 20 30 30
8 15+ 20 30 30
9 Assets Shall Not be Trended
10 (c) Assets shall be classified on an annual basis by the Rhode Island Association of
11 Assessing Officers' Personal Property Committee based on the following table:
12 INDUSTRY GROUP IN YEARS CLASS
13 Agriculture machinery and equipment II
14 Aircraft and all helicopters II
15 Amusement and theme parks II
16 Apparel and fabricated textile manufacturing II
17 Automobile repair shops II
18 Bakeries and confectionery production II
19 Barber and beauty shops II
20 Billboards III
21 Brewery equipment not used directly in manufacturing II
22 Cable television, headend facilities: II
23 All equipment including set top boxes, remotes, and other
24 related equipment II
25 aerial, underground, and drops, including MDUS III
26 Microwave systems II
27 Program origination II
28 Service and test II
29 Subscriber connection and distribution II
30 Canneries and frozen food production II
31 Cement processing III
32 Chemical and allied production II
33 Clay products processing III
34 Cold storage and ice-making equipment III
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 1 Cold storage warehouse equipment II
2 Computers, personal computers (PC), laptops, tablets, cellphones,
3 mainframe/servers, peripherals, keyboard, mouse I
4 Condiments, processing II
5 Construction equipment, general construction, backhoes, forklifts, loaders,
6 cranes, unregistered vehicles II
7 Dairy products processing II
8 Data handling equipment, except computers II
9 printers, copiers, bridges, routers and gateways II
10 Distilling II
11 Electrical equipment not used in manufacturing II
12 Electronic equipment II
13 Fabricated metal products/special tools II
14 Fishing equipment, excluding boats and barges, lines, nets I
15 Food and beverage production II
16 Fur processing II
17 Gas distribution, total distribution equipment III
18 Glass and glass products/special tools II
19 Grain and grain mill products processing III
20 Gypsum products III
21 Hand tools II
22 Hospital furnishings and equipment II
23 Hotel and motel furnishings and equipment II
24 Jewelry products and pens II
25 Knitwear and knit products, ex, work uniforms I
26 Laundry equipment II
27 Leather and leather products II
28 Logging, timber cutting II
29 Marine construction II
30 Meatpacking II
31 Medical and dental supply production II
32 Metalworking machinery processing II
33 Mining and quarrying II
34 Motion picture and television production II
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 1 Motor vehicle and parts/special tools II
2 Office furniture and equipment II
3 Optical lenses and instrument processing II
4 Paints and varnishes I
5 Petroleum refining III
6 pipeline transportation III
7 Plastics manufacturing I/II
8 Plastic products processing/special tools II
9 Primary metals production, nonferrous and foundry products III
10 special tools III
11 Primary steel mill products III
12 Printing and publishing II
13 Professional and scientific instruments II
14 Radio and television, broadcasting II
15 Railroad transportation equipment II
16 locomotive II
17 Recreation and amusement II
18 Retail trades, fixtures and equipment II
19 Residential furniture II
20 Restaurant and bar equipment II
21 Restaurant equipment, fast foods II
22 Rubber products processing/special tools II
23 Sawmills, permanent/portable II.
24 Service establishments II
25 Ship and boat building equipment/special tools II
26 Soft drink processing and bottling II
27 Stone products processing III
28 Telecommunications, local and interstate II
29 analog switching II
30 circuit, digital, analog, optic II
31 information/origination equipment I/II
32 smart phones I
33 metallic cable III
34 fiber cable, poles, conduit III
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 1 all other equipment II
2 Telecommunications, cellular
3 analog/digital switching II
4 radio frequency channel and control II
5 power equipment II
6 antennae II
7 towers III
8 transmission equipment II
9 cellular phones I
10 Textile products, including finishing and dyeing II
11 yarn, thread and woven fabrics II
12 Theater equipment II
13 Utilities/power production III
14 generation, transmission, or distribution equipment III
15 Waste reduction and resource recovery II
16 Water transportation III
17 vessels, barges and tugs III
18 Water utilities III
19 Wharves, docks and piers III
20 Wholesale trade fixtures and equipment II
21 Wood products and furniture manufacturing II
22 (d) Any industry, group, or asset not enumerated in subsection (c) of this section, shall be
23 categorized as class II.
24 SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.
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 EXPLANATION
BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
OF
AN ACT
RELATING TO TAXATION -- LEVY AND ASSESSMENT OF LOCAL TAXES
***
1 This act would change the tax classifications for certain cable television assets, specifically,
2 headend facilities.
3 This act would take effect upon passage.
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Statutes affected:
5676  SUB A: 44-5-12.1
5676: 44-5-12.1