The Appraisal District codes each piece of property based on how it is used. These codes are called Property Use Codes and are abbreviated PU Code. Property is classified as either real or personal. Real property is defined as land, improvements, mines or quarries, minerals in place, and standing timber. Personal property is defined as all property that is not real, such as business inventory, furniture and fixtures, machinery and equipment, vehicles, supplies, etc. Only personal property that is used to produce an income is taxable. Personal property is defined as tangible and intangible. All property that can be perceived through the senses (seeing, weighing, measuring, feeling) is tangible. If you cannot perceive the property itself, it is intangible.

The Property Use Codes are defined as follows:

PU Code A - Real Property, Residential, Single-Family

Single-family houses and the land they are situated on, townhouses, condominiums, and mobile homes located on land owned by the resident.

PU Code B - Real Property, Residential, Multi-Family

Residential properties containing two or more residential units under single ownership including apartment complexes, duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes. This category does not include motels or hotels (see PU Code F).

PU Code C - Real Property, Vacant Platted Lots and Tracts

Vacant tracts of land which usually are described in terms other than acreage, commonly by means of lot and block numbers plus subdivision name. They are usually located either within municipalities or in adjacent or otherwise proximate territory. This category includes platted lots and/or subdivided tracts. These lots and tracts cannot contain more than 5 acres of land.

PU Code D - Real Property, Farms and Acreage

Larger vacant tracts of land including timberland, ranches, recreational acreage, idle land, and waste land. Major criteria are rural location and description in terms of acreage. However, it is possible for farms to be located within city limits. These tracts of land must be over 5 acres.

PU Code E - Real Property, Farm and Ranch Improvements

Improvements associated with land reported as Category D property, including residences, barns, silos, sheds, garages, and other improvements associated with farming or ranching.

PU Code F - Real Property, Commercial and Industrial

Land and improvements associated with commercial and industrial properties, including; stores, office buildings, hotels and motels, gasoline service stations, commercial garages, parking lots, warehouses, theater buildings, financial institutions, finance companies and insurance companies, clinics and nursing homes, refineries, chemical plants, manufacturing companies, etc.

PU Code G - Real Property, Oil, Gas and Other Mineral Reserves

Producing oil and gas wells, and all other minerals being mined including coal, ores, metals, etc. This category also covers non-producing wells and non-mined minerals including mineral rights. This category does not include the value of the surface land being produced.

PU Code J - Real and Tangible Personal Property, Utilities

The real property and the machinery, fixtures, and equipment of all types for railroads, electric and gas companies, telephone companies, water systems, TV and cable companies, pipelines, microwave towers, etc.

PU Code L - Tangible Personal Property, Commercial and Industrial

The furniture, fixtures, equipment, supplies, and inventory of commercial businesses. A commercial business is any business that provides items for sale or service to the public. It also includes the machinery and equipment, computers, trucks, heavy equipment, inventory stock, drilling rigs, portable tools, furniture and fixtures, raw materials, goods in process, and finished goods of industrial businesses. An industrial business is any business that adds value to a product through development, manufacture, processing, or storage of that product.

PU Code M - Other Tangible Personal Property

Aircraft and watercraft that is owned by an individual that is used to produce an income. It also includes mobile homes on leased land.

PU Code O - Residential Inventory

Residential real property that is held as inventory. To qualify under this category the property must be under the same ownership, be contiguous or located in the same subdivision or development, be held for sale in the ordinary course of business, be subject to zoning or deed restrictions limiting it to residential use, have never been occupied for residential purposes, not be presently leased or producing income, and be listed as business inventory.