A variety of services are offered by local municipalities, which must be carefully considered in conjunction with property tax rates. Throughout the area, there are numerous taxing authorities for services such as schools, fire prevention, and libraries. All of these taxing authorities may impose levies in any given community, thus, tax rates will vary for every municipality.

The local property tax rate is an aggregate of school, city, county, and state levies expressed as tax per $100 of assessed valuation. Property is assessed on the basis of "fair or true market value." All property, real and tangible personal, is taxable unless expressly exempt. Examples of exemptions include:

• Inventories of retail merchants, manufacturers, and wholesalers, including raw materials and goods in process.
• Property “actually and regularly used exclusively” by an exempt organization pursuant to its exempt purposes and not held for private or corporate profit.

The State Tax Commission of Missouri is the agency charged with overseeing Missouri's property tax system.

Assessment Ratios

• Commercial and industrial real property is assessed at 32% of fair market value.
• Tangible personal property, not elsewhere classified, is assessed at 33 1/3% of fair market value.
• Residential property is assessed at 19% of fair market value.
• Agricultural property is assessed at 12% of fair market value.

Real Property
All property is appraised at its fair or true market value by the county. Commercial and industrial real property (i.e., land and buildings) is assessed an additional county surcharge designed to replace revenue losses attributable to the tax exemption of business inventories.

Tangible Personal Property
Assessed values of tangible personal property in Missouri are set at 33 1/3% of fair or true market value. Most counties in the metropolitan area use formulas under which original costs of depreciable personal property are discounted to determine true values. Tangible personal property includes machinery and equipment.

Intangible Personal Property
There is no tax on intangible personal property.

Non-Business Personal Property
The state has authorized local governments to apply a tax based on the actual cash value of licensed motor vehicles (automobiles, trucks, motorcycles), boats, motors, trailers, campers, livestock, and feed. The assessment ratio for this type of property is 33 1/3%.

Effective 2004 Real Property Tax Rates (Kearney)

• Commercial (Real): 7.56%
• Residential: 5.97%
• Personal: 5.97%