Personal Property Decisions
Cases that treated items as tangible personal property rather than structural components used the regulation, the Whiteco questions, and — on some interiors — a movability record. Winning items in one building are not a checklist for another.
Educational information, not tax advice.
Updated 2026-10-14
Key takeaways
- Personal property for this purpose is depreciable property that is not a building or a structural component.
- Whiteco’s six questions test inherent permanence. They are a Tax Court test, not a statute. Local fixture law does not control.
- King Radio allowed a demountable partition system. Shoney’s allowed decorative chandeliers on a restaurant record; the IRS nonacquiesced.
- Educational information, not tax advice.
Section 1245 property includes depreciable personal property. Treas. Reg. §1.48-1(c) excludes land, buildings, inherently permanent structures, and structural components from tangible personal property. The regulation’s examples of personal property include production machinery, printing presses, grocery counters, display racks, and signs. Committee reports added that assets accessory to a business generally qualify even if local law calls them fixtures.
Whiteco Industries, Inc. v. Commissioner, 65 T.C. 664 (1975), held that outdoor advertising signs on poles set in concrete were not inherently permanent. The six questions — moved or movable, designed for permanence, expected duration, difficulty of removal, damage on removal, and manner of affixation — are the usual permanence analysis. They are not a Code section. Attachment to land, standing alone, did not decide the case.
King Radio Corp. v. United States, 486 F.2d 1091 (10th Cir. 1973), is the interior counterpart for a genuinely movable system. A manufacturer installed ceiling-height and rail-height partitions that slid into aluminum channels fastened with small screws or masonry nails. The system carried no load. Relocation left only small holes. The Tenth Circuit held the partitions were tangible personal property and said Rev. Rul. 69-14 misconstrued Congress to the extent it treated movable partitions as structural components. Ordinary drywall is not that system.
Hospital Corporation of America applied the same tests inside hospitals and treated most disputed items as §1245 property on that record. The IRS acquiesced in the legal test only. Metro National allowed movable gypsum partitions, corridor storefronts, cabinets, and some decorative and security lighting, and denied atrium walls and lay-in ceilings. Shoney’s South, Inc. v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1984-413, treated restaurant chandeliers and hanging lanterns as personal property where separate recessed fixtures supplied general light; the IRS issued AOD 1986-48. The Shoney’s inventory URL did not return the full memorandum on this pass, so that holding stays conservative and is flagged.
A personal-property win is a win on those facts. It does not make the same noun 5-year property in the next building. This page is educational information, not tax advice. Super Intelligence is proposed only.
How to read a win
The IRS’s AOD on HCA accepted the legal test and rejected treating the item results as a rule. King Radio is about a demountable channel system, not about framed drywall. Whiteco is about billboards designed around five-year contracts, not about a poured stair.
Forum and nonacquiescence
Expect challenge where the IRS has nonacquiesced (Shoney’s decorative lighting) or where a contrary circuit opinion exists. Present every outcome as fact-specific (flag F-10).
How to use this page
Personal property in this library means depreciable property that is not land, a building, an inherently permanent structure, or a structural component. Whiteco answers permanence for an affixed outdoor sign. King Radio answers permanence for a demountable interior system. HCA answers whether those ITC tests still apply after ACRS and MACRS. None of those opinions publishes a nationwide list of 5-year hospital, restaurant, or office items.
The accessory-to-a-business phrase comes from committee reports and later opinions, not from a sentence in Treas. Reg. §1.48-1(e)(2). Calling a light or a cabinet an accessory does not finish the analysis if the item still relates to operation or maintenance of the building. AmeriSouth’s apartment cabinets and Metro’s office cabinets are the reminder that the same noun can come out differently.
Shoney’s decorative-lighting result is kept conservative because the inventory URL did not return the memorandum. The IRS nonacquiescence is enough reason not to treat restaurant chandeliers as always personal property. Educational information, not tax advice.
Limits and flags
Whiteco’s six questions are a Tax Court test for inherent permanence, not a statute. Local fixture law does not control (Treas. Reg. §1.48-1(c)). King Radio is a demountable channel-and-screw system that left nail holes; it is not framed drywall. HCA applied the ITC personal-property tests under MACRS; AOD 1999-008 accepted the test and not the item schedule.
Do not say an asset “is” 5-year property because a restaurant chandelier, hospital cabinet, or office partition won once (flag F-10). Shoney’s remains conservative because the inventory URL did not open. AmeriSouth has no named route (flag F-21) and is discussed here as the modern residential caution (flag F-11).
Super Intelligence is proposed only. Educational information, not tax advice.
Practice note
A personal-property claim still has to survive three screens: the regulation’s exclusion of buildings and structural components, the Whiteco permanence questions if the item is affixed, and the HCA/AOD reminder that ITC tests apply under MACRS but item results do not travel. Metro’s office cabinets and AmeriSouth’s apartment cabinets are the same noun with opposite records.
If the only proof is a catalog photo or a matrix row, the claim is not ready. King Radio had a reuse purpose and a hole-in-the-wall record. Whiteco had actual moves on five-year contracts. Those are the kinds of facts a study needs, not a slogan that signs or partitions “are 5-year property.”
Sources
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- 6Metro National Corp. v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 1987-38(opens in a new tab)
IRS written determination that summarizes the decision.
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