If your business owns equipment in Indiana, you have an annual filing obligation — and since 2021, a statewide portal to discharge it without paper: PPOP-IN, the Personal Property Online Portal run by the DLGF. It's genuinely good government software, and it's still underused by small operators who either mail paper forms or, worse, don't know they're required to file at all.
Here's how the portal works, who should be using it, and how the new $2 million exemption changes what you actually submit.
What PPOP-IN Is
PPOP-IN is a self-service e-filing system for Indiana's business personal property (BPP) tax — the tax on business equipment, machinery, and fixtures, assessed each January 1 and filed by May 15. Through one login you can file, for any county:
- Form 102 — Farmer's Tangible Personal Property Assessment Return
- Form 103-Short and 103-Long — Business Tangible Personal Property Return (plus 103-N and 103-O schedules for leased property)
- Form 104 — the summary return that accompanies a 102/103
- Form 106 — adjustments schedule
The features that matter in practice:
- Roll-forward templates. Prior-year filings can be copied forward and edited — after year one, a stable business's filing takes minutes.
- Agent access. Accountants and tax reps file on behalf of clients under authorized-agent accounts, across counties, from one dashboard.
- Built-in messaging. Assessors and filers communicate inside the portal, which beats certified-mail exchanges for resolving questions about a schedule.
- Document upload. Depreciation schedules and supporting docs attach directly to the filing.
The $2 Million Question: Do You Still File?
The BPP exemption threshold jumped to $2,000,000 with the January 1, 2026 assessment — which exempts the vast majority of Indiana small businesses from paying BPP tax. It did not exempt them from filing: the exemption is claimed on the return. PPOP-IN is the cheapest way to satisfy that obligation — file, check the exemption attestation, done.
Warning
"I'm under the threshold" is a reason your tax is zero, not a reason to skip filing. Non-filers can face penalties and lose the exemption's protection — the county can't apply an exemption to a return it never received. If you own any business equipment on January 1, file by May 15, even when the bottom line is $0. The depreciation-floor changes also live inside these forms, which is one more reason the return, not the tax, is where accuracy matters.
Filing Walkthrough
- Create your Access Indiana account. PPOP-IN authenticates through the state's single sign-on. Businesses register as taxpayers; preparers register as agents and link clients.
- Locate your property records. Existing filers find prior filings tied to their federal ID; new filers add a business location per county and taxing district. (District codes are embedded in the parcel and duplicate numbers — our parcel number guide explains the format.)
- Choose the right form. Farms file 102; most businesses file 103-Short unless they need the Long form's schedules (special adjustments, abnormal obsolescence, leased equipment).
- Roll forward or enter assets. Update acquisitions and disposals by year and pool. Upload the fixed-asset detail if your assessor expects it.
- Claim the exemption if you're under $2M county-wide acquisition cost — the return includes the attestation.
- Submit by May 15 and watch the portal for assessor messages; unanswered questions become notices later.
Where BPP Fits in the Software Stack
PPOP-IN is the state-level intake; from there your filing flows into the county's CAMA and tax systems, gets combined with real property on the auditor's rolls, and lands on billing statements via the same pipeline as real estate. BPP appeals, exemption disputes, and penalty issues run through the county like real-property matters do.
For the rest of the tooling landscape — state portals, county systems, payment platforms, and taxpayer-side tools — see the complete Indiana property tax software guide.