These volumes record the assessment of real and personal property in Salt Lake County for tax purposes. The county assessor determines the extent and value of property subject to taxes levied by the territory, county, school districts (beginning 1887), and cities (beginning 1893). The tax assessments show the following: name and address of the property owner (not always the individual who lives in the home or uses the land); legal description of the land; value of real estate and improvements; associated personal property and its value, such as livestock and other personal property ranging from household furniture and tools to merchandise, stock, bonds, and bullion; taxes levied by state, county, city, and schools; other tax funds such as Tubercular Indemnity and Pest Eradication Funds; date and amount of taxes paid; and miscellaneous remarks. The particular columns change over the years as different items are subject to taxation or declared exempt. Beginning in 1880, the amount of tax for each entity is entered as well. Recapitulations, totaling amounts for each geographical segment and category, appear toward the back of the year’s final book starting in 1873. Recapitulations in the volumes from 1873 on often may be used as a table of contents for the year.

Indexes:

Tax assessment roll indexes (1898-1970) contain an alphabetically arranged indexing of the names of individuals whose tax record appears in the tax assessments.

Subdivision Indexes (1915-1949) contain an alphabetical listing of subdivisions which can be used to define the location of subdivisions named in the tax assessment rolls. Entries list the subdivision and then provide the volume and page number for assessments in the assessment rolls. The 1915-1919 volume provides access only to personal property tax entries. The 1946 volume, rather than providing page numbers directly, provides a legal location for each subdivision; that location, in turn, can be used to locate entries in the tax assessment rolls where the overall arrangement is geographical.

Certain years of tax assessment roll indexes did not get filmed, so gaps in the chronological order of the film reels can usually be found as the actual volume.