They can't be equated, for two reasons: First, "personal property" is a subset of total assets (which includes "real property"). By contrast, a wealth tax is a tax on total assets less total liabilities. By definition, they can't be the same (the property tax does not account for liabilities against that property or generally against the person who owns the property, while a wealth tax does so). Secondly, states only tax real property located in their jurisdiction, i.e. they cannot tax total wealth, which could include real property located in another state or country.