Welcome to the Indiana Board of Tax Review
The Indiana Board of Tax Review (IBTR) is the state agency charged with deciding property tax assessment appeals. The IBTR addresses appeals contesting real and personal property assessments. It also addresses appeals from denials or grants of exemptions, deductions and refunds. The IBTR, however, lacks jurisdiction to address appeals where taxpayers contest only their tax bill and not their property's assessment.
IMPORTANT NOTICES
Voluntary Resolution (Facilitation) Program Ü New
The Board has started a program designed to help taxpayers and local assessing officials voluntarily resolve appeal disputes at the county level. Under this program, a county assessor can request the Board to send one of its employees to act as a facilitator at a settlement conference between the assessor and taxpayer. The conference is not open to the public unless the parties agree otherwise. If the dispute is not resolved and the taxpayer ends up filing an appeal with the Board, the employee who acted as the facilitator will not sit as an administrative law judge or otherwise participate in the Board's handling of the appeal.
To be eligible, an appeal must have been filed at the county level and the county property tax assessment board of appeals must not yet have ruled on it. To learn more about the statute authorizing this program, see P.L. 113-2010 § 41.
To date, the program has been very successful in resolving appeals. Any county assessor interested in participating in this program should contact Jane Chrisman at (317) 233-6832.
Who is the party to defend the PTABOA determination?
If an appeal is based on a PTABOA determination issued after June 30, 2007, then the county assessor is the party to defend the determination. See Ind. Code § 6-1.1-15-3(b) P.L. 219-2007 (SEA 287) §§ 39, 156(c). The statute clearly states that the county assessor is the party to defend the determination of the PTABOA.
For appeals based on a PTABOA determination issued before June 30, 2007, you must determine whether there is a township assessor.
If there is a township assessor, then the township assessor is the party to defend the determination.
If the township assessor’s duties have been statutorily transferred to the county assessor, then the county assessor is the party to defend the assessment.
Thus in most appeals before the Board, the county assessor is the party to defend the PTABOA determination. The only exception is for appeals based on PTABOA determinations issued before June 30, 2007, where there is a township assessor. See Chart.
Appeal Rights. Public Law 219-2007 created new deadlines for a local property tax assessment board of appeals ("PTABOA") to act on a taxpayer's written notice requesting a review of his or her assessment. The new deadlines apply to review notices filed after June 30, 2007. In those cases, a PTABOA must hold a hearing within 180 days after the taxpayer filed his or her review notice, and it must issue a written determination within 120 days of that hearing. If the PTABOA fails to hold a hearing within 180 days and/or fails to issue a determination within 120 days of its hearing, a taxpayer needn't wait for the PTABOA to issue a determination; he or she may file an appeal directly with the Indiana Board of Tax Review. That direct appeal option is only available in cases where a taxpayer filed his or her written review notice after June 30, 2007.
