An Indiana assessment notice can be challenged through a defined administrative process. Before preparing an appeal, identify the issue being disputed and the filing deadline that applies to it.
Starting an assessment appeal
Form 130 is Indiana State Form 53958, the Taxpayer's Notice to Initiate an Appeal. You file it with the township assessor, or with the county assessor where the township has no assessor.
For the assessed value of real property, the deadline is June 15 of the assessment year when the notice of assessment is mailed before May 1, and June 15 of the year the tax statements are mailed when the notice goes out on or after May 1. Filing the form is also a request for an informal meeting with the assessor, and the county board has 180 days from the filing date to hold a hearing.
What the form asks for, and what it does not
The form itself says the appeal does not have to include evidence when it is filed, and that evidence is exchanged at the preliminary informal meeting instead. It asks for the county, the township, the parcel or key number, the property address, the owner's name and contact details, the current assessed value, the value you contend is correct, and your reasons or attached evidence. A separate Form 130 is filed for each parcel.
If someone represents you, a tax representative must hold a written certification from the Department of Local Government Finance and a properly executed power of attorney.
Section III of the form is a different animal: it is for limited error correction rather than for arguing about value, and the form warns against conclusory statements there.
The deadlines, which are what usually ends it
The statute sets different clocks for different claims. The assessed value claim runs to the June 15 dates above. Claims that the assessment was made against the wrong person, that a deduction, credit, exemption, abatement or tax cap was approved, denied or omitted, that there was a clerical, mathematical or typographical mistake, that the description of the property is wrong, or that the tax or assessment is illegal or unconstitutional run no later than three years after the taxes were first due.
Business personal property is 45 days after the county mails its notice.
What happens after you file
The official who receives the form has to schedule a preliminary informal meeting during business hours at a time convenient to you, and at that meeting each side hands over the information it is relying on. Anything found after the meeting but before the board hearing has to be shared. The county board must hold its hearing no later than 180 days after the filing date and mail notice of the date, time and place at least 30 days ahead.
A continuance has to be requested in writing at least 10 days before the hearing and for good cause. A written request to decide the appeal without a hearing has to be in at least 20 days before. Withdrawing has to be at least 10 days before, and withdrawing gives up the right to appeal to the Indiana Board of Tax Review.
A late request of any of those three, or failing to appear after a continuance was denied, exposes you to a $50 penalty from the county assessor, which cannot be added to your tax statement. If 180 days pass with no determination, you can go to the Indiana Board anyway.
You do not need an appraisal to file or to pursue the appeal. If you do present one that qualifies, the value in it is presumed correct. Qualifying means prepared by a certified appraiser under the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice to determine market value in use, addressed to the owner or the assessor's office, commissioned for the assessment appeal, and effective on the same date as the assessment being appealed.
The board can get its own review or appraisal, and it weighs the evidence, but its value cannot land below the lowest appraisal or above the highest one presented or obtained.
The five percent rule that decides who has to prove what
Ordinarily the assessment last determined by an assessing official or the county board is presumed to equal the property's true tax value until that presumption is rebutted by evidence. When the assessment increased by more than 5% over the prior tax year, that presumption goes away and the assessing official carries the burden of proof. The exceptions are increases based on substantial renovations, new improvements, zoning, or uses that were not considered in the prior year.
The size and basis of the increase therefore need to be checked when reviewing the applicable burden of proof.
One more piece of arithmetic worth knowing: a value determined after the informal meeting or the board hearing may be equal to or less than the value you appealed, but not more, with the same carve out for substantial renovation, new improvements, a zoning change or a use change.
Why a seller should care about it at all
An assessment is not a market value and a buyer's lender does not use it. What a buyer does use is the tax figure it produces, because that figure goes into the payment they are qualified on. An assessment carrying a cap or a deduction that does not survive the sale changes the number a buyer sees, and the time to sort that out is before the listing rather than during the inspection period.
The assessment is also the one number in a sale that an owner can contest on their own, on a form, for free.
Confirm the deadline for the specific claim before preparing the evidence. The June deadline described for value appeals differs from the three-year period for the listed error categories. A question about deductions or credits may require a different review from a dispute over assessed value.
Whether your assessment is too high, what your house is worth, which comparable sales an assessor or an appraiser would accept, and whether to hire a certified appraiser for the appeal are not answered by a statute. Valuation of a specific property is its own work, a lender's appraisal belongs to the appraiser, and the contents of your bill belong to the county auditor and treasurer who printed it.
The notes on the property tax circuit breaker, the homestead deduction when you move and the difference between an appraisal, a market analysis and an online estimate cover the three things people usually mean when they say their assessment is wrong.
Source: Indiana Code 6-1.1-15-1.1, 6-1.1-15-1.2 and 6-1.1-15-20, read October 13, 2026 on law.justia.com, which reproduces the section text and the amendment history. 6-1.1-15-1.1 as added by P.L.232-2017 and last amended by P.L.9-2024; 6-1.1-15-1.2 as added by P.L.232-2017 and last amended by P.L.9-2024; 6-1.1-15-20 as added by P.L.174-2022. Form 130, Indiana State Form 53958 (R9 / 4-26), read at source the same day at forms.in.gov.
This note is general. It is not legal or tax advice, and it is not an appraisal. Whether an appeal makes sense for your property depends on that property.