The Indiana Tax Court held that the Indiana Board of Tax Review misapplied the law by applying a “per-se” burden-of-proof standard, which deemed the taxpayer to have satisfied its burden of proof merely by offering an appraisal that was prepared by an expert in accordance with generally accepted appraisal principles. The taxpayer, the owner and operator of a retail department store in Indiana, appealed property assessments for 2019-2021 to the Indiana Board of Tax Review. The Board found significant flaws in both parties’ expert appraisals, but ruled that the taxpayer’s appraisal was “the most persuasive valuation evidence” presented by the parties; finding that the Assessor’s appraisal was “less credible,” and the flaws in the taxpayer’s analysis were “somewhat less egregious.” On appeal to the tax court, the Assessor argued that the Board erred in its conclusion that the taxpayer’s appraisal satisfied the burden of proof simply by being prepared by an expert – arguing that an expert appraisal is not “per se evidence” that an assessment is incorrect. The tax court agreed with the Assessor, stating that for an appraisal to satisfy the taxpayer’s burden of proving that the assessment is incorrect, the appraisal’s “analysis and conclusions of value must stand on their own.”
Madison Cnty. Assessor v. Kohl’s Ind., LP, Ind. T.C., No. 24T-TA-00009, 11/17/25.