The Indiana Form 11, formally the Notice of Assessment of Land and Improvements, is the annual notice your township or county assessor mails to tell you what your real property is assessed at as of January 1.1Department of Local Government Finance. Notice of Assessment of Land and Improvements (Form 11) It is not a tax bill. It is the number the bill will later be built from, and it is your one chance to challenge that number before it feeds into next year’s taxes. If the value looks wrong, you can appeal, but the deadline runs from when the notice was mailed, so open it promptly.
What’s on the Notice
Indiana law requires the assessor to send written notice whenever your property is assessed or reassessed.2Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code Title 6 Taxation 6-1.1-4-22 Your Form 11 identifies the property by parcel number and shows the assessed value of the land separately from the assessed value of improvements (buildings, additions, other structures), along with a total. Last year’s assessed value appears alongside the new figure, so you can see at a glance whether the assessor thinks your property gained or lost value.3Tippecanoe County Government. Form 11 Info
The notice must also explain how to appeal, list the forms you’ll need, and remind you that any appeal requires evidence of the property’s true tax value as of the assessment date.2Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code Title 6 Taxation 6-1.1-4-22 If you think the assessor or an appraiser acted improperly, the notice will tell you how to complain to the Department of Local Government Finance.
Indiana assessors value property under a standard called “market value-in-use,” which measures what the property is worth given its current use rather than a hypothetical best use or speculative sale price.4Department of Local Government Finance. Citizen’s Guide to Property Tax – Section: Assessment Process For most homes, that value tracks closely with what the house would sell for. Mass appraisal models factor in recent neighborhood sales, lot size, structure age, condition, and features like garages or finished basements, so a new deck, an added bathroom, or a failing roof can move the number from year to year.
Checking Whether Your Assessment Is Accurate
Before deciding to appeal, test the Form 11 against reality in two places.
Start with your property record card, which the assessor’s office maintains and will give you on request. The card lists every detail feeding the valuation: square footage, number of rooms, year built, condition rating, and noted features. Errors here are the lowest-hanging fruit. If the card shows four bedrooms when you have three, or credits you with a finished basement you don’t have, correcting that alone can bring the value down.
Then look at what comparable homes near you actually sold for around the January 1 assessment date. The Department of Local Government Finance runs a free public Sales Disclosure Form Online Search where you can filter by county, zip code, property class, and sale price range.5DLGF Sales Search Site. SDF Online Search Focus on homes similar in size, age, and condition in your neighborhood. If those homes consistently sold for less than your assessed value, you have the backbone of an appeal.
A private appraisal dated close to the assessment date carries even more weight. Residential appraisal fees in Indiana generally run several hundred dollars, and that cost can pay for itself if it supports a meaningful reduction. An appraisal is especially useful when your property has features mass appraisal models tend to miss, like an unusual layout, deferred maintenance, or environmental problems.
The Appeal Deadline
If the numbers look wrong, the deadline depends on when the assessor mailed your Form 11:6Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 6-1.1-15-1.1 – Taxpayer’s Appeal of an Assessment
- Form 11 mailed before May 1 of the assessment year: you have until June 15 of that same year.
- Form 11 mailed on or after May 1: you have until June 15 of the year the county treasurer mails your tax statement.
These deadlines are firm. Miss them and you lose the right to challenge that year’s assessment. Check the mailing date printed on your Form 11 and work backward from the applicable June 15 to leave yourself time to gather evidence.
How to File the Appeal
The first step is filing a Form 130, the Taxpayer’s Notice to Initiate an Appeal.7Department of Local Government Finance. Appeals Property Tax The form is available on the DLGF website or from your local assessor’s office. File it with the township assessor, or with the county assessor if your township doesn’t have one.
On the first page, state the value you believe is correct and explain why the assessor’s figure is wrong. Vague complaints that taxes feel too high will not move the needle. Tie your argument to specifics: comparable sales prices pulled from the DLGF database, factual errors on your property record card, or an appraisal dated near the assessment date. The more concrete your evidence, the stronger your position at every stage that follows.
What Happens After You File
The process moves through up to three levels before it ever reaches a courtroom.
Informal Meeting With the Assessor
The assessor must hold a preliminary informal meeting to try to resolve the dispute. This is a conversation, not a hearing. Bring your comparable sales, your property record card, and anything else that documents the correct value, and be ready to explain why the assessed figure doesn’t match your property’s market value-in-use. Many appeals settle at this stage, especially when the problem is a factual error on the record card.
PTABOA Hearing
If the informal meeting doesn’t resolve it, the matter goes to the county’s Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals (PTABOA). The board must hold a hearing within 180 days of when you filed the appeal and must give you and the assessor at least 30 days’ notice of the hearing date.8Fulton County, IN. Appeals – Section: Summary of the Various Levels of Appeal PTABOA hears both sides and issues a written determination that can uphold, lower, or raise the assessed value.
One rule can tilt the hearing in your favor. If your assessment jumped more than 5% over the prior year’s value, the assessor, not you, bears the burden of proving the new number is correct.9Indiana Board of Tax Review. Burden of Proof If the assessor can’t meet that burden, you then get a chance to present your own evidence. If neither side meets the standard, the assessment reverts to last year’s figure. The burden stays on you, however, when the increase reflects new construction, renovations, or a zoning change that wasn’t part of the prior year’s assessment.
Appeal to the Indiana Board of Tax Review
If you disagree with the PTABOA’s decision, you can appeal to the Indiana Board of Tax Review (IBTR) by filing a Form 131 within 45 days of receiving the PTABOA’s written determination. File the Form 131 directly with the IBTR at its central office in Indianapolis, and mail a copy to your county assessor; skipping that mailing step will make your petition defective.10Indiana Board of Tax Review. Taxpayer’s Guide to Filing a Petition to the IBTR Attach a copy of your original Form 130 and the PTABOA’s final determination notice (Form 115). If the IBTR finds a defect in your filing, you have 30 days to fix and resubmit before the petition can be denied.
Deductions Are a Separate Lever
Even if the assessed value on your Form 11 is accurate, several deductions reduce the value or the tax before your bill is calculated. They are filed with the county auditor, not through the appeal process, and most do not need to be renewed each year.
The standard homestead deduction is worth 60% of the assessed value or $48,000, whichever is less, for a home you own and occupy as your primary residence; up to one acre of surrounding land qualifies, and buyers under a recorded land contract are also eligible.11indy.gov. Apply for a Homestead Deduction Applications filed by January 15 take effect on that year’s bill. You only need to re-file if the title changes, such as adding a co-owner or moving the property into a trust.
Owners 65 and older may qualify for a property tax credit of up to $150 per year under Senate Enrolled Act 1-2025, provided federal adjusted gross income does not exceed $60,000 for an individual or $70,000 for joint filers. A separate over-65 circuit breaker caps the year-over-year increase in homestead tax liability at 2%; the income thresholds for the 2026-pay-2027 cycle are $61,680 for an individual and $71,960 for a married couple, and those limits now adjust with the Social Security cost-of-living increase.12Hamilton County, IN. Over Age 65
Veterans with a service-connected disability may qualify for one or both of two homestead deductions:13Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs. Disabled Veteran Property Tax Deduction
- A $24,960 deduction for veterans who served during a qualifying wartime period (Korea, WWII, Gulf War, or Vietnam), received an honorable discharge, and have a VA disability rating of at least 10%.
- A $14,000 deduction for veterans with at least 90 days of service and an honorable discharge who either have a total disability or are over 62 with at least a 10% disability rating, provided the home’s assessed value is under $240,000.
Veterans who meet both sets of criteria can combine the two for a total of $38,960, as long as the assessed value stays below $240,000. Surviving spouses of eligible veterans also qualify.