Indiana Property Tax Appeals: Form 130, PTABOA, and Form 115

To file an Indiana property tax appeal, submit Form 130 to your township or county assessor by June 15 of the assessment year, meet informally with the assessing official to share evidence, and, if no agreement is reached, present your case at a hearing before the county Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals (PTABOA). Each step has its own deadline, and the first one is the strictest.

The Filing Deadline Controls Everything

Miss the deadline and the appeal is over before it starts. For a real property assessment challenge, when you have to file depends on when the county mailed your Form 11 notice of assessment:¹

If Form 11 was mailed before May 1, you must file by June 15 of the assessment year.
If Form 11 was mailed on or after May 1, you must file by June 15 of the year the county treasurer mails your tax statement.

The second scenario matters more than it looks. In a county that is slow to send notices, Form 11 might not go out until well into the assessment year, which shifts the appeal deadline to June 15 of the following year when the tax bill arrives. Check the postmark on the envelope your Form 11 came in to see which rule applies to you.²

A separate three-year window exists for certain other errors, such as an assessment issued to the wrong person, a denied deduction or exemption, or a clerical mistake.² A plain valuation dispute, which is what most homeowners want to raise, is the June 15 kind. Do not assume you have years.

Know What Value You Are Actually Challenging

Indiana does not assess at “fair market value” in the way the phrase is usually used. The standard is “market value-in-use,” which measures what the property is worth for its current purpose, not what someone might pay to convert it to a different use. The state’s Real Property Assessment Manual defines it as the price that would induce the current owner to sell and the price at which a buyer would purchase the property for a continuation of its current use.³

This matters when you pick comparable sales. A home that sold to a developer at a premium because of what could be built on the lot does not reflect residential market value-in-use. Pick comps that reflect how your property is actually being used.

Filing Form 130

The appeal is initiated with Form 130, the Taxpayer’s Notice to Initiate an Appeal, available from the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance website or the county assessor’s office.⁴ You will need your parcel number, the current assessed values of land and improvements, and the legal description, all of which appear on Form 11 or your property record card.⁵

When you explain why the assessment is wrong, be specific. State whether you are challenging the land value, the improvement value, or both, and point to the evidence behind your position. If you have a recent appraisal, give the value and the date. If comparable homes sold for less, summarize those sales. A separate Form 130 is required for each parcel, so a house plus an adjacent lot assessed separately means two forms.²

File the form with the township assessor for the township where the property is located. If your township does not have its own assessor, file with the county assessor.⁵ Certified mail gives you a verifiable submission date. If you hand-deliver, get a date-stamped copy. Keep proof you filed on time.

The Preliminary Informal Meeting

Filing Form 130 automatically triggers a preliminary informal meeting with the assessing official, scheduled at a time during business hours that works for you.⁶ There is no fixed statutory deadline for when this meeting must occur, only that it has to happen before the PTABOA hearing, which itself must take place within 180 days of filing.

Both sides are required to share whatever information they are relying on.⁶ The assessor must show you the data behind the assessment, and you must share whatever you plan to use to argue for a lower value. If either side later shows up at the PTABOA hearing with new material, the board will usually continue the hearing so the other side can review it. Bring everything to the informal meeting.

The results are documented on Form 134, which goes to the PTABOA.⁷ If you and the assessor agree on a new value, both sign Form 134 and the PTABOA votes to accept or deny the agreement. Acceptance resolves the appeal without a hearing. If there is no agreement, or if the meeting never happens, the case proceeds to the board.⁶

Evidence That Carries Weight

Here is a detail that surprises most homeowners. Under Indiana Code 6-1.1-15-17.2, the assessor bears the initial burden of proving the assessment is correct. If the assessor fails to meet it, you get the chance to introduce evidence of the correct value. If neither side meets the burden, the assessment reverts to the prior year’s figure.⁸

Do not read that as permission to show up empty-handed. You still need evidence of what the value should be. The Indiana Board of Tax Review recognizes several types:⁹

Recent sales of comparable properties in your area, with adjustments for differences in size, condition, and features drawn from verifiable market data rather than guesswork.
The price you paid for the property, if the purchase was recent and the transaction was arm’s-length with no special financing or family discounts.
A professional appraisal prepared according to generally accepted appraisal principles, with the methodology explained.
Actual construction costs for a recently built home, including both direct costs such as labor and materials and indirect costs such as permits, insurance, and professional fees.

Whatever you present has to be consistent with the market value-in-use standard. A printout from a home-value website or a neighbor’s opinion will not carry the day.⁹

The PTABOA Hearing

If the informal meeting does not resolve the case, it moves to the PTABOA. The board must hold the hearing within 180 days of your filing date and must mail you notice of the date, time, and location at least 30 days in advance.⁶ The PTABOA is a county-level board whose members are expected to have knowledge of property valuation.¹⁰

You present your evidence and explain why the assessed value does not reflect market value-in-use. The assessor’s office presents its side. Board members may question both parties. The proceeding is structured but administrative rather than judicial, and you do not need a lawyer, though you can bring one.

The evidence-sharing rule still applies. Anything introduced at the hearing that was not shared beforehand will typically prompt a continuance, which adds weeks to the process.⁶ The hearings that go well are the ones where no one is seeing anything for the first time.

Form 115: The Final Determination

After the hearing, the PTABOA issues Form 115, the Notification of Final Assessment Determination, which records the board’s findings and the final assessed values for land and improvements.¹¹ The new values replace the previous assessment on the tax rolls for that year. If the value was reduced, the county auditor adjusts your tax liability and any overpayment is credited or refunded depending on where you are in the billing cycle. Keep Form 115. You will need it to appeal further.

If the PTABOA Blows Past 180 Days

County boards sometimes fail to schedule a hearing within the 180-day window, especially where appeal volume is high. Indiana law allows you to bypass the PTABOA and file a petition directly with the Indiana Board of Tax Review in that situation.¹² If 180 days come and go with no hearing, do not assume the system will catch up on its own.

Appealing to the Indiana Board of Tax Review

If the PTABOA rules against you, or reduces the assessment less than you think is warranted, the next step is Form 131 to the Indiana Board of Tax Review (IBTR), filed within 45 days of receiving Form 115.¹³ The form is on the IBTR’s website.¹⁴

The IBTR is a state-level body that conducts its own independent hearing. The same evidentiary standards apply: comparable sales, professional appraisals, construction costs. The IBTR must hold its hearing within one year of receiving a properly filed petition.¹⁵ Beyond the IBTR is the Indiana Tax Court, where you are in full judicial territory and legal representation matters.

The 45-day window for the IBTR petition is firm. Miss it and the PTABOA determination stands no matter its merits. Put the date on your calendar the day Form 115 arrives.

After a Reduction: Tax Bill, Escrow, and Federal Deduction

A successful appeal lowers your assessed value and therefore the taxes owed for that assessment year. If you already paid the full bill, you may be entitled to a refund or a credit toward the next installment. The county auditor’s office can confirm how the adjustment will be applied.

If your taxes are paid through a mortgage escrow account, a reduced assessment does not automatically lower your monthly payment. The servicer sets escrow based on the tax bills it receives. Notify the servicer of the change and request an escrow reanalysis. Otherwise you may keep overpaying into escrow until the next annual review.

On the federal side, if you claimed a property tax deduction and later receive a refund for taxes overpaid in the same year, you reduce your deduction by the refund amount rather than reporting it as income. A refund of taxes paid in a prior year may need to be included in gross income under the tax benefit rule if you received a deduction benefit from the original payment.¹⁶

1
Department of Local Government Finance. 2026 Assessment Calendar
2
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code Title 6 Taxation 6-1.1-15-1.1
3
Indiana Department of Local Government Finance. 2021 Real Property Assessment Manual
4
Indiana Department of Local Government Finance. Appeals Property Tax
5
Indiana Department of Local Government Finance. State Form 53958 – Taxpayers Notice to Initiate an Appeal (Form 130)
6
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 6-1.1-15-1.2 – Preliminary Informal Meeting; Hearing
7
Indiana Department of Local Government Finance. State Form 53626 – Joint Report by Taxpayer/Assessor to the County Board of Appeals of a Preliminary Informal Meeting
8
Indiana Board of Tax Review. Burden of Proof
9
Indiana Board of Tax Review. Evidence in Property Tax Appeals
10
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 6-1.1-28-1 – County Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals
11
Indiana Department of Local Government Finance. State Form 20916 – Notification of Final Assessment Determination
12
Indiana Department of Local Government Finance. Appeals and the PTABOA
13
Indiana Board of Tax Review. Taxpayers Guide to Filing a Petition to the IBTR
14
Indiana Board of Tax Review. IBTR Forms
15
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 6-1.1-15-4 – Indiana Board Appeal Procedures
16
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 530, Tax Information for Homeowners