tax appeal

[uncle sam]

Does anyone know of a course, or book that teaches an appraiser the basics of an appraisal for tax appeal purposes?

 

[Kali the Boston Terrier]

You could try the IAAO, they have courses and lots of literature on taxation. I'm sure there are some books on appeal. If your State is anything like Michigan, tax appeal is highly litigated. So most of the topics that would be pertinent would be books about how to be a credible witness, writing reports for litigation, etc. The best books in that area are written by the ASA, but a really important piece of information would be finding the rules of evidence for your State, and learning what passes and what does not. You may also want to look on your State website and look for previous opinions issued by your tax court and see how they have treated issues in the past.

Tax appeal is generally considered some of the most difficult assignmnets in our industry. Just having compentency to appraise a property, does not mean you are competent to appraise for tax appeal. It requires a heavy knowledge of your tax law rules and regulations, definitions, and rules of evidence. It also means that you need to have strong expert witness skills, given most of your time on a tax appeal assignment will be preparing and presenting in court.

So be careful...

 

[PropertyEconomics]

You could try the IAAO, they have courses and lots of literature on taxation. I'm sure there are some books on appeal. If your State is anything like Michigan, tax appeal is highly litigated. So most of the topics that would be pertinent would be books about how to be a credible witness, writing reports for litigation, etc. The best books in that area are written by the ASA, but a really important piece of information would be finding the rules of evidence for your State, and learning what passes and what does not. You may also want to look on your State website and look for previous opinions issued by your tax court and see how they have treated issues in the past.

Tax appeal is generally considered some of the most difficult assignmnets in our industry. Just having compentency to appraise a property, does not mean you are competent to appraise for tax appeal. It requires a heavy knowledge of your tax law rules and regulations, definitions, and rules of evidence. It also means that you need to have strong expert witness skills, given most of your time on a tax appeal assignment will be preparing and presenting in court.

So be careful...

Brian you give excellent advice here. I personally find them so difficult to do and so time consuming, and honestly quite fuitless, I simply dont do them. The success rate I find is extremely low among residential properties, and while that is of no concern to me, I find that customers come away often blaming the appraiser for their lack of a successful appeal, particularly in residential properties.
Commercial appeals are a bit different because of the possibility of mistakes made by assessors in income valuation, and even in those instances, the assignments are quite difficult.

I have always simply passed on these assignments.

 

[Michigander]

Excellent advice and information Brian.

This goes to anything that is likely to end up in court. Expert testimony isn't necessarily for everyone.

 

[Kali the Boston Terrier]

Yeah I'm kind of knee deep in them right now, I like them, but the biggest hurdle I have in them is that people lack either the financial resources to fight successfully or the will it takes. In Michigan commercial is backlogged 4-5 years, suggesting that the tax payer will have to pay for a report that covers 5 tax years worth of values, attorney fees, and the siginificant risk the tax court will just cut the difference in half between the appraiser and the assesor.

I'm not sure what is worse not devoting enough money to fight it correctly or the lack of will. Either way, the appraiser just ends up looking bad if either of those are not treated properly.

 

[Don Clark]

I use to teach one for McKissock. It was called "Ad Valoreum Consulting". You might check their web site. www.mckissock.com