The Appeal Process

1. You must file an appeal with your local county tax appeal board on or before the first Monday in June, or 30 days after receiving your notice of classification and appraisal from the Department of Revenue. You can access the proper form to use here.
   
   Information concerning where to file your appeal can be found through your county commission or your local appraisal office, or you may call this office at (406)444-2720. You'll notice that the appeal form is a four part carbonless set. Be sure to keep the goldenrod copy for your records (the last page). It may be your only proof of filing the appeal!
2. The county tax appeal board will schedule a hearing on the appeal in the county seat of the county in which the property at issue is located. The county tax appeal board will issue a decision on your appeal. If either party is dissatisfied with that decision, an appeal may be made to the State Tax Appeal Board within 30 days of the receipt of the county tax appeal board decision.
3. The State Tax Appeal Board offers three options for hearing your appeal of a decision of a county tax appeal board.
   1. We are based in Helena but will travel to the county seat of the county in which the property is located.
   2. We will hold a telephonic hearing.
   3. We will hear the appeal on the record. This means that we will provide the parties (the taxpayer and the Department of Revenue) with a copy of the transcript of the county tax appeal board. Within a specified time period, the parties will submit additional statements to the State Tax Appeal Board and to each other. The board will then make a decision based upon the written record.
4. We will issue a written decision after hearing the appeal. Either party aggrieved by a decision of the State Tax Appeal Board may seek judicial review either in Lewis and Clark County (First Judicial District) or in the judicial district in which the property is located. Judicial review must be sought within 60 days of the date of the decision of the State Tax Appeal Board.
5. Direct appeals are those which come to us directly from a decision of the Department of Revenue, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Environmental Quality. These appeals are typically not reviewed first by a county tax appeal board and involve such issues as income tax, natural resource and corporation license tax, centrally assessed property, new industry, motor fuels tax, applications for property tax exemption, and disputes concerning the certification of air and water pollution control equipment. Direct appeals must be made to this Board within 30 days of the receipt of the final department decision. When making such an appeal to this Board, please be sure to include a copy of the final department decision and a copy of the hearing examiner's findings of fact and conclusions of law, if any. The complaint itself can be in the form of a letter containing a brief statement of the issue.
6. Please have an adequate number of exhibits to hand out: One set for the taxpayer, one set for each board member and one set for the official record for a total of five. Please have them organized in the order in which you plan to make your presentation.
7. Support your conclusions of value: Suggestions for Preparing an Appeal (PDF, 19kb) is a helpful discussion on the subject of supporting your conclusions of value in a hearing.