Overview of the Appellate Tax Board

This section describes the makeup and responsibilities of the Appellate Tax Board.

Background

The Appellate Tax Board (ATB) was established in 1929 by Section 1 of Chapter 58A of the Massachusetts General Laws as a quasi-judicial agency required to hear and decide cases on appeal from decisions made by local and state taxing authorities. It was established to relieve the Superior Court of the large volume of tax appeals and provide taxpayers with a less expensive and more expedient means of appeal.

ATB’s purpose is to hear taxpayer (appellant) appeals for abatements of property taxes, personal taxes, water bills, and motor vehicle excise taxes that have been denied by local boards of assessors (appellees). ATB also hears appeals by taxpayers regarding state taxes, including income tax, corporate and bank excise, use tax, and other related taxes. All ATB’s decisions are binding on both the appellant and the appellee; however, under specific rules of Section 13 of Chapter 58A of the General Laws, certain decisions may be appealed to the State Appeals Court or the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC).

ATB has five commissioners, appointed by the Governor for six-year staggered terms. It is organizationally placed within the Executive Office for Administration and Finance (EOAF) for administrative purposes, but is not subject to EOAF control in conducting its adjudicatory function. During the audit period, ATB had 25 employees (representing 18.5 full-time-equivalent positions, including the five commissioners as well as part-time employees). It is located on the second floor of 100 Cambridge Street in Boston, where the majority of hearings are conducted. However, for taxpayers and boards of assessors in areas farther from Boston, ATB members travel to cities and towns such as Pittsfield, Springfield, New Bedford, Falmouth, and Northampton to hold hearings. ATB received state appropriations (including retained revenue) of $2,279,461 and $2,341,510 for fiscal years 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Tax Appeal Procedures

According to ATB’s Real Estate Tax Appeals: A Helpful Guide for Taxpayers and Assessors,

If [the city or town assessor fails] to send the notice within 10 days following the . . . denial of an application and a taxpayer fails to file an appeal within three months of the . . . denial, the taxpayer may file a petition for late entry of appeal (“PLE”) with the ATB. PLEs should be filed within 2 months after the date the appeal was due.

Taxpayers may choose to file tax appeals using formal procedure, small-claim procedure, or informal procedure.

According to Section 1.03 of Title 831 of the Code of Massachusetts Regulations, formal procedure requires “a clear and concise statement of the nature of the tax or other matter in controversy and of the facts on which the appellant relies.” Formal procedure requires that the parties file formal discovery requests such as document requests and appellees’ requests for admission of evidence to the court. The parties do not waive any rights of appeal to the State Appeals Court, and either party may request a written decision to explain the factual and legal basis of ATB’s decision.

Under small-claim procedure, as described in Section 7B of Chapter 58A of the General Laws, the amount of tax or excise placed in dispute by the petition under the small claim should not exceed $25,000 per taxable year or calendar year and should not exceed $25,000 for any taxable event or transaction in the case of any tax, such as income tax or motor vehicle excise taxes. Proceedings under small-claim procedure are conducted as informally as possible, and the board makes a decision and writes a summary in each case heard under the procedure. ATB’s decisions can be appealed to the State Appeals Court and then SJC.

Section 7A of Chapter 58A of the General Laws describes informal procedure as follows:

The informal procedure [is] for the determination of petitions for abatement of any tax upon real estate or tangible personal property. . . . Such procedure shall eliminate formal rules of pleading, practice and evidence.

The appellee may change to formal procedure within 30 days after the date the appeal is filed, if the fair cash value of the property concerned exceeds $20,000.

ATB Case Management System

During the audit period, ATB used Time Matters as its case management system for managing all three appeal types and their related workflows. The system also allows ATB to run monthly and yearly queries against its data to obtain all of its case management metrics and generate operational reports that reflect the daily history of all appeals.

According to the ATB Cases Inventory that ATB provided to us, there are three types of appeals:

1. Property appeals: These cases, which represent 88% of the cases ATB handles other than telecommunication appeals, involve appeals of local property taxes and include both formal and informal procedures.
2. Commissioner of Revenue (COR) appeals: These are appeals of personal income taxes due individuals. According to ATB, COR appeals include both formal and small-claim procedures. ATB allows taxpayers three months to file an appeal of the denial of an application for abatement by the COR. The taxpayers must file a statement of the facts,¹ the amount of tax they paid, and the reasons they disagree with the denial.
3. Telecommunication appeals: These cases include only formal procedure; they are appeals of the Department of Revenue’s central valuation of telecommunication property taxes in various municipalities. There are at least three parties involved in these appeals: a telecommunication corporation, the COR, and the municipality or municipalities in which a property is located. Cases involving the property of a single telecommunication corporation in multiple municipalities may be consolidated for hearing. According to ATB management, because these appeals are complex, many of them are ultimately litigated before SJC.

The table below breaks down the case inventory during our audit period.

ATB Caseload

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Case Type	Closed Cases*	Filed Cases†	Active Cases‡
Property Tax Appeals
Formal Procedure	4,453	4,823	2,008
Informal Procedure	1,028	929	252
Petition for Late Entry	18	18	0
Telecommunication Tax Appeals	1,118	499	93
COR Tax Appeals
Formal Procedure	513	355	191
Small-Claim Procedure	223	244	29
Total	7,353	6,868	2,573

*     Closed cases are appeals that were closed during the audit period, which may include appeals submitted before that period.

†     Filed cases include appeals filed during the audit period.

‡     Active cases include all appeals that were in the system, regardless of when they were filed.

ATB Mediation Process

Under Section 8A of Chapter 58A of the General Laws, ATB is authorized to “employ alternative dispute resolution techniques including, without limitation, mediation and arbitration.” Although mediation is only listed as an option on the application for COR appeals, the same mediation process is available to litigants involved in property appeals.

Mediation is an informal, expeditious, voluntary, and confidential process agreed to by the parties involved. Taxpayers submit petitions to ATB to resolve contract negotiation disputes through a neutral third party, a mediator, who is an attorney in ATB’s Legal Department. The mediator coordinates meetings between both parties until the case is withdrawn or resolved. If the case cannot be resolved, the mediator may narrow the contested issues for trial, with the agreement of both parties. There were 158 appeals within the Mediation Program during the audit period, 139 of which were settled and closed. Approximately 2.7% of the total closed appeals processed by ATB were closed and settled within the Mediation Program.

ATB processes all submissions related to mediation through its Boston office. The submissions are received via in-person application or postal mail. Administrative staff members enter details in Time Matters. If the submission acknowledges mediation, the ATB mediator accepts the case. Taxpayers can also change their appeals to mediation during the pre-trial meeting or a status conference. The mediator records and updates the submission in ATB’s Mediation Schedule List of all mediation cases for further processing.

After the mediation case intake process, the mediator verbally contacts the two parties for a mediation conference. When both parties agree to mediation, the mediator schedules and conducts one or more mediation sessions on an agreed-upon date. For those that do not settle, the mediations transfer to a regular hearing trial, and all submitted documentation is returned to the parties after mediation ends. The contents of the mediation process are only available to the parties involved in the Mediation Program and are confidential; therefore, documentation is not maintained after mediation.

1.     Section 1.06 of Title 831 of the Code of Massachusetts Regulations states that the statement of the facts must include “the type of tax at issue and the tax periods or transaction dates involved,” “the date the return at issue (if any) was filed,” “the date of any assessment by the Commissioner of Revenue,” “the date(s) on which the tax was paid,” the date the taxpayer filed the application for abatement,” “the date of the Commissioner of Revenue's denial of the application for abatement,” “an address and telephone number where the appellant may be contacted and where service of notices and other papers concerning the appeal may be made,” “such other information as the Board may require,” and “the signature of the taxpayer or its authorized representative.”

 

Date published:	February 9, 2021