It has been a long five years since 2020. Your life has changed in unimaginable ways since COVID-19, yet what is most precious to you, your family, has remained steady. During these five years, you have faced layoffs, struggles finding new jobs, and inflation making everything unaffordable. Things you and your family used to be able to afford are now out of reach, but you have your home and family, and that is what matters.

This is until your county board decides your property value has massively increased. Great, you think, until you get the tax bill. What was barely scraping by will now become unaffordable under the new tax regime. You think, "Nothing has changed on my property. There is no way this valuation is correct." You want to challenge it but do not know how. Your friends say there is no use and you should just give up and move, but this is your home; this is your family's home. You are not going to give up without a fight. However, you just do not know how to fight the evaluation or what to do.

In Scott v. Alabama Department of Revenue, the Alabama Supreme Court, among many things, laid out the legal process for an individual to challenge a board's valuation of their property. Under Alabama law, "the right to appeal a tax decision" 'is a right conferred by statute[.]" Scott v. Alabama Dep't of Revenue, No. SC-2025-0013, 2025 WL 1668546, at *2 (Ala. June 13, 2025). The wording "conferred by statute" simply means the Alabama legislature has passed laws which allow individuals to challenge tax decisions such as a property's valuation. Section 40-3-24 of the Alabama Code gives individuals the right to appeal such tax decisions. See Al. St. § 40-3-24.

"In cases where objection has been made by any taxpayer, his agent or attorney, as provided herein, to the taxable value fixed by the board of equalization on any property assessed against such taxpayer, and such objections have been overruled by said board, such taxpayer, his agent or attorney may take an appeal from the action of said board in overruling his objection to such valuation to the circuit court of the county in which the taxpayer's property is located" Id. This allows the individual to challenge the county board in a neutral court to theoretically determine if the evaluation is fair. "Because an appeal from a board of equalization's assessment is a statutorily created right, the appealing taxpayer must comply with all the requirements set out in § 40-3-25." Scott, 2025 WL 1668546, at *5. Accordingly, to challenge a tax decision, you must carefully follow the exact wording of the statute, or the claim will be denied.

The Alabama Supreme Court in this case laid out in plain and simple language how an individual may challenge a tax decision. While this ruling seems self-explanatory, and even elementary, it is a necessity. This decision provides future circuit courts with a clear guide for evaluating people challenging their tax decisions. This decision allows those who follow the statutory requirements to have their cases decided on the merits of their challenge rather than dismissed for an administrative reason. Accordingly, while elementary on its face, this decision provides needed clarity for challenging a tax decision and allows more cases to be decided on their merits.

If you have a Federal Criminal case, a State Criminal case, a Municipal Case or a Family Law case, contact Joe Ingram or Joe Joe Ingram Law, LLC at 205-335-2640. Get Relief * Get Results.