Opinion ID: 1913947
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Protest Appeal.

Text: The general principles controlling review of the board's decision are well established. A taxpayer challenging an assessment has the burden of proving a statutory ground for protest. Iowa Code § 441.37. If the taxpayer offers competent evidence by at least two disinterested witnesses that the market value of the property is less than the market value determined by the assessor, the burden of proof thereafter shall be upon the officials or persons seeking to uphold such valuation to be assessed. Iowa Code § 441.21(3). Property is valued at its actual value, subject to statutory exceptions, and is assessed at 100% of the actual value, and this is the value considered as the assessed value and taxable value upon which levy is made. Actual value is fair and reasonable market value, except as otherwise provided. Iowa Code § 441.21(1), (2). No presumption exists that the assessor's valuation is correct. Iowa Code § 441.39. Only those matters raised in protest before the board of review may be asserted on appeal to the district court; only those matters raised in the district court may be considered on further appeal. Iowa Code § 441.38. The preprinted Petition to Board of Review submitted by Eagle provided six reasons for protest which echo language from section 441.37(1). Eagle struck all but the first ground. Eagle is therefore limited in its appeal to that ground. In Riso v. Pottawattamie Board of Review, 362 N.W.2d 513, 517 (Iowa 1985), we set out the appropriate criteria for an appeal based on the ground that the assessment was not equitable. We stated the gist of this ground is that the property is assessed higher proportionally than other like property. Id. When the taxpayer produces competent evidence by two disinterested witnesses that the market value is too high because it is inequitable, the burden of persuasion on valuation shifts to the board of review. Id. at 518; Metropolitan Jacobson Dev. Venture v. Board of Review, 476 N.W.2d 726, 728 (Iowa App.1991). Although Eagle's protest pleaded only one ground, the district court did not err in allowing testimony concerning the market value of Spring Village. Iowa Code section 441.38 expressly states additional evidence to sustain those grounds [pled in the protest] may be introduced.