What counts as an 'obvious clerical mistake' a Tennessee property assessor can correct outside of an appeal?

Subject

Opinion No. 13-103, Meaning of Obvious Clerical Mistakes Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-509(f), December 10, 2013

Plain-English summary

Rep. John Mark Windle asked the AG to define "obvious clerical mistakes" under Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-509(f), the statute that lets a property tax assessor correct errors on assessment rolls without requiring the taxpayer or the assessor to go through the county board of equalization appeal process.

The statute itself supplies the definition. § 67-5-509(f):

Errors or omissions correctable under this section include only obvious clerical mistakes, involving no judgment of or discretion by the assessor, apparent from the face of the official tax and assessment records, such as the name or address of an owner, the location or physical description of property, misplacement of a decimal point or mathematical miscalculation, errors of classification, and duplicate assessment.

Three elements must all be present:

1. Obvious clerical mistake. Typo-style errors, not substantive disagreements.
2. No judgment or discretion by the assessor. A change that would require the assessor to re-decide value, classification under disputed facts, or methodology is not a clerical mistake.
3. Apparent from the face of the official tax and assessment records. The error has to be visible on the records themselves; you can't bring in outside evidence to "prove" a clerical error.

The AG offered concrete examples: typos, mathematical miscalculations, misplaced decimal points, transpositions of numbers, misspellings, owner name/address errors, property description errors, classification errors, and duplicate assessments.

Critical limit: errors in taxpayer-supplied schedules don't count. The statute expressly excludes "clerical mistakes in tax reports or schedules filed by a taxpayer with the assessor." So if a business taxpayer made a typo on its own personal property schedule, § 67-5-509 doesn't authorize correction; the taxpayer's remedy is the appeal process.

Procedure. Under § 67-5-509(c)(1), when the assessor discovers a correctable error or omission, the assessor initiates the correction. Under § 67-5-509(d), a taxpayer-discovered error must be raised prior to March 1 of the second year following the tax year for which correction is sought. The same deadline applies to assessor-initiated corrections.

What the procedure can NOT do. Prior AG opinions establish the limits:

• Not for reappraisal disputes. A taxpayer cannot use § 67-5-509 to challenge the basis or methodology of a property reappraisal. Tenn. Att'y Gen. Op. 83-45 (Jan. 25, 1983).
• Not for skipped appeals. A taxpayer who fails to appeal an assessment to the county board of equalization cannot use § 67-5-509 to revisit the case, even if appeals for other tax years reduced the valuation. Tenn. Att'y Gen. Op. 07-37 (Mar. 26, 2007).
• Not a workaround for the equalization process. The correction-of-errors statute "was not intended to circumvent, or to provide an alternative to the equalization and assessment review functions of the county and state boards of equalization." Tenn. Att'y Gen. Op. 87-90 (May 14, 1987).

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2013. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

§ 67-5-509 has been amended over time and Tennessee's appellate courts have had more occasion to interpret it since 2013. The general definition (obvious, face-of-record, no judgment) has stayed stable, but specific deadlines and procedure details should be confirmed.

Background and statutory framework

The big picture. Tennessee property tax law has two correction tracks:

• Equalization appeals (county board of equalization, then state board of equalization), for substantive disputes about valuation, classification, exemptions, etc. Strict deadlines apply.
• Clerical error correction under § 67-5-509, for the simple stuff: typos, math, duplicates.

The clerical-error statute prevents an assessor from being forced to defend an obvious math mistake or duplicate listing in front of the board of equalization, and prevents taxpayers from being forced to file a formal appeal for such errors. The line between the two tracks is the "judgment or discretion" test.

§ 67-5-509(c)(1). "Whenever the assessor discovers that there has been an error or omission in the listing, description, classification or assessed value of property or any other error or omission in the tax rolls," the assessor initiates a correction. The statute creates an affirmative duty; if the assessor sees the error, the assessor fixes it.

§ 67-5-509(d). The deadline. The taxpayer must request a correction prior to March 1 of "the second year following the tax year for which the correction is to be made." So for tax year 2013, the deadline would have been March 1, 2015. The assessor faces the same deadline for self-initiated corrections.

§ 67-5-509(f). The definitional bedrock for the entire section. The "no judgment of or discretion" phrase is the key. Anything the assessor would need to think about, that's not a § 67-5-509 case.

Carve-out for taxpayer-supplied data. § 67-5-509(f) ends: "Errors or omissions correctable under this section do not include clerical mistakes in tax reports or schedules filed by a taxpayer with the assessor." The reason: if a taxpayer self-reports incorrect data, the assessor shouldn't bear correction risk for it; the taxpayer has the formal appeal route.

Common questions

What's an example of an error the assessor CAN'T correct under § 67-5-509?

A reappraisal that produced a value the taxpayer thinks is too high. That's a substantive valuation dispute and requires equalization-board appeal. Even if the value seems clearly wrong to the assessor on reflection, "I think I valued this too high" is not a clerical error.

What about a duplicate assessment?

That's expressly listed as correctable. If a parcel got listed twice in the rolls (perhaps because of a reorganization or a transcription error), the assessor can correct it under § 67-5-509.

What if a parcel is listed in the wrong class (e.g., residential vs. commercial)?

The statute lists "errors of classification" as correctable, but only if the error is apparent on the face of the records and doesn't require judgment about the property's actual use. A parcel listed as commercial when the records themselves clearly show it's a residential single-family parcel: correctable. A parcel whose classification depends on a debatable factual question about how it's used: not a clerical correction, that's an equalization appeal.

What's the deadline for me to ask the assessor to fix a clerical mistake?

Prior to March 1 of the second year following the tax year. For a 2024 assessment, that means before March 1, 2026. After the deadline, the correction track is closed.

My business made a typo on its own personal property schedule. Can the assessor fix it under § 67-5-509?

No. Taxpayer-filed schedules are expressly excluded. You'd need to file through the appeal process.

Citations

Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-509 (specifically subsections (c)(1), (d), and (f)). Prior AG opinions: Op. 87-90 (May 14, 1987); Op. 83-45 (Jan. 25, 1983); Op. 07-37 (Mar. 26, 2007).

Source

• Landing page: https://www.tn.gov/attorneygeneral/opinions.html
• Original PDF: https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/attorneygeneral/documents/ops/2013/op13-103.pdf

Original opinion text

December 10, 2013

Opinion No. 13-103

Meaning of Obvious Clerical Mistakes Under Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-509(f)

QUESTION

What is the definition of "obvious clerical mistakes" as referenced by Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-509(f)?

OPINION

Obvious clerical mistakes correctable under Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-509 include only those errors that are "apparent from the face of the official tax and assessment records" and that involve "no judgment of or discretion by the assessor." Such errors could include, but are not limited to, obvious typographical errors, mathematical miscalculations, misplacements of decimal points, transpositions of numbers, and misspellings.

ANALYSIS

The provisions of Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-509 provide a mechanism for correcting errors that appear on the face of assessment records and tax rolls without the necessity of an appeal to the county board of equalization. Whenever the assessor discovers "that there has been an error or omission in the listing, description, classification or assessed value of property or any other error or omission in the tax rolls," the assessor shall initiate a correction of assessments in the manner described in the statute. Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-509(c)(1). If the taxpayer discovers an error, the taxpayer must request a correction of assessments prior to March 1 of "the second year following the tax year for which the correction is to be made." Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-509(d). If the assessor discovers the error, the assessor must initiate a correction of assessments prior to the same deadline. Id.

The statute describes what types of errors are correctable pursuant to this procedure:

Errors or omissions correctable under this section include only obvious clerical mistakes, involving no judgment of or discretion by the assessor, apparent from the face of the official tax and assessment records, such as the name or address of an owner, the location or physical description of property, misplacement of a decimal point or mathematical miscalculation, errors of classification, and duplicate assessment. Errors or omissions correctable under this section do not include clerical mistakes in tax reports or schedules filed by a taxpayer with the assessor.

Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-509(f).

As suggested by the statute, obvious clerical mistakes could include typographical errors, mathematical miscalculations, misplacements of decimal points, transpositions of numbers, and misspellings. Clerical mistakes may relate to any information contained in the assessment, including the owner's identity and address, the property's location, physical description, classification, and any amounts or calculations relating to the valuation and assessment of the property. Clerical mistakes must appear on "the face of the official tax and assessment records," however, and must not involve the "judgment of or discretion by the assessor." Id.

To date, the appellate courts of this state have had little opportunity to interpret the language of Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-509. Nevertheless, prior opinions of this Office provide some guidance as to the types of errors that are not correctable under the statute. Only errors or omissions that are "ascertainable from the face of the assessment records" may be corrected under Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-509. Tenn. Att'y Gen. Op. 87-90, at 4 (May 14, 1987). The statute does not provide relief to a taxpayer who wishes to challenge the basis or methodology behind a reappraisal of property for a given tax year. See Tenn. Att'y Gen. Op. 83-45, at 4 (Jan. 25, 1983). The statute likewise does not provide relief to a taxpayer who fails to appeal an assessment to the county board of equalization, even where appeals for other tax years have resulted in a reduced valuation. See Tenn. Att'y Gen. Op. 07-37, at 1-2 (Mar. 26, 2007). These decisions make clear that "the correction of errors statute was not intended to circumvent, or to provide an alternative to the equalization and assessment review functions of the county and state boards of equalization." Tenn. Att'y Gen. Op. 87-90, at 5.

ROBERT E. COOPER, JR.
Attorney General and Reporter

WILLIAM E. YOUNG
Solicitor General

MARY ELLEN KNACK
Senior Counsel

Requested by:

The Honorable John Mark Windle
State Representative
24 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, Tennessee 37243