I appealed my county's business tangible personal property tax assessments to the locality and then to the Virginia Department of Taxation — why won't the Department hear my appeal?

Plain-English summary

A business assessed county business tangible personal property (BTPP) tax for the 2020 through 2023 tax years wrote the county in May 2024 asking it to abate the assessments, arguing it had no definite place of business and no BTPP in the county. The county made minor corrections but upheld the assessments (Va. Code § 58.1-3981), and the business appealed to the Department under Va. Code § 58.1-3983.1. The Tax Commissioner issued this Notice of Jurisdiction holding the Department cannot hear the appeal.

Virginia's two local-appeal tracks. A taxpayer aggrieved by a local tax assessment has two distinct administrative remedies, and they lead to different second stops:

• The general correction route — § 58.1-3980. Apply to the commissioner of the revenue (or other assessing official) within three years from the last day of the tax year or one year from the assessment date, whichever is later. If you disagree with the result, your next stop is circuit court under § 58.1-3984.
• The local business tax appeal route — § 58.1-3983.1 B. Appeal to the local assessing official within one year from the tax year's last day or the assessment date, whichever is later. Only this route continues to the Department of Taxation — within 90 days of the final local determination, following the Guidelines for Appealing Local Business Taxes (P.D. 04-28).

The letter didn't pick a track — and the county's pick was reasonable. The taxpayer's May 2024 letter cited neither statute. The county's determination said it was answering a § 58.1-3980 application, and the Department found that reasonable for a practical reason: § 58.1-3980's longer window let the county address all four contested years, whereas the 2020–2022 assessments were already outside § 58.1-3983.1's one-year appeal window. A county can't answer under a statute whose deadline has already run.

No § 58.1-3983.1 local appeal, no Department jurisdiction. The Department has consistently declined to hear local BTPP appeals unless the taxpayer first appealed to the locality under § 58.1-3983.1 (P.D. 18-197, 22-145, 24-93). Because the local proceeding here was a § 58.1-3980 correction application, the Department lacks jurisdiction. The taxpayer's remaining remedy is to apply to the circuit court under § 58.1-3984.

What this means for you

Businesses disputing local BTPP, BPOL, or M&T assessments

Name the statute in your local appeal. If you want the option of the Department's (free, administrative) review, your local filing must invoke § 58.1-3983.1 and meet its one-year deadline. A generic abatement letter risks being processed under § 58.1-3980 — which forecloses the Department and leaves only circuit court.

Watch the one-year clock

The § 58.1-3983.1 window is much shorter than § 58.1-3980's three years. Older tax years can be alive for a local correction application yet dead for the Department route — exactly what happened to the 2020–2022 years here. If multiple years are at stake, consider filing the § 58.1-3983.1 appeal for the years still open while preserving the rest under § 58.1-3980.

If you're already past the fork

A jurisdiction dismissal isn't the end: relief may still be available in circuit court under § 58.1-3984. But you lose the administrative layer, with its lower cost and the Department's published-guidance framework.

Common questions

Q: Why did the Department refuse to decide whether the county could tax this business at all?
A: Because its jurisdiction over local business tax appeals exists only when the taxpayer first pursued the local appeal under § 58.1-3983.1. This taxpayer's local filing was treated — reasonably — as a § 58.1-3980 correction application, whose appeal path runs to circuit court instead.

Q: The taxpayer never said which statute it was using. Doesn't the ambiguity cut in its favor?
A: No. The Department found the county's characterization reasonable because § 58.1-3980 was the only provision that could address all four contested years — the one-year § 58.1-3983.1 window had already closed on 2020–2022.

Q: What should the taxpayer have done differently?
A: File its local appeal expressly under § 58.1-3983.1 within one year of each assessment (at least for the years still open), which would have preserved a further appeal to the Department within 90 days of the county's final determination.

Q: Is there anything left to do now?
A: Yes — the Notice points to the circuit court remedy under § 58.1-3984 for taxpayers who wish to pursue the matter further.

Citations and references

Statutes:

• Va. Code § 58.1-3980 — general application for correction to the local assessing official (three years / one year)
• Va. Code § 58.1-3981 — correction by the local official
• Va. Code § 58.1-3983.1 B — the local business tax appeal route (one year locally, then 90 days to the Department)
• Va. Code § 58.1-3984 — judicial correction in circuit court

Authorities the Department relied on (described here, not linked): the Guidelines for Appealing Local Business Taxes, P.D. 04-28 (6/25/2004); and P.D. 18-197 (12/6/2018), P.D. 22-145 (10/7/2022), and P.D. 24-93 (9/25/2024) (the Department declines local BTPP appeals not preceded by a § 58.1-3983.1 local appeal).

Source

• Landing page: Virginia Laws, Rules & Decisions
• Ruling: P.D. 25-45

Original ruling text

April 8, 2025

Re: Notice of Jurisdiction

Taxpayer: *

Locality Assessing Tax: *

Business Tangible Personal Property Tax

Dear *:

This notice of jurisdiction is issued upon the administrative appeal filed by you on behalf of *. (the “Taxpayer”) with the Department of Taxation. The Taxpayer appeals assessments of business tangible personal property (BTPP) tax issued to it by the *** (the “County”) for the 2020 through 2023 tax years.

The following determination is based on the facts presented to the Department summarized below. The Code of Virginia sections cited are available online at law.lis.virginia.gov. The public documents cited are available at tax.virginia.gov in the Laws, Rules, & Decisions section of the Department’s website.

FACTS

The County issued statutory and supplemental assessments of BTPP tax to the Taxpayer for the 2020 to 2023 tax years. By letter dated May 17, 2024, the Taxpayer requested that the County abate the assessments because it did not have a definite place of business in the County and did not have any BTPP located in the County. The County subsequently issued a determination letter stating that it was in response to the Taxpayer’s application for correction under Virginia Code § 58.1-3980. Pursuant to Virginia Code § 58.1-3981, the County made minor corrections to the assessments but otherwise upheld them in full. The Taxpayer then appealed to the Department pursuant to Virginia Code § 58.1-3983.1.

ANALYSIS

Virginia Code § 58.1-3980 provides that any person aggrieved by an assessment of local taxes “may, within three years from the last day of the tax year for which such assessment is made, or within one year from the date of the assessment, whichever is later, apply to the commissioner of the revenue or such other official who made the assessment for a correction thereof.” Under this procedure, if the taxpayer disagrees in whole or in part with the local assessing officer’s determination, the taxpayer may then seek correction with the circuit court under the provisions of Virginia Code § 58.1-3984.

Virginia Code § 58.1-3983.1 B 1 provides that any person assessed with a “local business tax . . . may appeal such assessment within one year from the last day of the tax year for which such assessment is made, or within one year from the date of such assessment, whichever is later, to the commissioner of the revenue or other assessing official.” Under this provision, if the taxpayer’s appeal is denied in whole or in part by the local assessing official, the taxpayer may, within 90 days of the date of the final local determination, appeal to the Department.

In this case, both parties have characterized the Taxpayer’s May 17, 2024, letter to the County as an administrative appeal. The letter, however, did not indicate whether it was filed under Virginia Code § 58.1-3980 or Virginia Code § 58.1-3983.1. The County’s determination stated that it was issued in response to an appeal filed under Virginia Code § 58.1-3980. In the Department’s opinion, the County’s decision to treat the Taxpayer’s letter as an appeal under Virginia Code § 58.1-3980 was reasonable because that section allowed the County to address all of the tax years the Taxpayer was contesting. The assessments for the 2020 through 2022 tax years were no longer appealable under Virginia Code § 58.1-3983.1 based on the tax years and dates of assessment at issue.

As indicated above, taxpayers assessed with BTPP tax may appeal to the locality under either Virginia Code § 58.1-3980 or Virginia Code § 58.1-3983.1. If a taxpayer wishes to appeal an assessment from a locality to the Department, it must first file a local administrative appeal pursuant to the process set forth in Virginia Code § 58.1-3983.1 B and the Guidelines for Appealing Local Business Taxes (the “Guidelines”), issued as Public Document (P.D.) 04-28 (6/25/2004). The Department has consistently declined to address appeals involving local BTPP tax unless the taxpayer has first appealed the assessments to the locality under Virginia Code § 58.1-3983.1. See, e.g. , P.D. 18-197 (12/6/2018), P.D. 22-145 (10/7/2022), and P.D. 24-93 (9/25/2024).

DETERMINATION

The Taxpayer did not appeal to the County under a specific section of the Code of Virginia , and, in the Department’s opinion, the County reasonably responded as if the Taxpayer had appealed under Virginia Code § 58.1-3980. That section allowed the County to address all of the tax years the Taxpayer was contesting, whereas the County could not have addressed the assessments for the 2020 through 2022 tax years under Virginia Code § 58.1-3983.1 because the time period within which to appeal those assessments under that section had already expired. Therefore, the Department does not have jurisdiction to address the Taxpayer’s appeal. The Taxpayer, however, may be able to seek relief in circuit court under the procedures set forth in Virginia Code § 58.1-3984 if it wishes to pursue the matter further.

If you have any questions regarding this notice of jurisdiction, you may contact * in the Office of Tax Policy and Legal Affairs, Tax Adjudication and Resolution Division, at or **.

Sincerely,

James J. Alex

Tax Commissioner

Commonwealth of Virginia

AR 5125.Q

Related Documents

04-28

18-197

22-145

24-93