Thomas Michael Atherton's Legal Cases (3)

Tax

State Bd. of Tax Com'rs v. Town of St. John 702 N.E.2d 1034 (Ind. 1998)

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OUTCOME: State's property tax system held unconstitutional.

Mr. Atherton was lead attorney in this series of cases in which Indiana’s property tax system was challenged and ultimately held unconstitutional by the Indiana Supreme Court. Indiana’s property tax s ... ystem was not based on market values; instead, assessments were calculated solely on rules established by the State Board of Tax Commissioners. A group of taxpayers challenged the system, contending that it was unconstitutional. The litigation spawned nine published opinions and took the better part of a decade before the Indiana Supreme Court struck down the entire assessment system, finding it violated the Indiana Constitution’s requirement for “a uniform and equal rate of property assessment and taxation.”

Tax

Tippecanoe County v. Indiana Mfrs. Ass'n 784 N.E.2nd 463 (Ind. 2003)

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OUTCOME: Challenge to Contingent Fee Personal Prop. Audits

Indiana Manufacturers’ Association on behalf of numerous taxpayers filed an action seeking to bar counties from using contingently paid auditing firms to audit personal property tax returns. The Count ... y Court granted the injunction. On appeal, the Indiana Supreme Court reversed, and held that contingent fee auditing contracts were not barred by the then existing statutes. Indiana statutes have now been changed to bar contingent fee audits.

Tax

Central Illinois Light Co. v. Johnson 418 N.E.2d 696 (ICentrll. 1981)

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OUTCOME: Seminal case barring taxation of machinery

This is the seminal case on the thorny issue of what constitutes taxable real property in Illinois. When Illinois abolished personal property taxation, the county attempted to assess fixed machinery a ... nd equipment as real property. The taxpayer filed an original appeal in the Illinois Supreme Court and avoided years of costly litigation. The Supreme Court ruled in the taxpayer’s favor and held that property which had been assessed as personal property could not be taxed as real property. While the case was a significant victory for taxpayers, major industrial taxpayers continue to face attempts to tax process machinery and equipment. See, e.g. Board of Education v. Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board 822 N.E.2nd 550 (Ill. App. 2005).

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