Although detailed Instructions are provided with the Sales Disclosure Form, the following is a list of

potential questions which may arise. If these FAQs do not address your question, please refer to

the Instructions and the Memorandum provided by DLGF dated June 2, 2008, both of which are

available on the DLGF website. If your question is not addressed by any of these documents,

please contact DLGF.

IC 6-1.1-5.5-3 requires a party to submit the sales disclosure form to the county assessor,

who is responsible for reviewing the form for accuracy and completeness. If the form is

accurate and substantially complete, the county assessor stamps the form as eligible and

returns it to the appropriate party for filing with the county auditor. The county assessor shall

process the forms as quickly as possible.

IC 6-1.1-5.5-3 specifies that a form is accurate and complete if the county assessor does not

have substantial evidence the information is inaccurate, the form conforms with that

prescribed by the DLGF, and the form is submitted to the county assessor in a format usable

to the county assessor. If the form submitted is not entirely complete, the county assessor

must notify the party in writing as to what items are incomplete. The parties have thirty (30)

days from the date of the written notice to provide the information.

In general, counties should not deviate from procedural guidance or directives on sales

disclosure forms provided by the DLGF. IC 6-1.1-5.5-3 was amended in 2007 to include

subsection (f), which precludes assessing officials from establishing procedures or

requirements that differ substantially from that required by law. This document shall provide

procedural guidance on filing sales disclosure forms and should be followed.

No, only the three (3) pages with information regarding the sale are required to be submitted.

The instructions and details of credits and exemptions need not be submitted.

The form must contain the information required by statute. However, for simplification, for

instance, the word “same” can be used for address for Seller 2 or Buyer 2 if the address is

the same as Seller 1 and Buyer 1. Also, only a brief legal needs to be included. The legal

description can also be attached with “see attached” written into the Legal Description box.

The form must be either typed or printed in black ink. However, the signatures on page 2 do

not have to be in black ink.

A bank or title company must have a notarized power of attorney form to be an authorized

representative for the buyer or seller. An attorney representing either party is not required to

have a power of attorney. Note that in cases where a corporation is the seller or buyer, a

resolution or other legal document that designates authorized signatories for the business is

an acceptable substitute for a power of attorney. Any person signing for the buyer or seller

must be identified clearly and must provide contact information, including complete and

legible name, address and telephone number. The signature of only one buyer and one

seller is required.

A hard copy of the sales disclosure form with signatures must be provided to the county

assessor. I.C. 6-1.1-5.5-3 requires the county assessor to retain the forms for five (5) years.

The new instructions and these FAQs are being promulgated to create as much uniformity as

possible among the counties. This document shall provide procedural guidance on filing sales

disclosure forms and should be followed to create uniformity throughout the state.

No. When filing an affidavit, a sales disclosure form is not required.

Yes, a sales disclosure is required with the recording of a land contract. The Sales Price is

the original land contract amount. Furthermore, at the time a deed is recorded to complete

the land contract, the Sales Price is the original land contract amount.

Effective July 1, 2008, the county assessor provides this information from the assessment

records to DLGF. The acreage should be calculated as closely as possible for irregular

shaped parcels.

The tax billing address on Page 1 of the sales disclosure form should be the address where

property tax bills should be mailed in the future, if different than the property address.

No. Faxed copies are acceptable.

Many counties are utilizing scanning solutions to create the sales date required by the state.

Scanning solutions require documents to be quite precise for them to be effective. I.C. 6-1.1-

5.5-3 specifies that the form submitted shall be in a format usable to the county assessor.

Due to variations in technology and software programs, some inconsistencies among the

counties will persist. However, the document is acceptable as long as the information is

ascertainable and the document is suitable for scanning although it may not be in perfect

physical condition. The rejection of forms should not be the normal procedure.

I.C. 6-1.1-5.5-3 requires the county assessor to retain the forms for five years. The yellow

sheet is for the buyer to keep.

The county assessor should return the rejected form. The preparer can then add the

required or corrected information to the form.

Sales disclosure forms are very important to ensure fair and equitable assessments. The

DLGF has worked to ensure that everyone understands the forms by providing more detailed

Instructions and by creating these FAQs.

I.C. 6-1.1-5.5-3 requires the filing of sales disclosure forms. Eliminating the form would

require legislative action, and another method for obtaining market value in use data would

likely take its place.

What the county requires for the parcel number is a local decision due to the various

interfacing methods used among the several counties’ assessment systems. However,

whenever possible, the state number should be used.

The sales price is required for every transaction in which money or other valuable

consideration has changed hands, even if the transaction is exempt from the filing fee. If no

money or other valuable consideration has changed hands, then no sales disclosure form is

required to be filed.

The fee for filing a sales disclosure is $10 per sales disclosure form, unless one of the

conditions numbered 12-15 are met, then no fee is charged. The general rule is one form per

parcel, one fee per form. There is an exception, however, in event that all parcels are

contiguous, and within the same taxing district. In this case, one form can be used, and only

one fee is charged. Some counties, however, may charge a separate transfer fee of up to

$5.00 per parcel transferred based on local ordinance.

Since the statute requires a telephone number be provided on a sales disclosure form, there

are two ways to approach this situation:

(a) Ask the party to provide a cell phone number or the phone number of a relative or

friend who can reach them. Remind them the phone number is confidential; or

(b) If the party has no cell phone and no other phone number to provide, the party should

explain the circumstances to the County Assessor who then should accept the form without a

phone number. The County Assessor would then provide a brief explanation in the “special

circumstances” data field when the assessor submits their sales disclosure form data file to

the Department.

No. The state number should be provided if available. If the state number is not available,

then the local number should be provided.

As long as one of the buyers will utilize the property as his/her permanent residence, the

homestead credit will be available. If there is no residence being vacated which receives the

homestead credit, the buyers will mark “No” in Section F.

Email addresses are not required by statute to be provided by the parties. However, if the

parties’ preferred method of communication is email, they should provide it.

The document may contain language such as “for no consideration” or “as a gift” or other

similar language. However, if the document does not contain such language, the signature of

the parties on the form, under penalties of perjury as required by law, is evidence that the

document is not a “conveyance document” as identified in the statute.

No. For scanning purposes, the form must be presented on single-sided pages.

The form is required for all conveyances effective July 1, 2008, or later. In the event that the

conveyance is effective before this date, the old form may still be used. All sales disclosure

filings are subject to the $10 fee, regardless of when the conveyance is effective.

Yes. As long as all required signatures are obtained, they can be submitted in counterparts.

A copy of the Power of Attorney document must be presented and must be in good, legible

condition such that the county officials can rely on it.

Yes.

The amended statute requires that only the new form can be accepted for transfers made on

or after July 1, 2008. The old form is still acceptable for transfers made before July 1, 2008

and submitted for recording after July 1, 2008. The date of the recordable document is the

transfer date. For example, a deed is dated June 28, 2008 and submitted to the assessor on

July 2, 2008, the old sales disclosure form is acceptable.

HEA 1293-2008, Section 45 added IC 6-1.1-20.9-7, effective on January 1, 2008

(retroactive). “If a person files a statement in a calendar year [e.g., June 23, 2008] to claim a

[homestead] credit …with respect to real property, the credit applies for the property taxes

due and payable in the immediately succeeding calendar year [e.g., pay-2009].

Thus, if the county auditor receives on June 23, 2008, a sales disclosure form that meets the

statutory requirements; and the homestead for which the sales disclosure form is submitted is

otherwise eligible for the credit, the county auditor must apply the homestead credit to the

homestead for 2009 and in any later year in which the homestead remains eligible for the

credit.

However, the sales disclosure form cannot be used for an application for the homestead

credit or other applicable deductions for annually assessed mobile homes. The filing

requirements for applying the homestead credit or other applicable deductions for annually

assessed mobile homes do not change.

No. The form can only be used to file the credits and exemptions specifically identified on the

form. The filing requirements for other exemptions and credits do not change.

Because original signatures are not required, the county assessor must keep a copy of the

SDF submitted and return the original submitted to the party for filing with the county auditor.

Per the new statute in HEA 1293, the assessor is required to keep a copy of the forms for five

years; the auditor is required to keep original copies of SDF’s that are used as credit

applications.

The receipt should be returned with the deed.

They can number the receipt as they choose, either using the sales disclosure unique

identification number, or any other locally-decided method of tracking the fee.

providing financing to the buyer.

The electronic site is currently not posted, due to an emergency fix that needed to

be made to the form and program. It should, however, be posted as quickly as it is ready.

Please stay in touch with the Department’s website for more information.

Yes, longhand submissions are acceptable. In the event that a form is submitted longhand,

the county assessor’s office will enter the data in the database.

The Unique ID field is a function of the electronic software. When the form is submitted

online, it is automatically given this number. It is system-generated number: when the user

(title company, purchaser, or assessor) fills out the application, it will automatically populate

that field based on the county; for example Starke County would be 75-2008-00001

(subsequent records are 00002, 00003, etc.)

If a form is submitted by somebody in longhand, there won’t be a Unique ID on that particular

form; when the assessor’s office enters the form into the database, however, that number will

be generated. THIS FORM CANNOT BE TURNED DOWN BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF

THE UNIQUE ID.

The general rule is one form per parcel, one fee per form. There is an exception, however, in

event that all parcels are contiguous, and within the same taxing district. In this case, one

form can be used, and only one fee is charged.

The online software application will give the counties the tools to recognize when an

inaccurate form was filed, when the 30 day window expires, and how to contact the

individual. For the penalty provisions, these would be policed in the same manner as those

that are currently not being filed at all.

That particular box should be the parcel number(s) of the properties being transferred. For a

hand-filled form, however, due to a lack of space in the box you can simply refer back to the

parcel code letters from Part I.

To this section the Department added a box for “A transfer of real property interest for

valuable consideration.” This box was added to address the standard conveyance between

two parties for valuable consideration, which would account for a vast majority of sales that

your offices deal with. It was brought to our attention that, in the absence of that box, one

could be led to believe that these sales would be exempt from a fee since all of the boxes are

checked "no."

The addition of this condition was a pretty substantial modification that has required a good

amount of programming change, hence the reason that the online application is not yet

available. We anticipate that the application will be up in the very near future. In the

meantime, the static form that is currently posted can be accepted.

In response to the question about divorces, it is true that transfers with no consideration given

generally do not require a sales disclosure; however, divorces are specifically named in the

new statute as requiring a sales disclosure to be filed. There is not a fee associated with this.

In this case, that of a non-homestead property moving to a homestead, the HSC does not

carry across for that year; rather, it simply goes into effect for taxes payable in the next year.

For example, if a person bought a rental house, moved in, and applied for a Homestead all in

July of 2008, they wouldn’t receive that credit until taxes payable in 2009.

The Commissioners are to appoint the County’s IT manager for the purposes of managing

the county’s DLGF electronic accounts. If the county does not yet have a professional IT

person, as some do not, the Department will be happy to administer the accounts until a

suitable person can be found. If this is the case, please send an e-mail to jvolz@dlgf.in.gov.

The “attachments complete” box is for either attached legal descriptions, additional parcels in

the case of hand-filled forms, additional signers, etc. If there are no attachments, then it

would be a “no.”