193.17 ASSESSMENT; APPEAL BASED ON PRESUMPTION OF DELIVERY.

   (A)   (1)    The Tax Administrator shall serve an assessment either by personal service, by certified mail, or by a delivery service authorized under section 5703.056 of the Ohio Revised Code.

      (2)   The Tax Administrator may deliver the assessment through alternative means as provided in this section, including, but not limited to, delivery by secure electronic mail. Such alternative delivery method must be authorized by the person subject to the assessment.

      (3)   Once service of the assessment has been made by the Tax Administrator or other municipal official, or the designee of either, the person to whom the assessment is directed may protest the ruling of that assessment by filing an appeal with the Local Board of Tax Review within sixty days after the receipt of service. The delivery of an assessment of the Tax Administrator as prescribed in Section 718.18 of the Revised Code is prima facie evidence that delivery is complete and that the assessment is served.

   (B)    (1)   A person may challenge the presumption of delivery and service as set forth in this division. A person disputing the presumption of delivery and service under this section bears the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the address to which the assessment was sent was not an address with which the person was associated at the time the Tax Administrator originally mailed the assessment by certified mail. For the purposes of this section, a person is associated with an address at the time the Tax Administrator originally mailed the assessment if, at that time, the person was residing, receiving legal documents, or conducting business at the address; or if, before that time, the person had conducted business at the address and, when the assessment was mailed, the person's agent or the person's affiliate was conducting business at the address. For the purposes of this section, a person's affiliate is any other person that, at the time the assessment was mailed, owned or controlled at least twenty per cent, as determined by voting rights, of the addressee's business.

      (2)   If a person elects to appeal an assessment on the basis described in division (B)(1) of this section, and if that assessment is subject to collection and is not otherwise appealable, the person must do so within sixty days after the initial contact by the Tax Administrator or other municipal official, or the designee of either, with the person. Nothing in this division prevents the Tax Administrator or other official from entering into a compromise with the person if the person does not actually file such an appeal with the Local Board of Tax Review.

         (Ord. 15-237. Passed 11-17-15.)