By Ken de la Bastide
The Herald Bulletin, Anderson, Ind.
(TNS)
ANDERSON — The Indiana Tax Court has affirmed a decision concerning Nestle’s appeal of a property tax assessment.
The court Wednesday affirmed a ruling by the Indiana Board of Tax Review on Nestle’s appeal of the property assessment for six years.
According to a press release from the Nexus Group, which represented Madison County Assessor Larry Davis in the matter, Nestle was seeking a reduction of $15 million for each of six years in the assessment.
“This was significant,” Davis said Friday. “They were appealing $25 million in assessed value for each of the six years.”
Davis’s office set the assessment value of the plant, located southwest of Anderson along Interstate 69, at $55 million in 2023. Nestle officials said the assessment should instead be determined by the market value if the site was sold, which would have set the tax at $33.9 million in 2023.
The Nexus Group said if the Nestle appeal was successful, the company would have been entitled to a refund of $3.2 million plus interest.
Nestle has 30 days to appeal the determination to the Indiana Supreme Court for a review of the opinion.
Madison County incurred no attorney fees for the case.
Nestle asserted that the assessor misapplied what is known in Indiana as the Burden Shifting Statute for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021. In part, the assessor’s office maintains that Nestle made improvements to its facility, causing an increase in the assessment. In turn, according to the assessor’s filings, that shifts the burden onto Nestle to prove otherwise.
The case involved the tax value of the industrial building, which is a food processing and distribution facility. Nestle opened its facility in 2008 to manufacture coffee creamers and ready-to-drink beverages.
The appeal began last year after the Indiana Board of Tax Review determined that the assessor’s appraiser offered a more persuasive argument than did Nestle.
On the assessor’s side, David Hall of Integra Realty Resource compared the Nestle site to values of industrial land of similar acreage, the cost of site improvements such as a parking lot and rail spur, and general depreciation costs, among other factors.
Additionally, the county appraisal noted that the dairy industry was facing declining sales as more consumers moved to plant-based substitutes.
In its September 2025 determination, the Indiana Board of Tax Review wrote, “We find the assessor’s appraisal more persuasive because he presented a more complete analysis and better supported key aspects of his appraisal.”
Photo credit: Dave Dugdale/Wikimedia Commons
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© 2026 The Herald Bulletin (Anderson, Ind.). Visit www.theheraldbulletin.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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