Frequently Asked Questions

Anyone with a pending case in the Minnesota Tax Court may e-file with Tax Court E-Filing. You do not have to be an attorney.

E-filing is mandatory for attorneys and government agencies. See the General Procedures Order: E-Filing and E-Service in the Minnesota Tax Court, for information about e-filing requirements. 

All filers who are not required by court rule to use E-Filing, namely self-represented litigants, may use E-Filing on a voluntary basis. Otherwise, they may file by traditional means (such as US Mail or email). 

No. When attorneys register for an E-Filing account, they have the option of including a secondary email address. An attorney can list an assistant’s email address as the secondary email address for the account. This will ensure that the assistant also receives notification of all e-filings and e-service associated with the attorney’s account. Legal support staff can log in to E-Filing using the attorney’s credentials to create new filings and view service documentation. 

Please note that the use of E-Filing to submit documents to the courts in no way changes the responsibilities and obligations under Minnesota Administrative Rules.

You can e-file immediately after completing the registration process. This means you have successfully passed the test and responded to the confirmation email.

To promote understanding of the rules and methods for using E-Filing, users are required to take and pass a short test before using E-Filing. Successful test completion means an 80 percent score on the test. All answers to the test are set forth in General Procedures Order: E-Filing and E-Service in the Minnesota Tax Court and in the E-Filing FAQ page. You may refer to the General Procedures Order and the FAQ page during the test.

You can take the test an unlimited number of times.

Any username you create in E-Filing cannot be in use by another E-Filing user. We recommend that Minnesota attorneys use their Bar ID numbers as their usernames.

Passwords must be 6 to 8 characters long.

Go to the Login screen of E-Filing and click Forgot Password?. Enter the email address you registered with to request a new password. If you no longer have access to the primary email address, you must call the court administrator (651-539-3260 between 8 am and 4:30 pm Monday through Friday) to change your password.

Log in to E-Filing, click your name in the upper-right corner of the screen and select My Account to access the User Administration screen. From there, you can change your password.

While in E-Filing, click your name in the upper-right corner of the screen and select My Account to access the User Administration screen. From there, you can change your personal account information.

If your contact information changes, please update the information in your E-Filing account, and inform the court at info.mntax@state.mn.us or by calling 651-239-3260.

Set up a second E-Filing account and retake the test. You must use a different primary email address (i.e., with gmail, yahoo, etc.) for the self-represented litigant account.

The time it takes to file documents associated with a motion or response will vary based on a number of factors. If this is your first time filing with the tax court, and/or you need to register, enter party details, or upload a large number of documents, it could take an hour or more to complete your filing. 

No. You may not use Tax Court E-Filing to file a case that has not yet been opened in the Minnesota Tax Court. Documents that open a new case include, for example, a notice of appeal from an order of the commissioner of revenue (whether or not you are filing Tax Court Form 1 with the court), or a petition from a real property tax assessment. 

E-filing types correspond to the type of filing you are submitting. Some of the filing types may not seem self-evident. Here are some general considerations: 

• Select “Motion” if you are filing a motion of any type, or a response or reply to a motion. 
• Select “Brief” if you are filing post-trial briefs, even if oral argument is scheduled. 
• Select “Notification” if you are notifying the court of settlement or dismissal, including stipulated dismissals. 
• Select “In Forma Pauperis” only if you are filing an affidavit for proceeding in forma pauperis – that is, requesting relief from fees under Minnesota Statutes ch. 563
• Select “Exhibit” only if you are filing an exhibit that is not included with a motion or brief (such as a supplemental exhibit). 
• Select “Stipulation” to file a stipulation of facts. Do not file stipulated dismissals under “Stipulation.” 
• Select “Appraisal” only if you are filing a working copy of an expert witness report that is an appraisal of real property pursuant to the court’s scheduling or pretrial order.

The case number in property tax cases usually appears in the format XX-CV-YY-XXXXX; you may need to add one or more leading zeroes to the last section of the court file number if your case does not immediately appear when entered. 

The case number in Commissioner cases usually appears in the format COR-000XXXX; generally, you must include three leading zeroes for cases with four digits and two leading zeroes for cases with five digits. 

Omit the “R” or “S” (for Regular or Small Claims Division) that appears in your case caption on court documents when entering it in E-Filing. 

If you don't know the case number you can find the case number on all documents that you receive from the tax court. You also can use the Case Search function in the left margin of the page to look up the case number in cases in which you have already filed a notice of appearance (or in which you are a party, if you are self-represented).

An e-filing that has been "submitted" has been sent electronically to the court for review. It is not yet approved or rejected. 

An e-filing that is "filed" has been approved by the court administrator.

After submitting an e-filing, you will receive a confirmation email regarding your submission. You will receive a second email once the court administrator approves or rejects the filing.

A filing must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. in order to be considered submitted on that business day.

25MB. If a document is larger than 25MB, you must divide the document into separate parts and upload each part separately. Use the Add Another link on the appropriate document upload screen to upload additional parts of a document.

Most documents filed with the Minnesota Tax Court will be accessible by the public at the Judicial Center. E-filed documents are accessible to the e-filer and to those who were served with those documents. Some documents may be available to the public online.

E-Filing accepts the following document types: 

• PDF (preferred) 
• Microsoft Word (preferred) 
• WordPerfect (not recommended) 
• RTF (not recommended) 
• .txt (not recommended)

Documents to be signed by the e-filer must be signed using the procedure specified below. 

• Documents that must be signed by the person who is e-filing by court rule (such as a motion) may be typographical (preferably) or handwritten, and must include the typed name, address telephone number, email address, and if the signer is an attorney, attorney registration number. 
• Documents that must be signed by someone other than the person who is e-filing by court rule (such as an affidavit or proof of service) may be typographical (preferably) or handwritten, and must include the typed name of the signer as well as any other requirements that apply to such documents.

A typographical signature is considered the functional equivalent of an original handwritten signature produced on paper and is in the form: /s/ Pat L. Smith.

Sign all documents using black ink. Ink in other colors does not always show up when the documents are scanned.

Do not submit paper copies of documents that have been e-filed, unless otherwise ordered by the court. Any unrequested paper copies of e-filed documents submitted to the court administrator will be discarded with no notice to the filer.

Proof of service is not required for documents that were served to electronic service recipients using the E-Filing application. For documents served conventionally, choose "declaration/proof of service" when E-Filing the proof of service. Cover letters are not encouraged, but may be submitted as "correspondence."

No. Once a case is referred to mediation, all submissions from the parties are strictly confidential and are not made part of the tax court litigation file. All mediation forms and materials (such as the mediation agreement as well as any mediation briefs and supplemental materials) MUST be separately transmitted to the mediator as instructed on the applicable form. DO NOT e-file mediation forms with the Minnesota Tax Court.

Documents cannot be filed in a paper format. Effective October 30, 2023, the use of the E-Filing application and E-Serve is mandatory for attorneys and government agencies. 

Documents need to be E-Filed into each case separately. 

The e-filer is responsible for redacting documents or, if appropriate, filing unredacted documents as confidential.

Confidential information, information that is not public pursuant to state or federal law, and information that is not public pursuant to an order of the tax court or another court (such as a protective order) should be redacted from submitted documents. 

Alternatively, it may be filed without redaction as confidential. To file as confidential, however, the information must fall into one of the following categories: 

• Documents subject to an order to file under seal; 
• Documents accompanied by a motion to file under seal or as confidential;

Documents that are confidential by operation of law (the e-filer must specify the applicable law). This includes in forma pauperis applications. 

Some of this confidential information, which must be redacted or filed as confidential, includes: 

• Financial identifiers, such as social security numbers and bank account information. 
• Medical records. 
• Names and identifying information of crime victims and alleged victims of sexual or domestic assault. 

Failure to redact sensitive information, or attempting to file a confidential document without following the appropriate procedures, could result in your filing being rejected or in other sanctions.

No.

To file as confidential, the information must fall into one of the following categories: 

• Documents subject to an order to file under seal; 
• Documents accompanied by a motion to file under seal or as confidential; 
• Documents that are confidential by operation of law (the e-filer must specify the applicable law). This includes in forma pauperis applications.

If you aren’t sure if a document should be confidential, call the court administrator for assistance. Redacted documents do not require confidential filing.

No. If your filing is rejected for any reason, your original date of submission will not be preserved. 

If you resubmit a rejected filing and it is approved, the new date of submission will be the date you resubmitted the filing.

Yes. Click the Edit/Resubmit button from Rejected Filing Queue to correct the errors found by the court administrator. Note that the original date of submission will not be preserved unless otherwise directed by the court.

A rejected filing stays in the Rejected queue after being resubmitted. If the resubmitted filing is approved, the filing will display in the Approved queue, with the approved date. The rejected document remains in the rejected queue.

No. E-Filing can only be used for filing and serving documents in the Minnesota Tax Court. If you filed a chapter 278 petition in district court (invoking the jurisdiction of the district court), and your case is pending in district court, you cannot use E-Filing to file or serve document in that case.

No. E-Filing cannot be used to e-serve discovery requests or answers to discovery requests, nor can it be used to e-serve other documents that are not also being filed in the court, such as expert reports or proposed exhibits.

No. However, under Minn. R. Civ. App. P. 103.01, the appellant may use Tax Court E-Filing to serve a copy of the notice of appeal on the tax court administrator and the adverse parties. In that case, the appellant must file proof of service with the appellate court, using any of the service methods authorized by Minn. R. Civ. App. P. 125.03.

All documents must be served on all parties. If the filer selects E-Filing Service for a registered user when completing the filing on E-Filing, service will be accomplished, and is deemed complete when the filing is submitted. All other parties must be served by conventional means, and proof of service must be submitted to the tax court.

If the document is served through E-Filing, no other proof of service is required. 

When using conventional service methods (in person, by U.S. Mail, or by electronic means other than E-Filing), an affidavit or certificate of service is required.

In Tax Court e-filing, “Electronic service” and “E-Filing service” have the same meaning; both refer to service accomplished by the E-Filing e-filing system. Electronic or E-Filing service occurs when: 

1. The party or case participant being served is a registered e-filer; 
2. The party or participant being served displays in the “E-Filing Service Recipients” section on the e-filing Service Information screen; and 
3. The e-filer selects “E-Filing Service” for that party or participant. 

If a party is served electronically, no further action is required by the e-filer, and no proof of service is required. A party or participant who has created an E-Filing account has consented to be served electronically, and no additional consent or agreement is required. 

“Email service” occurs when the filer serves a document by sending an email to the party or participant being served, with the document attached. “Email service” is a form of conventional service that is available when the party or participant being served is not a registered e-filer. Email service may only occur with the consent of the party or participant being served. Service by email requires the filer to file either an affidavit or certificate of service with the court administrator. 

Once a party or participant is attached to the case by the court administrator, if the party or participant is not registered with E-Filing, they will appear in the list of “Conventional Service Recipients” on the Service Information screen. To serve a party or participant by email, the filer must select “Email” from the service option drop-down menu on the Service Information screen.

The Minnesota Tax Court does not charge fees for filing documents other than the initial fee for commencing a case in the tax court.