Question

This has to do with property taxes. Our church has been in existence for 40 years and we've never received any tax notices in all these years. This church has had 3 preachers. My dad is the 3rd and has been here for over 20 years. In all these years we've never received anything. This year we got notice that they were suing us and actually the lawsuit letter was sent to another church and they in turn called the original trustee who is no longer at this location and he contacted my dad. Since then we've tried to get the paper work in order. After this, we were told that we owed 20 years of taxes starting with 1988 to the present. If we had gotten anything in those 40 years, we would have taken care of this then. What I need to know is if there is a statue of limitations as to how far back they can go to collect taxes. We feel this is unfair to hit us with the amounts they are charging us. I was told by an appraiser that there is something that limits the yrs they can go back.