A prominent Georgia-based real estate expert recently emailed me. In our email exchange, I was confused by a couple of his remarks because he made reference of having to deal with “tax commissioners” although the topic we were discussing were property tax appeals. I didn’t think much of it at the time of the original email. However, some time later I watched a video of one his public TV appearances and he once again referred to “tax commissioners” as part of the property tax appeal discussion.
In my view, it seems he conflated the two county agencies. He’s conflated the two agencies more than once. I believe the general public needs to know there is a clear, distinct difference in Georgia between a “tax assessors office” and a “tax commissioners office.”
When you file a property tax appeal in Georgia to challenge valuation, you are appealing to a county’s tax ASSESSORS office, NOT the tax COMMISSIONER office. In Georgia, a county’s tax commissioner’s primary role is to BILL & COLLECT property tax payments. They have nothing to do with establishing valuation for properties.
Valuation of properties is the job of the tax ASSESSORS office. When valuation is established and the appeal process is exhausted, the final determination is then forwarded to the county tax COMMISSIONER office to issue a property tax bill to property owners (or their mortgage companies) and then collect and process payments.
I believe whether you do your property tax appeals or you hire it out to someone, everyone should try not to conflate these two important agencies.
I wrote a book “TAX FREEZE: How to File & Win Property Taxes in Georgia” (available on Amazon) which will help you through your GA property tax appeals.
I launched a new YouTube channel called TAX FREEZE Command. You should subscribe to it to get my latest insights and information on GA property tax appeals and other tax matters.
I also have a playlist of YouTube videos for property owners to educate themselves about the GA property tax appeal process.