Bill > HB364

This bill amends Georgia law concerning property taxation, specifically focusing on how the Commissioner of Revenue handles tax digests, which are official lists of taxable properties within a county. The Commissioner can now proactively or upon a taxpayer's complaint, review these digests and remove properties that are illegally being taxed. If a property is wrongly taxed and then wrongly taxed again within five years, the county's "qualified local government status" – a designation that likely comes with certain benefits or requirements – can be revoked for three years, and the county's tax assessors can be immediately removed and replaced. Furthermore, if a property was illegally taxed within the last five years, the taxpayer can petition the Georgia Tax Tribunal, a specialized court for tax disputes, for a refund of illegally collected taxes, plus interest and attorney fees. This bill also explicitly grants the Georgia Tax Tribunal jurisdiction over these refund petitions.