Opinion ID: 553303
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Centrally-Assessed Taxpayers Under Georgia's Ad Valorem Tax System

Text: 13 All tangible property in Georgia must be returned for taxation at its fair market value and assessed at 40% of that value. Ga.Code.Ann. Secs. 48-5-6 to -7. The Georgia Constitution mandates equalization and uniformity of taxation on all real and personal property. Ga. Const. of 1983, art. VII, Sec. 1, p 3. 14 The administration of these basic rules, however, has created a substantial disparity between the assessments levied against centrally assessed taxpayers such as public utilities that must file with both the state and counties in which it owns property and all other taxpayers who file only with the counties. 2 See Ga.Code Ann. Secs. 48-5-511, -519, -541. This disparity arises because the returns required to be filed by centrally assessed taxpayers give the state comprehensive, annually updated information on the fair market value of all property owned by such taxpayers. Colonial alleges that based on this information, the state Board of Equalization then routinely assesses centrally assessed taxpayers at the maximum legal rate of forty percent. 15 Other ad valorem taxpayers, however, are not required to file annual returns and the valuation and assessment of their properties is commonly carried forward from year to year without any increases by county tax officials because of the failure to hire sufficient staff to regularly review records, valuations, and assessments. See id. Sec. 48-5-20. As a result, Colonial alleges that most counties have incomplete tax records that do not include large percentages of taxable property, and the records themselves have not been updated in ten to twenty years resulting in assessments of recorded property at far below market value. In Colonial's view, this problem is exacerbated by the state revenue commissioner's regular approval of these county records with full knowledge that they are incomplete and that listed properties are undervalued and underassessed. 3 As a result, centrally-assessed taxpayers are taxed on the basis of more complete and current valuations and assessments of their property relative to other ad valorem taxpayers which causes them to pay a proportionately greater amount of tax.