Opinion ID: 1200134
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: The Remedy Statute Represents The Public Policy Of The State

Text: 8. By employing sweeping language in the remedy statute, OCGA § 48-2-35, the General Assembly made clear that any and all taxes which are erroneously or illegally assessed and collected shall be refunded. [11] If the court denies a refund to a taxpayer who has successfully challenged the constitutionality of a taxing statute, then the Court has assumed that the remedy statute has no meaning. This is contrary to established law. The courts of this state will not assume that the Legislature intended any provision of a statute to be without meaning. Douglas County v. Anneewakee, Inc., 179 Ga. App. 270, 273 (346 SE2d 368) (1986). The remedy statute represents the State's public policy to refund any and all taxes erroneously or illegally assessed and collected under state law. The statute includes taxes which are paid voluntarily and involuntarily, thus no element of duress is required nor must a protest be filed. The remedy statute is mandatory rather than directory, and it acts as a waiver of sovereign immunity. Thompson v. Continental Gin Co., 73 Ga. App. 694 (37 SE2d 819) (1946). Since the General Assembly intended to allow refunds under many different circumstances, it is incomprehensible that the taxpayer in the present case who successfully challenged the constitutionality of the taxing statute is barred from recovery. The key words of the remedy statute are erroneously or illegally assessed and collected. The majority indicates that the state had no reason to believe that the import taxes were unconstitutional; however, under the broad language of the statute it makes no difference that the state erroneously assessed and collected taxes under the unconstitutional statute. Erroneously assessed and collected taxes must be returned. Once the taxing statute was declared unconstitutional and void, there was no legal collection of these taxes, nor had there ever been one. Therefore, the state is illegally in possession of the taxpayer's property.