Georgia Property Tax

Georgia reassesses at fair market value every January 1 — no state-mandated revaluation cycle, just an annual digest review — and taxes 40% of that value. The appeal opens with the assessment notice and runs 45 days, and it asks the owner to declare a method in the first filing: the county Board of Equalization, a hearing officer, or an arbitrator. The state’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights then does what no other state’s does: it puts the burden of proof on the board when the board changed your value — and awards fees if the final number lands at 85% or less of the appeal-stage value.

In this section

• Annual assessment and the 40% ratio — the January 1 valuation date, the digest review, and the arithmetic from market value to tax.
• The 45-day appeal and the Bill of Rights — PT-311A, the three declared methods, the board’s burden, the bound grounds, and the 85% fee provision.
• Deadlines, homestead, and payment — the notice calendar, the exemption windows, and the December 20 payment norm.
• Georgia property value estimator — see the 40% ratio and the state standard homestead exemption applied to a fair market value, and estimate the tax.

Who does what

• The county Board of Tax Assessors values every parcel annually against sales data and mails the assessment notice.
• The county Board of Equalization — the owner’s declared first method — hears valuation, uniformity, and taxability appeals.
• The county tax commissioner bills and collects for the county, school, and state (and receives homestead applications).
• The Department of Revenue publishes the forms (PT-311A), the FAQ, the homestead roster, and the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.

The appeal that declares itself

Most states assign your first appeal to a specific body. Georgia makes the owner choose the forum in the initial written dispute: the Board of Equalization (the citizen route), a hearing officer (for larger parcels), or binding arbitration (the owner pays the arbitrator, but the result binds). The choice is made on Form PT-311A within 45 days of the notice’s mailing date — and the Department states plainly that missing it forfeits the appeal rights. The appeal page works through the choice and the burden rules.

What this does not cover

The counties’ individual local exemptions and freeze amounts, conservation-use covenants, and the freeport exemption are outside this section. AssessCheck has no data connection to any Georgia county or the Department of Revenue. The superior court stage of the appeal ladder is named in the official pages but was not read in full as an independent source.