How to Appeal Your Property Tax in Georgia: Step-by-Step Guide

A Georgia appeal is filed in writing with your county board of tax assessors within 45 days from the date the annual assessment notice was mailed (O.C.G.A. § 48-5-311(e)(2)(A)). On that filing you choose the next forum: the county board of equalization, an arbitrator, or, for some high-value property, a hearing officer.

Georgia’s appeal clock, step by step

The 45 days count from the mailing of your county’s notice, so there is no single statewide date. Counties must mail the annual notice “no later than July 1,” though a notice correcting errors or mapping changes may go out later (§ 48-5-306(b)(3)). Look at the date printed on your own notice and count from there. The notice form itself, as rewritten by Senate Bill 566 (signed April 22, 2026, applying to tax years from 2026), tells owners to file “no later than 45 days after the date of this notice” and warns that if they miss it, “your right to do so for this year will be lost.”

Filing with the tax assessors: PT-311A, postmark, and email

The Department of Revenue publishes a uniform appeal form, PT-311A (revised July 2018), and says the appeal goes “to the County Board of Tax Assessors within 45 days from the date the Assessment Notice was sent.” It also asks owners to “refrain from sending your appeal form to the Department of Revenue.”

A plain letter also works: “a written objection to an assessment of real property … stating the location of the real property and the identification number, if any, contained in the tax notice shall be deemed a notice of appeal” (§ 48-5-311(e)(2)(A)). The form is still the safer choice, since it records your forum election and your opinion of value.

Timing rules sit in § 48-5-311(n). A mailed appeal is “deemed filed as of the date of the United States Postal Service postmark.” The same sentence covers “receipt of delivery by statutory overnight delivery.” Email counts only “if the board of tax assessors has adopted a written policy consenting to electronic service,” and then the appeal must go as a PDF to every email address the board lists.

Board of equalization, arbitrator or hearing officer

• County board of equalization. Hears “taxability, uniformity of assessment, and value,” and, for residents, denials of homestead exemptions (§ 48-5-311(e)(1)(A)(i)). Three members sit on each appeal and all three sign the decision.
• Arbitrator. Value only. You must hand the assessors a certified appraisal within the 45 days after they acknowledge your appeal, or the appeal ends unless you move it to the board of equalization within that period. If your value lands closest to the arbitrator’s figure, the county pays the arbitrator; if the assessors’ value is closer, you pay (§ 48-5-311(f)(3)(C)(x)).
• Hearing officer. Open only to a nonhomestead parcel of real property with a fair market value over $500,000 on the notice, wireless equipment over $500,000, and, since House Bill 445 took effect July 1, 2026, other taxable tangible personal property accounts worth over $200,000 in total (§ 48-5-311(e)(1)(A)(iii)–(v)). A house you live in as your homestead does not qualify.

If the assessors make no change, their notice “shall also constitute the taxpayer’s appeal to the county board of equalization” with no further filing (§ 48-5-311(e)(2)(B)). If they do change the value and you are still unhappy, you have 30 days to send a written notice of continuance. A signed agreement on value ends the appeal on the day it is signed.

Burden of proof and what the board may do

Before the board of equalization, the assessors’ findings on “factual characteristics of the property” are “prima-facie correct,” but “the board of tax assessors shall have the burden of proving its opinions of value and the validity of its proposed assessment by a preponderance of evidence” (§ 48-5-311(e)(4)). So correct any wrong square footage, room count or condition entry with records and photos; on value, the assessors carry the burden.

The board decides “on the basis of the best information available” and announces its decision at the end of the hearing. On a real property appeal the value “may be lowered by the deciding body based upon the evidence presented but cannot be increased,” except when you appeal during a freeze year under § 48-5-299(c) (§ 48-5-311(e)(9)).

Ask the assessors in writing for their list of witnesses and documents at least ten days before the hearing; they must hand it over at least seven days before (§ 48-5-311(e)(6)(A)). A certified appraisal “performed not later than nine months prior to the date of assessment” must be considered on request (§ 48-5-311(e)(1)(B.1)).

Your tax bill while the appeal is open

If bills go out before the appeal ends, the county issues a temporary bill. Its value is the lesser of the last finally determined value or 85 percent of the current year’s value. A homestead with structural improvements, with or without a building permit, is billed at 85 percent of the current value instead. You may ask to be billed at 100 percent if nothing substantial was built (§ 48-5-311(e)(6)(D)(iii)). A refund after the final value carries interest up to the date of the final determination, capped at $150 for homestead property. The refund is due within 60 days; if it is paid later, new interest runs from the 61st day until payment, and that later interest is not capped (§ 48-5-311(m)(1)).

Superior court: the petition for review

Either side may take a board of equalization, hearing officer or arbitrator decision to the superior court of the county. The steps are set by § 48-5-311(g)(2); House Bill 581 changed the last one for tax years from January 1, 2025:

• The petition for review is mailed or filed with the assessors “within 30 days” of delivery of the decision.
• Within 45 days of receiving your petition, the assessors must send notice of a good-faith settlement conference, set no later than 30 days from that notice. If they elect not to hold one, “the appeal shall terminate and the taxpayer’s stated value shall be entered.”
• If no settlement is reached, you have 20 days from the conference to hand the assessors a check, money order or other instrument “payable to the clerk of the superior court” for the filing fee, and “the amount of the filing fee for an appeal under this subsection shall be $25.00.”
• If neither you nor your representative attends, or you do not confer in good faith, you lose any temporary tax reduction pending the outcome and any award of attorney’s fees or litigation costs.

The court hears the case “de novo,” and the assessors again carry the preponderance burden (§ 48-5-311(g)(3)). If you appealed and the final value of real property is 85 percent or less of the value the board, hearing officer or arbitrator set, you recover litigation costs and reasonable attorney’s fees on top of interest (§ 48-5-311(g)(4)(B)(ii)(III)).

After a win: the two-year hold under § 48-5-299(c)

A value reduced by a board of equalization, hearing officer, arbitrator or superior court, or by a signed agreement, “may not be increased by the board of tax assessors during the next two successive years.” Exceptions include skipping the hearing without giving any written evidence of value, filing a return at a different value, and substantial changes or record errors the assessors find on an on-site inspection. Appeal again during those two years and the value can move either way.

From tax year 2026, Senate Bill 566 dropped the old limit to reassessed property. An application for the homestead exemption under § 48-5-44 now goes to the tax receiver or tax commissioner “at any time up to and including the final date to file an appeal of the annual notice of current assessment,” and it “may be filed in conjunction with or in lieu of an appeal of the reassessment” (§ 48-5-45(a)(1)). Eligibility is covered in the Georgia homestead exemption guide.

More Georgia and neighboring-state pages

• Georgia property tax system: rates, the 40 percent assessment and exemptions
• Property tax calculator
• Florida property tax appeals
• Alabama property tax appeals
• Tennessee property tax appeals
• South Carolina property tax appeals
• North Carolina property tax appeals

Georgia assessment appeal FAQ

I found my notice after the 45 days ran out. Can I still appeal?

Not for that year’s value through § 48-5-311: the appeal must be filed “within 45 days from the date of mailing the notice,” and the notice warns that after that date “your right to do so for this year will be lost.”

The assessors never answered my appeal. What happens?

If they do not respond within 180 days of receiving it, “the property valuation asserted by the taxpayer on the property tax return or the taxpayer’s notice of appeal shall become the assessed fair market value” for that year (§ 48-5-311(e)(3)(A)). Counties with appeals at 3 percent or more of parcels or digest value may take one extra 180-day period if they notify you at least 30 days before the first 180 days end, and the state revenue commissioner may extend that period further for good cause (§ 48-5-311(e)(3)(B)–(C)). Put a number on your appeal; without one, the file simply moves to the board of equalization.

Can the board of equalization raise my value because I appealed?

Not on a real property appeal: the value “cannot be increased from the amount assessed by the county board of tax assessors” (§ 48-5-311(e)(9)). The exception is an appeal filed while a § 48-5-299(c) two-year hold is in effect for that assessment.

Do I have to pay the whole bill while the appeal is pending?

You pay the temporary bill, which is figured on the lower of the value from the last year whose taxes were finally determined or 85 percent of this year’s value, unless the homestead improvement rule applies (§ 48-5-311(e)(6)(D)(iii)). When the final value is set, the difference is refunded with interest or billed with interest; an extra bill gets 60 days from its postmark before it is past due (§ 48-5-311(m)(2)).