(Effective January 1, 2021. See note.) Tax Collectors and Tax Commissioners as Ex Officio Sheriffs

  1. Law
  2. Georgia Code
  3. Revenue and Taxation
  4. Ad Valorem Taxation of Property
  5. County Tax Officials and Administration
  6. Tax Collectors
  7. (Effective January 1, 2021. See note.) Tax Collectors and Tax Commissioners as Ex Officio Sheriffs

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  1. Tax collectors and tax commissioners, upon the written consent of the sheriff of the county involved, may be ex officio sheriffs insofar as to enable them to collect taxes due the state and county by levy and sale under tax execution. Tax collectors or tax commissioners acting as ex officio sheriffs as provided in this Code section shall not be allowed to turn over any tax execution to the sheriffs or to any other levying officials of this state except when it becomes necessary for the purpose of enforcing the execution by sending it to a county other than that in which the execution was issued. Each tax collector or tax commissioner by virtue of his office shall have full power and authority to levy all tax executions issued by him as effectively as if done by the sheriffs of the counties.
  2. Each tax collector or tax commissioner when acting as an ex officio sheriff shall have full power to bring property to sale for the purpose of collecting taxes due the state and county. Additionally, he shall have all the powers vested in sheriffs for the advertisement of the property for sale, for the sale of the property, and for the making and delivery of all due and proper conveyances and bills of sale. All sales made by a tax collector or tax commissioner acting as an ex officio sheriff shall be valid and shall carry the title to property sold as fully and completely as if made by the sheriff of the county.
  3. All acts done and performed by tax collectors or tax commissioners by virtue of this Code section shall be done in conformity with the law in force governing the performance of the act done. All advertisements of property to be sold by a tax collector or tax commissioner acting as an ex officio sheriff, when the advertisements are required by law to be published in a newspaper, shall be published in the newspaper in which the sheriff's advertisements are published.
  4. In carrying out this Code section, tax collectors or tax commissioners shall have the power and authority to appoint one or more deputies with all the powers of the tax collectors or tax commissioners while acting as ex officio sheriffs in the levy and collection of taxes. Each deputy shall be required to give bond as may be required by the tax collectors or tax commissioners under the law. Each tax collector or tax commissioner shall be responsible for the acts of the deputy or deputies in the same manner and to the same degree as sheriffs are liable for the acts of their deputies.
  5. This Code section is supplemental to and cumulative of any general law of local application providing for tax collectors or tax commissioners to be ex officio sheriffs for the purposes provided in this Code section and is not in lieu of any such law to the extent that any such law conflicts with this Code section.
  6. With respect to a tax collector or tax commissioner or his deputy acting pursuant to this Code section in the county in which he holds office, the requirement of written consent of the sheriff shall not apply in counties within the following population brackets according to the United States decennial census of 1970 or any future such census:
    1. Not less than 300,000;
    2. Reserved.
    3. Reserved.
    4. Reserved.
    5. Reserved.
  7. Each tax collector or tax commissioner who is compensated on a salary basis and who is authorized to act as an ex officio sheriff under this Code section and whose office performs substantially all of the duties of the sheriff with respect to tax executions shall be entitled to a salary of $416.94 per month for his or her service as ex officio sheriff. Such compensation shall be in addition to any other compensation to which such tax commissioner or tax collector is entitled. Such additional compensation shall not be paid to any tax commissioner who is compensated solely by the fee system of compensation; but such compensation shall be paid to any tax commissioner who is compensated in part by fees and in part by a salary. Such compensation shall be paid in equal monthly installments from county funds.

(Code 1933, § 92-4901.1, enacted by Ga. L. 1972, p. 822, § 1; Code 1933, § 91A-1337, enacted by Ga. L. 1978, p. 309, § 2; Ga. L. 1981, p. 713, § 1; Ga. L. 1982, p. 999, §§ 2, 4; Ga. L. 1985, p. 1115, § 1; Ga. L. 1985, p. 1492, § 1; Ga. L. 1994, p. 237, § 2; Ga. L. 1998, p. 1159, § 18; Ga. L. 2001, p. 902, § 19; Ga. L. 2006, p. 568, § 13/SB 450; Ga. L. 2019, p. 1015, § 9/SB 171.)

The 2019 amendment, effective January 1, 2021, substituted "$416.94" for "$349.78" in the first sentence of subsection (g).

Editor's notes.

- Code Section 48-5-137 is set out twice in this Code. The first version is effective until January 1, 2021, and the second version becomes effective on that date.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Levying officer as necessary or indispensable party in action to cancel sheriff's deed.

- Since levying officials under this statute have been held not to be necessary parties in proceedings to cancel a sheriff's deed to a purchaser of land by virtue of a sale under a tax fi. fa., there is clearly no authority upon which they could be found to be indispensable parties. Stith v. Hudson, 231 Ga. 520, 202 S.E.2d 392 (1973) .

Tax commissioner's liability.

- Tax commissioner, who was an ex-officio sheriff, under O.C.G.A. § 48-5-137, could be subject to a money rule petition filed by the holder of county tax executions for refusing to pay those executions from the excess proceeds of tax sales of property; the holder could collect on the holder's execution from any property in which the taxpayer had an interest, which included the excess proceeds from the tax sale, before any payments to the taxpayer, under O.C.G.A. § 48-2-56(a) and (b), so it was error for the commissioner to refuse to pay the holder's claims. Scott v. Vesta Holdings I, LLC, 275 Ga. App. 196, 620 S.E.2d 447 (2005).

Property owner's claim for damages based on a county tax commissioner's failure to properly send notices required by O.C.G.A. §§ 9-13-13,48-3-3,48-3-9(a), and48-4-1 was barred by sovereign immunity; O.C.G.A. §§ 15-13-2 and48-5-137 did not render the tax commissioner liable as an ex-officio sheriff because the notices did not constitute a "false return" or legal neglect to make a "proper return". Raw Properties, Inc. v. Lawson, 335 Ga. App. 802, 783 S.E.2d 161 (2016).

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

Officers not eligible for membership in annuity and benefit fund.

- Tax collectors and tax commissioners who become ex officio sheriffs under the provisions of O.C.G.A. § 48-5-137 are not thereby rendered "peace officers" eligible for membership in the Peace Officers' Annuity and Benefit Fund. 1982 Op. Att'y Gen. No. U82-9.

Principle of mandamus applies to require a county sheriff to levy and foreclose upon delinquent taxpayers when the sheriff has not consented in writing that the tax commissioner or tax collector perform such duty under this statute. 1973 Op. Att'y Gen. No. U73-16.

RESEARCH REFERENCES

C.J.S.

- 85 C.J.S., Taxation, § 1160 et seq.


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