HB275: HB275 Income tax; change certain definitions

Currently, if a county's legal newspaper notice about property tax digests doesn't meet legal requirements, the state revenue commissioner can reject the whole digest, which can delay tax collection. This bill adds a new section (O.C.G.A. 48-5-32.2) letting the commissioner accept the digest anyway if the county proves the newspaper error wasn't the fault of local tax officials, and it protects the digest from being challenged in court over that fixed publication problem. The bill also rewrites the required contents of annual property tax bills and assessment notices, adding items like estimated tax savings from exemptions and contact information for the assessor's office, while removing some fair market and assessed value disclosures. It also repeals Code Section 48-5-306.2 entirely, which currently requires local governments to calculate and certify an estimated property tax roll-back rate each year. These changes would apply once the bill becomes law.

• Creates a new process (O.C.G.A. 48-5-32.2) allowing the state revenue commissioner to accept a county's tax digest even after a newspaper publication error, if the county shows the error wasn't its fault.
• Bars a corrected newspaper publication error from being used to challenge the validity of a tax digest or levy in court.
• Rewrites Code Section 48-5-34 to change what must appear on annual property tax bills, including new bold-print notices about opted-out homestead exemptions and rates exceeding the roll-back rate.
• Revises Code Section 48-5-306 to change the required contents of annual property assessment notices, adding items like estimated tax savings and assessor contact details while removing certain value disclosures.
• Repeals Code Section 48-5-306.2 in its entirety, eliminating the requirement that local taxing authorities annually calculate and certify an estimated roll-back millage rate.

County tax commissioners and boards of tax assessors, county levying and recommending authorities (counties, cities, school districts), the state revenue commissioner, local newspapers that publish tax notices, and Georgia property owners who receive annual tax bills and assessment notices.

Property owners would see different information on their tax bills and assessment notices, including new warnings about opted-out homestead exemptions and rate increases. Counties would gain a way to fix newspaper publication mistakes without losing digest approval, but would lose the annual roll-back rate certification requirement.

• Section 1 adds O.C.G.A. 48-5-32.2, letting the commissioner accept a rejected tax digest once a county documents that a newspaper publication error was not its own fault, and shielding the fix from legal challenge.
• Section 2 amends O.C.G.A. 48-5-34 to require bold-print notices on tax bills when the adopted millage rate exceeds the estimated roll-back rate, and when a local government opted out of the HB 581 (2024) homestead exemption relief, with that opt-out notice expiring after tax years beginning after December 31, 2029.
• Section 3 amends O.C.G.A. 48-5-306(b) to change required contents of the annual assessment notice, adding estimated tax savings from exemptions, assessor contact information, and other required details, while removing prior fair market and assessed value line items.
• Section 4 repeals O.C.G.A. 48-5-306.2 in its entirety, ending the requirement that levying and recommending authorities annually calculate and certify an estimated roll-back rate.
• Section 5 repeals all conflicting laws.

1. 2026-03-09Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
2. 2026-03-06House Passed/Adopted By Substitute (House)
3. 2026-03-06House Third Readers (House)
4. 2026-02-24House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
5. 2025-02-10House Second Readers (House)
6. 2025-02-06House First Readers (House)
7. 2025-02-05House Hopper (House)

• Bruce Williamson (R, HD-112)Primary sponsor
• Vance Smith (R, HD-138)
• Trey Kelley (R, HD-016)
• Shaw Blackmon (R, HD-146)
• Clint Crowe (R, HD-118)
• Mark Newton (R, HD-127)

1. PassedHouse voteMarch 6, 2026

   169 yea, 0 nay (3 not voting, 5 absent)

   Passage: House Vote #660

• property taxes
• tax digests
• homestead exemptions
• local government finance
• tax assessment notices