Property Taxes in Georgia by County: Rates, Exemptions, and Appeals

Property taxes in Georgia are set and collected county by county, so two similar homes across a county line can produce very different bills. The state controls one piece of the math: your county’s Board of Tax Assessors values your property, then multiplies that value by 40% to get the assessed value. Everything else, including millage rates, local exemptions, and payment deadlines, is a local decision.

How Georgia Values Your Property

Your County Board of Tax Assessors determines the fair market value of every taxable parcel in the county.¹ Assessors rely on recent comparable sales, market trends, and the physical characteristics of the property, and the value reflects the property’s condition as of January 1 of each tax year.²

Georgia law then requires the assessors to multiply that fair market value by 40% to arrive at the assessed value.³ A home valued at $350,000 has an assessed value of $140,000. That ratio is fixed statewide; no county can change it. You’ll see both figures on the Notice of Assessment the county mails you each year, and that notice starts the clock on your right to appeal.

Millage Rates and Why Counties Differ

After the assessed value is set, local governing bodies decide how much to tax each dollar of it. A mill is one dollar of tax per $1,000 of assessed value. Your bill typically stacks separate levies from the county government, the school district, and, if you live inside a city, the municipality, each setting its own rate.

That stacking is why the same house can cost very different amounts to own depending on address. A homeowner in unincorporated territory skips the city levy entirely. A neighbor a block away, inside city limits, pays it. Bond referendums add another layer: when voters approve new schools or road projects, the millage to service that debt gets added on top of the base rate, so counties that have passed several bonds carry higher combined rates than counties that haven’t.

Georgia builds in one taxpayer protection here, called the rollback rate. When property values climb across a county, the rollback rate is the millage that would collect the same revenue as last year, so the taxing authority doesn’t get an automatic windfall from rising assessments.⁴ If the county commission or school board wants to adopt a rate above the rollback, they have to advertise it and hold three public hearings before doing so.⁵

Metropolitan counties like Fulton, DeKalb, and Gwinnett generally carry higher effective rates to fund large school systems and urban infrastructure, while rural south Georgia counties often have some of the lowest bills. For a real comparison across counties, the Georgia Department of Revenue publishes county-level fact sheets showing exactly which authorities are levying what.⁶

Running the Numbers on Your Bill

Once you know the assessed value and the combined millage rate, the math is simple. Take a home with a fair market value of $300,000. The 40% assessment produces an assessed value of $120,000. At a combined rate of 30 mills, divide 30 by 1,000 to get 0.030, then multiply by $120,000. The gross tax is $3,600.

Exemptions come off the assessed value before the millage is applied. If you qualify for $10,000 in exemptions, the taxable base drops to $110,000, and at 30 mills the bill falls to $3,300. Checking every exemption you qualify for is where most homeowners find real savings.

Homestead Exemptions

Georgia offers statewide homestead exemptions, and most counties add their own on top. You have to own and occupy the property as your primary residence to qualify. Applications are due by April 1 of the tax year, though Georgia now allows filing through the end of the 45-day appeal window after you receive your assessment notice.⁷

Standard Exemption

The basic statewide homestead exemption takes $2,000 off your assessed value for county and school taxes, excluding municipal school taxes and taxes used to retire bonded debt.⁷ At a 30-mill rate that’s about $60 a year. Modest, but every qualifying homeowner gets it regardless of age or income.

Senior Exemptions

Homeowners 65 and older can claim an additional $4,000 exemption from all county taxes if household income (excluding most Social Security and retirement income) did not exceed $10,000 the prior year.⁷ Homeowners 62 and older can claim an additional exemption from school taxes under the same income threshold. There’s also a floating inflation-proof exemption for homeowners 62 and older that freezes the county taxable value at its level when the exemption is first granted.

The $10,000 income limit sounds tight, but the statute excludes retirement income and Social Security benefits up to the maximum paid under the federal Social Security Act. Many retirees whose total income looks well above $10,000 still qualify because most of it falls inside that exclusion. County tax offices will run the calculation with you.

Disabled Veterans and Surviving Spouses

Georgia’s relief for disabled veterans is among the most generous in the country. A qualifying disabled veteran receives an exemption from all ad valorem taxes on the homestead equal to $126,526 for 2026 or the statutory base of $32,500, whichever is greater.⁷ The unremarried surviving spouse of a service member killed in action gets the same amount. The unremarried surviving spouse of a peace officer or firefighter killed in the line of duty receives a full-value homestead exemption, effectively wiping out the property tax.

Local County Exemptions

Many counties adopt their own exemptions through local legislation, and these often exceed the state minimums by a wide margin. Some counties offer full school tax exemptions for seniors over 65 under income thresholds far more generous than the statewide $10,000 limit. Others provide enhanced exemptions for surviving spouses, low-income homeowners, or residents with disabilities. Your county tax commissioner’s office or the Department of Revenue’s county-by-county fact sheets will tell you what’s available where you live.⁶

Agricultural and Conservation Use Assessments

Farm and timber owners have separate tracks that can substantially cut the tax bill. Bona fide agricultural property is assessed at 75% of the rate applied to other property, which works out to 30% of fair market value instead of the usual 40%.² The property has to stay in agricultural use for ten years to keep the preferential rate.

The Conservation Use Valuation Assessment (CUVA) goes further. Land enrolled in CUVA is assessed at 40% of its current use value rather than fair market value, and for farmland or timberland the current use value is usually a fraction of what the land would sell for.⁸ The catch is a binding ten-year covenant. Break it by taking the land out of qualifying use, and the penalty is twice the cumulative difference between what you paid under CUVA and what you would have owed at full value, plus interest, applied to the entire tract. Narrow hardship exceptions exist for foreclosure, documented medical disability, or landowners over 65 who have renewed the covenant at least once.

Appealing Your Assessment

If the value on your assessment notice looks too high, you have 45 days from the date the notice was mailed to file a written appeal with the County Board of Tax Assessors.⁹ Miss the window and you’re stuck with the value for the year. Most counties accept appeals by mail, in person, or by email.

Homeowners usually appeal on one of two grounds: value (the county overestimated what the property is worth) or uniformity (your property is assessed higher than comparable properties nearby). When you file, you pick one of three routes:

Board of Equalization. A panel of three local members hears your case at no cost. You present evidence like comparable sales, a private appraisal, or documentation of property defects, and either side can appeal the written decision to Superior Court within 30 days.
Hearing officer. Available only for non-homestead property with a fair market value above $500,000, limited to value and uniformity issues.
Arbitration. You submit a certified appraisal at your own expense; the Board of Assessors either accepts it or the matter moves to Superior Court.

The Board of Equalization is where most residential appeals go, and it’s the only path without upfront cost. Two or three solid comparable sales from the past year usually carry more weight than an argument that the number “feels” wrong. If your home has issues that don’t show up in county records, like foundation problems or an outdated kitchen, bring documentation.

Due Dates, Penalties, and Tax Sales

Unless local law sets an earlier date, Georgia property taxes are due by December 20.¹⁰ Some counties impose earlier deadlines or split the bill into installments, so confirm the exact date with your county tax commissioner, who handles billing and collection for the county, school district, and state.⁶

Miss the deadline and interest starts accruing monthly. After 120 days, a 5% penalty is added to the unpaid principal, with another 5% every 120 days after that, up to a 20% maximum.¹¹ The 5% penalties don’t apply to homestead property where the tax owed is $500 or less.

If the bill stays unpaid, the county can record a tax lien (a fi. fa.) against the property and the owner of record, then levy and sell the property at a public tax auction, usually held on the first Tuesday of the month. The opening bid is the total of delinquent taxes, penalties, and fees. After a tax sale, the original owner has 12 months to redeem the property by paying the purchaser’s bid, any taxes the purchaser paid after the sale, and a 20% premium for the first year or fraction of a year, plus 10% for each additional year.¹² The right to redeem continues past 12 months until the purchaser formally forecloses it through a court process requiring certified mail notice and four weeks of newspaper publication. Once that foreclosure is complete, the original owner loses the property for good.

1
Justia. Georgia Code 48-5-299 – Ascertainment of Taxable Property
2
Georgia Department of Revenue. Property Tax Valuation
3
Justia. Georgia Code 48-5-7 – Assessment of Tangible Property
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Justia. Georgia Code 48-5-32.1 – Certification of Assessed Taxable Value
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Georgia Department of Revenue. Property Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights
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Georgia Department of Revenue. County Property Tax Facts
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Georgia Department of Revenue. Property Tax Homestead Exemptions
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Justia. Georgia Code 48-5-7.4 – Preferential Assessment for Bona Fide Conservation Use Property
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Justia. Georgia Code 48-5-311 – Creation of County Boards of Equalization
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Georgia Department of Revenue. Property Tax Returns and Payment
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Justia. Georgia Code 48-2-44 – Willful Failure to File Return or Pay Tax
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Justia. Georgia Code 48-4-40 – Persons Entitled to Redeem Land Sold for Taxes