Extension of time to complete digests and pay taxes

The time by which digests shall be completed, the taxes paid, and penalties incurred shall not apply in the case of tax receivers, tax collectors, and tax commissioners who have not been in office long enough to complete the work by the time specified. In all such cases, the officials shall comply with the requirements of the commissioner. 556 History. Laws 1843, Cobb’s 1851 Digest, p. 1074; Code 1863, § 794; Code 1868, § 862; Code 1873, § 866; Code 1882, § 866; Civil Code 48-5-137 1895, § 867; Civil Code 1910, § 1125; Code 1933, § 92-7108; Code 1933, § 91A1335, enacted by Ga. L. 1978, p. 309, § 2. 48-5-135. Effect of collection or attempted collection of taxes before filing digest with commissioner. If any tax collector or tax commissioner collects or attempts to collect any taxes before the tax receiver has completed and transmitted his digest to the commissioner, unless specially so ordered by the commissioner or allowed by special enactment, he shall forfeit to the state double the amount collected or attempted to be collected. Each forfeiture shall be collected by execution issued by the commissioner. History. Orig. Code 1863, § 838; Code 1868, § 917; Code 1873, § 915; Code 1882, § 915; Civil Code 1895, § 929; Civil Code 1910, § 1192; Code 1933, § 92-5601; Code 1933, § 91A-1346, enacted by Ga. L. 1978, p. 309, § 2. 48-5-136. [Reserved] Schedule of defaulters. History. Ga. L. 1857, p. 130, § 7; Code 1863, § 796; Code 1868, § 864; Code 1873, § 868; Code 1882, § 868; Civil Code 1910, § 1127; Code 1933, § 92-7110; Code 1933, § 91A-1336; Ga. L. 1978, p. 309, § 2; Ga. L. 1981, Ex. Sess., p. 8; Ga. L. 1992, p. 6, § 48; repealed by Ga. L. 1992, p. 2411, § 5, effective April 20, 1992. Editor’s notes. Ga. L. 1992, p. 2411, § 5 repealed and reserved this Code section, effective April 20, 1992. 48-5-137. Tax collectors and tax commissioners as ex officio sheriffs. (a) 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. (b) 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 557 48-5-137 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. (c) 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. (d) 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. (e) 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. (f) 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 any county with a population of not less than 300,000 according to the United States decennial census of 1970 or any future such census. (g) 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. 558 History. Code 1933, § 92-4901.1, enacted by Ga. L. 1972, p. 822, § 1; Code 1933, § 91A1337, 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; Ga. L. 2024, p. 1052, § 5(14)/SB 448, effective July 1, 2024. 48-5-137.1 Amendments. The 2024 amendment, effective July 1, 2024, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, in subsection (f), substituted “any county with a population of not less than 300,000” for “counties within the following population brackets” and substituted a period for a colon at the end; deleted former paragraph (f)(1), which read: “Not less than 300,000;”; and deleted former reserved paragraphs (f)(2) through (f)(5).