O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 48-5-137 (2019)

Tax collectors and tax commissioners as ex officio sheriffs

✓ O.C.G.A. — 2019 edition (Public.Resource.Org Release 73)

Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.

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(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

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.

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.

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).

Annotations

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 Ga. LEXIS 765 (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 Ga. App. LEXIS 930 (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), and 48-4-1 was barred by sovereign immunity; O.C.G.A. §§ 15-13-2 and 48-5-137 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 Ga. App. LEXIS 87 (2016), cert. denied, No. S16C1076, 2016 Ga. LEXIS 556 (Ga. Sept. 6, 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.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 7 cases, 1994–2016 · leading case: Raw Props., Inc. v. Lawson Et Al., 783 S.E.2d 161 (Ga. Ct. App. 2016).

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Raw Props., Inc. v. Lawson Et Al., 783 S.E.2d 161 (Ga. Ct. App. 2016). · cites it 10× “” RPI turns first to OCGA § 48-5-137 (a), which grants tax collectors and tax commissioners the authority to act as “ex officio sheriffs insofar as to enable them to collect taxes due the state and county by levy and sale under tax execution.”

Scott v. Vesta Holdings I, LLC, 620 S.E.2d 447 (Ga. Ct. App. 2005). · cites it 4× “Pretermitting whether the Commissioner would be subject to a money rule on any other basis, the Commissioner is subject to a money rule as an ex-officio sheriff under OCGA § 48-5-137. OCGA § 15-13-2 (4); 10 Barrett v.”

Brina Bay Holdings, LLC v. Echols, 723 S.E.2d 533 (Ga. Ct. App. 2012). · cites it 4× “2d 447 (2005) (a tax commissioner is subject to a money rule as an exofficio sheriff under OCGA § 48-5-137; 15-13-2(4)). [17] OCGA§ 15-13-3(a).”

Bartow Cnty. v. S. Dev., 756 S.E.2d 11 (Ga. Ct. App. 2014). · cites it 2× “3 ( 620 SE2d 447 ) (2005) (noting that the tax commissioner was an ex-officio sheriff pursuant to OCGA § 48-5-137). See Nuvell Nat. Auto Finance, LLC v.”

Weldon v. Bd. of Commissioners of Monroe Cnty., 443 S.E.2d 513 (Ga. Ct. App. 1994). · cites it 2× “In addition to the statutory salary, the attorney noted that the tax commissioner was eligible for two additional permissible sources of compensation: Fees for service as sheriff ex officio, permitted by OCGA § 48-5-137, and fees for collecting City of Forsyth taxes, permitted…”

Bartow Cnty., Georgia v. S. Dev., III, L. P. (Ga. Ct. App. 2014). · cites it 2× “3 ( 620 SE2d 447 ) (2005) (noting that the tax commissioner was an ex-officio sheriff pursuant to OCGA § 48-5-137). 8 See Nuvell Nat. Auto Finance, LLC v.”

Raw Props., Inc. v. Claudia G. Lawson, Tax Comm'r (Ga. Ct. App. 2014). · cites it 2× “In the above-styled case, plaintiff Raw Properties filed suit against Claudia Lawson, in her official capacity as the county’s tax commissioner and while acting as an ex-officio sheriff pursuant to OCGA § 48-5-137, and DeKalb County, contending that the defendants conducted a…”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.