Fulton County Tax Assessors have released the dogs, I mean the 2012 property tax assessment notices. All that I have seen were dated yesterday May 14 and have an appeal deadline of June 28. There isn't a big rush to get these filed as the Fulton Tax Assessor staff is busy working 2011 tax appeal hearings at the Fulton County Board of Equalization.
The Fulton County Board of Equalization (BOE) is always inundated with appeals every year as it can be difficult to get substantial relief from the Tax Assessor's staff. In addition, many people (inluding myself) prefer to have our appeals settled at the Fulton County Board of Equalization due to the property tax law known as 299C. This is a section of the Georgia property tax law that states if your appeal is settled at the BOE or Superior Court, the value should be frozen for three years, unless you change the property or file a return at a different value.
This law is vague however and some counties (Cobb) have used this vagueness to change values the year after BOE decisions. Approximately ten years ago, when I was working for Fulton County, the Chief Appraiser tried to change BOE values as Cobb County has done. However, when the appeals reached the BOE the property owners and their agents cried foul and the BOE changed the values back to the previous year values.
At any rate, I recommend that most people choose the Fulton County Board of Equalization as their second level of appeal because it is free of charge. It may take a long time to get your 2012 appeal settled this way, but there aren't many ways around that. Go ahead and file and prepare your appeal using data from 2011, as the effective date of appraisal in Georgia is January 1.
