08 LC
18 7477ERS
The
House Committee on Ways and Means offers the following substitute to SB
271:
A
BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
AN ACT
To
amend Title 48 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to revenue
and taxation, so as to change the period of time within which a tax deed shall
ripen by prescription; to provide for related matters; to change certain
provisions regarding collection of costs, commissions, interest, and penalties;
to provide for execution administration fees; to provide for an effective date
and applicability; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other
purposes.
BE
IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:
SECTION
1.
Title
48 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to revenue and taxation,
is amended by revising Code Section 48-4-48, relating to ripening of tax deeds
by prescription, as follows:
"48-4-48.
(a)
A title under a tax deed properly executed at a valid and legal sale prior to
July 1, 1989, shall ripen by prescription after a period of seven years from the
date of execution of that deed.
(b)
A title under a tax deed executed on or after July 1, 1989, but before July 1,
1996, shall ripen by prescription after a period of four years from the
execution of that deed. A title under a tax deed properly executed on or after
July 1, 1996, at a valid and legal sale shall ripen by prescription after a
period of four years from the recordation of that deed in the land records in
the county in which said land is located.
A title under
a tax deed properly executed on or after July 1, 2007, at a valid and legal sale
shall ripen by prescription after a period of one year from the recordation of
that deed in the land records in the county in which said land is
located.
(c)
A tax deed which has ripened by prescription pursuant to any provision of this
Code section shall convey, when the defendant in fi. fa. is not laboring under
any legal disability, a fee simple title to the property described in that deed,
and that title shall vest absolutely in the grantee in the deed or in the
grantee´s heirs or assigns. In the event the defendant in fi. fa. is
laboring under any legal disability, the prescriptive term specified in this
Code section shall begin from the time the disabilities are removed or
abated.
(d)
Notice of foreclosure of the right to redeem property sold at a tax sale shall
not be required to have been provided in order for the title to such property to
have ripened under subsection (a) or (b) of this Code
section."
SECTION
2.
Said
title is further amended in Code Section 48-5-161, relating to issuance of tax
executions, by revising subsection (c) as follows:
"(c)(1)
The officer in whose hands the execution is placed shall proceed at once to
collect the execution and, when the execution is paid by the defendant
voluntarily or by levy and sale, the officer shall enter the amount collected
including all costs, commissions, interest, and penalties as provided by law on
the execution. The officer shall return the execution to the tax collector or
tax commissioner with the amount of tax collected. The tax collector or tax
commissioner shall at once copy the entry of the officer on his execution docket
and file the execution in his office.
(2)(A)
Once a levy
is made or posted on the property of
an execution
is issued against a delinquent or
defaulting taxpayer, the
collecting
officer,
sheriff,
or ex officio sheriff shall collect, in addition to any other costs,
commissions, interest, and penalties, the actual expenses incurred by the
county
collecting
officer, sheriff, or ex officio sheriff in
issuing the execution and administering the
collection
thereof or levy
thereof
by imposing
a
levy
an
execution administration fee which shall
be 5
percent of the delinquent tax or $250.00, whichever is the
lesser
not exceed
$250.00 except as provided in subparagraph (B) of this
paragraph.
(B)
Regardless
of any other provision of this paragraph, however, no such
levy
No such
execution administration fee shall
be less
than $50.00
exceed $75.00
if the levy has not been made or posted on the property of a delinquent or
defaulting taxpayer.
(3)
The
levy
execution
administration fee provided by paragraph (2) of this subsection shall likewise
be charged and collected when the execution is enforced through garnishment as
provided for in Code Section 48-3-12."
SECTION
3.
This
Act shall become effective on July 1, 2008, and Section 2 of this Act shall
apply to executions issued on or after that date.
SECTION
4.
All
laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.