Some Fulton County property owners recently got a surprise when property tax bills they paid years ago arrived in their mail.
Jon Effron said he was shocked when he opened up his mail and saw a tax bill saying he owed taxes from 2019.
“I know I paid my taxes,” Effron said.
After getting over the shock of a six-year-old tax bill, Effron said he wondered why the county would send him a bill from pre-COVID times, but told Rough Draft Atlanta that he realized it must have been a mistake.
A call to the Tax Commissioner’s office brought confirmation that there had been problems with some tax bills being sent unintentionally when adjustments were made to assessments. A county worker took his number and promised to call back.
Effron said when he received a call back regarding the matter, he stopped listening closely to the explanation once he was told he didn’t owe anything.
Effron said he was disappointed that Fulton County Tax Commissioner Arthur Ferdinand never stepped forward to talk to taxpayers about the problem. Effron said he expects more accountability from Ferdinand, saying the commissioner never seems to communicate with taxpayers.
Jessica Corbitt-Dominguez, Fulton County’s director of External Affairs, said work by staff in the Board of Assessors and the Tax Commissioner’s office fixed the problem that sent out previous years’ tax bills for more than 1,500 parcels.
Corbitt-Dominguez said the problem occurred when the Fulton County Tax Assessor’s office applied updated homestead exemptions to properties in preparation for 2025 notices.
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Some of the adjustments made by the Tax Assessors’ office caused the unintentional generation of tax bills for approximately 1,500 parcels, Corbitt-Dominguez said.
Some of the bills should have been sent, but others were unintentional, Corbitt-Dominguez said. the Tax Assessor’s office worked with the Tax Commissioner’s office to generate updated bills and that the problem should not occur again.
Property owners who received bills that they believe are in error can go to the Tax Commissioner’s website to review tax bills for their property.
