State Taxpayer Remedies

Taxpayers in Georgia have four principal means of obtaining judicial review of their state tax liabilities, but the statutes permitting review are not located in a single, convenient location and the practitioner faces considerable research in order to determine his client\u27s remedies. The four means, or remedies, are: (1) the appeal under the tax administration provisions; (2) the affidavit of illegality; (3) the suit for refund; and (4) the appeal under the Administrative Procedure Act. This article provides a brief summary of these remedies. No attempt was made to exhaustively examine the many factual situations that can arise or to relate all of the tax procedures involved. The article simply pulls together the principal features of the remedies available and uses the income tax and the sales tax as the vehicles for discussing the remedies. The same remedies may have applicability to other taxes, but the statutes should be examined to determine if there are separate procedures for the particular tax, e.g., real property taxes. Before discussing the remedies, however, a brief discussion of the administrative procedures of the Department of Revenue as they primarily relate to the assessment and collection of income taxes will place the remedies in a context which should permit a better understanding of each. Each remedy is available at a different time during the administrative process. The appeal under the APA, the appeal under section 92-8446, and the affidavit of illegality are available before there is any payment of a tax, while the fourth remedy, the suit for refund, is available after payment of the tax