Who Handles Property Taxes? Three Offices, One Bill

Your property tax bill is one number. Behind it are three separate jobs — someone decides what your property is worth, someone sets the rate, someone sends the bill and takes your money — and no one office does more than one of them. When something looks wrong — the value seems too high, the rate jumped, a payment didn't post — calling the wrong office is how people lose weeks. Here's who does what, and who to call for which problem.

The three jobs

The Board of Tax Assessors sets the value. A board and its appraisers decide what your property is worth — its fair market value — and keep the assessment records. Each year they can mail you a notice of assessment with that value on it, and they handle homestead and other exemptions. What they don't do is set the tax rate or send you a bill. If you think your property is valued too high, this is the office to deal with, and there's a clock on it (more below).

The Commission sets the county's rate. The Macon-Bibb County Commission — the mayor and nine commissioners — sets the county's millage rate by ordinance each year, as part of the budget. The millage rate is the multiplier that turns your property's value into a tax amount. (The math is in What Is a Millage Rate?.) The rate is a political choice about how much the county collects and what it pays for, which is why it's the number at the center of every budget fight. The Commission doesn't value your property and doesn't collect the bill.

One thing to be clear about: the Commission sets the county's rate, not the whole rate on your bill. The Bibb County Board of Education sets a separate millage rate for schools, and it's the larger of the two — currently 14.674 mills for schools against 9.575 for county government. Both land on the same bill as their own lines. So if your rate went up, the school board is as likely a cause as the Commission, and it's a different set of elected officials to talk to. More in What does the Bibb County Board of Education actually do?.

The Tax Commissioner sends the bill and collects it. The Tax Commissioner is a separately elected officer. This office takes the value from the Assessors and both rates — county and school — produces your actual tax bill, and collects the payment — online, by mail, by phone, or in person at 188 Third Street, (478) 621-6500. It also collects your solid-waste fee and handles car tags. What it doesn't do is decide your value or set the rate. If your problem is with either of those, the Tax Commissioner can't fix it. They handle the billing.

How your bill is actually built

Put it together and the chain is short:

• The Assessors say what your property is worth.
• Georgia taxes 40% of that value, not the whole thing.
• Two millage rates are applied to that assessed 40%: the Commission's county rate and the Board of Education's school rate.
• The Tax Commissioner bills you for both and takes the payment.

So a jump in your bill traces to one of two things: your value went up (Assessors) or a rate went up — and if it's a rate, check which one. The county rate and the school rate move independently, set by two different elected bodies on two different budget calendars. The Tax Commissioner's office is the messenger, not the decider.

New in 2026: the homestead rules changed

Georgia rewrote parts of the homestead exemption this year, and one of the changes can cost you money if you miss it.

You now have to tell the county when you stop qualifying. If you receive a homestead exemption and become ineligible — you moved out, the house stopped being your primary residence, the ownership changed — you have to report it, by the final date to appeal your annual assessment notice. If you don't, the penalty is 50% of the tax benefit you received, on top of the back taxes and interest owed. The state law directs that notice to the tax receiver or tax commissioner, and counties are also routing homeowners through the assessors' office, which is what administers exemptions. If you're in this situation, tell the Board of Tax Assessors and the Tax Commissioner both, and keep a copy.

This is not a rule anyone is likely to get away with ignoring for long: the Georgia Department of Revenue is building a statewide homestead exemption database so local officials can cross-check who is claiming what. An exemption nobody ever cancelled is far more likely to surface than it used to be.

Your assessment notice looks different, too. It no longer carries an estimated rollback rate or an estimated tax bill. Instead it shows your estimated tax savings — what the exemptions and discounts you qualify for are actually worth.

Both changes come from Senate Bill 566, in effect for the tax year that began January 1, 2026. The same law also revised the deadline for applying for a homestead exemption, so if you're applying for the first time, confirm the current date with the Assessors rather than assuming the old April 1 cutoff.

One more is coming: Senate Bill 33 makes Georgia's "floating" homestead exemption mandatory for local governments starting in 2027. A floating exemption limits how fast the taxable value of a primary residence can climb from year to year. It does not cap what the Assessors decide your home is worth, and it does not cap the millage rate the Commission or the school board adopts — it only slows the growth of the value those rates get applied to. It covers a primary residence and no more than five acres.

Which office do I call?

Match the problem to the right door:

• "My assessed value is too high." That's the Board of Assessors, and it's time-sensitive. When your annual assessment notice arrives, you have 45 days to file a written appeal with the Assessors. Miss that window and you're generally waiting until next year.
• "I want a homestead or other exemption." Also the Assessors.
• "The county tax rate is too high" — or "where is my money even going?" That's a Commission question, a budget and policy one. You can weigh in: how to speak at a Commission meeting walks through it, and Commission has the agendas and the votes.
• "The school tax rate is too high." Different body: the Bibb County Board of Education. It sets the school millage in its own budget process, and it holds public meetings you can speak at. The Commission has no say over it.
• "I need to pay, set up a plan, dispute a charge on the bill, or get a receipt." That's the Tax Commissioner, 188 Third Street, (478) 621-6500.

Where to go next

• What Is a Millage Rate? — how the rate turns your value into a dollar figure, and how the county and school rates stack.
• What does the Bibb County Board of Education actually do? — the body behind the larger half of your rate.
• What does Macon-Bibb County government do? — where these offices sit in the bigger picture, and why some are elected on their own.
• Ask Mulberry — describe your tax problem in plain words and it will point you to the right office.

Georgia Legislative Counsel — Summary of General Statutes Enacted, 2026 Session — Act 378 (SB 566) revises what appears on the ad valorem tax bill and notice, revises the homestead application deadline, requires a person who becomes ineligible for a homestead exemption to notify the tax receiver or tax commissioner, and establishes a penalty for failing to report ineligibility. Act 461 (SB 33) provides for ad valorem reductions and revises the base-year homestead exemption.

Fulton County Board of Assessors — 2026 Legislative Changes to Property Taxes — SB 566 is in effect for the tax year beginning January 1, 2026; the Notice of Assessment no longer shows an estimated rollback rate or tax liability but shows estimated tax savings; the penalty for failing to report ineligibility is 50% of the tax benefit received; the Department of Revenue is creating a statewide homestead exemption database. SB 33 makes the floating homestead exemption mandatory beginning in 2027, limited to a primary residence and no more than five acres, and does not limit fair market value determinations or adopted millage rates.

Macon-Bibb County Board of Tax Assessors — the Board of Assessors has sole responsibility for determining property value (fair market value), maintains assessment records and exemptions, mails the annual notice of assessment, and hears appeals; a property owner has 45 days from the assessment notice to file a written appeal with the Board.

Macon-Bibb County Tax Commissioner — the Tax Commissioner bills and collects property taxes and the solid-waste fee and handles motor-vehicle tags, but does not set property values or tax rates; office at 188 Third Street, Macon, GA 31201, (478) 621-6500.

Macon-Bibb County Charter, Section 29 — the Commission establishes the property-tax millage rate by ordinance.

Georgia Department of Revenue — County Property Tax Facts, Bibb — Georgia's property-tax framework: the Board of Assessors values property, the county governing authority sets the millage rate, and the Tax Commissioner bills and collects; Georgia assesses property at 40% of fair market value.

Bibb County School District — the Board of Education adopts the school district's annual budget and its own millage rate, levied on the same property and billed alongside the county rate; school rate 14.674 mills against the county's 9.575 (FY2026 adopted rates).

Last reviewed July 2026. Office phone numbers and addresses can change — confirm before you visit.