Georgia HB 581's opt-outs end in 2027 under SB 33. What that means for your 2026 value, the 2.7% limit and the 299(c) hold after an appeal.
# Georgia HB 581: What Changed and What Still Applies in 2026
Georgia HB 581 created a statewide floating homestead exemption that limits how fast a homestead's taxable value can rise, let counties, cities and school districts opt out of it, and changed 299(c), the Georgia law that holds a value set by an appeal, so it now holds your value only when the appeal lowers it. In 2026 the 299(c) change still stands, but SB 33 (the HOME Act, signed May 11, 2026) repealed the opt-out, so the governments that had opted out come under the exemption in tax year 2027, with 2026 values as the base.
That makes 2026 a split year. If every government on your tax bill kept the exemption or rescinded its opt-out, the rise in your homestead's taxable value is limited to the 2.7% inflation rate the Georgia Department of Revenue set for 2026. If one of them opted out for 2025 and didn't rescind, the state's 2027 start date points to no HB 581 limit from that government this year. Each county, city and school district decided for itself, so a single bill can mix the two.
HB 581 (Act 379) made three changes that matter to homeowners. The Governor signed it April 18, 2024, and the signed act applies to tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2025.
First, it created the statewide floating homestead exemption, which the law calls the base year homestead exemption. The act grants each Georgia resident an exemption on their homestead equal to the amount by which the current year assessed value, "including any final determination of value on appeal," exceeds the previous adjusted base year assessed value. A government that applies the exemption doesn't tax the part of your assessed value that grows faster than inflation. The Georgia Municipal Association describes it the same way: the exemption "limits annual increases in the taxable assessed value of homestead property to the rate of inflation."
The exemption has limits. It covers homestead property only and "has no impact on commercial properties," the Georgia Municipal Association notes, and the value resets to fair market value when the home sells, with substantial improvements added to the value. The Association County Commissioners of Georgia describes it as limited to the primary residence plus five acres. For the first year, the Department of Revenue set the 2025 base as the 2024 assessed value: "In effect, the assessed value on a person's homestead will not change from 2024 to 2025."
Second, HB 581 let each county, consolidated government, city and school district opt out of the exemption. A government had to hold the required hearings and file its resolution with the Secretary of State by March 1, 2025.
Third, it changed O.C.G.A. 48-5-299(c) so that only an appeal that lowers the value starts the hold (details below). The opt-out applied only to the exemption, so the 299(c) change has applied statewide from the start.
Yes. The floating exemption and the 299(c) change are still law, but SB 33 removed the opt-out. SB 33 (Act 461), the Homeownership Opportunity and Market Equalization Act of 2026, was signed May 11, 2026 and took effect on the Governor's approval. The signed act says it makes "the state-wide base year homestead exemption mandatory for all political subdivisions," and its Section 5-1 amends O.C.G.A. 48-5-44.2 "by repealing subsections (h) and (i)," which held the opt-out and its procedure.
The two local government associations and the Department of Revenue read it the same way:
SB 33's repeal also ended the requirement to opt out again for 2027, and SB 566 separately removed the opt-out notice that had to be printed on tax bills. The act's own text doesn't print the 2027 start year; that year comes from these three readings of it, and they agree.
For tax year 2026, a government that opted out for 2025 and didn't rescind most likely still applies no HB 581 limit. That follows from the 2027 start, but no source we read says it in so many words, so check which exemptions your 2026 assessment notice or tax bill lists, or ask your county's board of assessors.
Some governments, such as Gwinnett County, Cobb County and the City of Marietta, opted out because they already had their own floating homestead exemptions, the Tax Foundation noted. The state and association guidance cited here doesn't say how a local exemption and the state one fit together once the state exemption is mandatory, so ask your county's board of assessors how your bill will show them.
According to Secretary of State data that the Tax Foundation reported in April 2025 (updated May 2025), 316 local governments opted out of the exemption. School districts opted out most often, 123 of them, or 68% of the state's school districts. Next came 5 consolidated city-counties (63% of that group), 47 counties (30%) and 141 cities and towns (26%).
The opt-outs reached most Georgians. About two-thirds of counties (64.8%), home to nearly 83% of the state's population, had their school system, general government, or both opt out. All five of the largest counties (Fulton, Gwinnett, Cobb, DeKalb and Chatham) have school systems that opted out, and the Gwinnett and Cobb county governments did too. The Georgia Budget and Policy Institute reports that in 2024, $11.1 billion in property tax collections made up 72% of all local revenue raised by school districts.
The Tax Foundation doesn't say whether its counts reflect any rescissions. HB 92, passed in 2025, let an opted-out government rescind: for 2025 with a resolution filed with the Secretary of State by April 30, 2025, and for later years through 2029 with a resolution filed before that year's cutoff. WTOC reported in April 2025 that the Bryan County Schools board decided to opt in, calling HB 92 a "win-win" for the Bryan County community.
The opt-out list still matters for 2026 bills. From tax year 2027, SB 33 brings every opted-out government under the exemption, and the list becomes history.
A 299(c) hold starts only when your appeal lowers your value, and then the lower value holds for the appeal year and the next two, subject to the statutory exceptions. A no-change result, whether from the assessors or the Board of Equalization, starts no hold.
HB 581 made that change with a small edit. Its amendment to O.C.G.A. 48-5-299(c) deleted "or is unchanged" after "is reduced" and changed "such valuation" to "such reduced valuation." Before 2025, an appeal that ended with the value unchanged could also start the hold. The 2026 session didn't change the rule. The General Assembly's summary of the laws it enacted in 2026 lists no act amending 48-5-299.
Under the current text, a value is held when it's lowered in one of two ways:
Once the value is held, the assessors can't raise it during the next two years unless both sides agree otherwise in writing. The hold can end early, or never start, in four cases set out in 48-5-299(c)(1) to (4):
For the history of the edit and how it plays out in practice, see how the 2025 299c freeze law change affects your appeal.
Not by the body that decides your appeal, unless you filed while a hold was already in effect. The Board of Equalization, a hearing officer, or an arbitrator can lower your value but cannot raise it above what the county assessors set (O.C.G.A. § 48-5-311(e)(9)), except on an appeal filed while a 299(c) freeze from an earlier appeal is in effect.
On an appeal filed during a hold, the value can move up or down on the evidence, unless both sides agree otherwise in writing. The assessors also carry the burden of proving their value by a preponderance of the evidence.
Where a government applies the exemption, the 2026 limit is 2.7%. The Department of Revenue's Policy Bulletin 2026-01, issued January 13, 2026, says "The Inflation Index Rate established for the 2026 Digest Year is 2.7%," based on the December 2025 rate of change reported by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Take an illustrative homestead whose base year assessed value is $300,000 (its 2024 value, carried into 2025 unchanged). In 2026, the most its taxable assessed value can rise to is $300,000 x 1.027 = $308,100, an increase of $8,100. If the county's 2026 assessed value comes in higher than $308,100, the difference is exempt from the taxes of every government that applies the exemption. Substantial improvements still add to the value, and a sale resets it to fair market value.
This example only works where the exemption applied in 2026. For a government that opted out for 2025 and comes under the exemption in 2027, the 2026 value is the base, so the first inflation limit applies to 2027. The 2027 rate will be set the same way, from the December change in consumer prices, and it hadn't been published when we read the sources.
Not if you already have a homestead exemption on the home. As amended by SB 33, the law says a person who was allowed a homestead exemption for the immediately preceding tax year and remains eligible is allowed the floating exemption "without further application," and it renews each year while the owner lives in the home.
A new owner, or anyone without a homestead exemption on file, applies for the homestead exemption with the county tax commissioner or tax receiver. You file that application yourself; see our Georgia homestead exemption guide for how it works.
Under SB 566 (Act 378), Georgia law sets a later window for that application: you can apply up to the end of your 45-day appeal window, not only by what the Department of Revenue's homestead exemption page calls "the historic deadline of April 1st." SB 566 took effect in April 2026 and applies to tax years from 2026 on. Georgia law requires the annual assessment notice to list each exemption granted on the property, and to tell you that you may appeal the value or apply for homestead exemptions in writing no later than 45 days after the date of the notice. If you missed that April date, our guide to using the appeal window to file a late homestead application walks through it.
Georgia law requires the annual notice to be mailed no later than July 1, although a county can send later notices for corrections and mapping changes. Confirm with your county before you file.
They make the value on your notice matter more, for three reasons.
The hold only follows a lower value. Since 2025, an appeal that ends with no change starts no hold, so an appeal needs evidence that the value is too high, such as recent sales of similar homes nearby.
A 2026 appeal result may shape your exemption from 2027. As amended by SB 33, O.C.G.A. 48-5-44.2(a)(3)(B) sets the base year value as the assessed value, "including any final determination of value on appeal," from the tax year before the exemption is first granted, and for governments newly covered in 2027 the Association County Commissioners of Georgia says that base is "based on the 2026 value of the home." Read together, a 2026 appeal that lowers your value would also lower the starting point that those governments' exemption builds on. That's our reading of the sources, not a state statement, so ask your county's board of assessors how they'll set your 2027 base.
Part of your 2026 bill may have no HB 581 limit. If a government on your bill opted out for 2025 and didn't rescind, its share of your 2026 taxes most likely gets no HB 581 exemption, though your other exemptions, including any floating exemption that government already has, still apply.
Georgia law sets a 45-day window, counted from the date your assessment notice was mailed, to file a written appeal with the county board of tax assessors, and the date printed on your notice governs. If your 2026 window has already closed, an appeal you filed in time goes on under the rules above, and your next chance to appeal comes with next year's notice and the same 45-day window Georgia law sets. If you'd rather not track the county's letters and deadlines yourself, AppealAlly's Full-Service Appeal files the appeal and tracks them for you. Confirm with your county before you file.
Two property tax bills that were pending early in the 2026 session never became law:
SB 33 also set up a new Local Homestead Option Sales Tax (LHOST), which the Governor's office said is "aimed at providing homeowner tax relief." It's a sales tax, separate from the exemption.
The 2026 Property Tax Relief Grant, funded in the state's amended 2026 budget, is a separate one-time cut to homestead assessed values. The Department of Revenue's grant page has the current amount and who qualifies.
This article is general information drawn from public sources: SB 33, HB 581, HB 92 and SB 566 as signed, O.C.G.A. 48-5-299 and 48-5-311, Department of Revenue bulletins and pages, the Georgia Municipal Association, the Association County Commissioners of Georgia and the Tax Foundation, all read on September 29, 2026. Dates that depend on your county, such as when your notice is mailed and when your appeal window closes, are estimated; the dates of the laws and the windows they set come from the acts and the legislature's records, and county practice varies. It isn't legal or tax advice. Check your own dates and exemptions on your assessment notice and tax bill, or with your county's board of assessors or tax commissioner.