That "temporary" tax bill during your Georgia appeal isn't optional, but it is lower than what you'd otherwise owe.
What Is a Temporary Assessment in Georgia? And Should You Pay It? You filed your property tax appeal, braced yourself for a fight, and then a tax bill showed up anyway. Not the full amount you're disputing, but something... less. The line item might say "temporary" or "interim," and now you're staring at it wondering whether this is a trick, a test, or just Georgia being Georgia. It's none of those. That temporary assessment on your Georgia property tax bill is a real, legally mandated bill you owe while your appeal works its way through the system. Roughly 82% of Georgia homeowners have never filed an appeal, according to a 2024 Ownwell survey, so most people have never encountered one. If you're holding this bill right now, you're already ahead of the curve, but you need to understand exactly what it means and what happens if you ignore it. What Is a Temporary Assessment on My Georgia Property Tax Bill? A temporary assessment is the reduced property tax bill Georgia counties issue while your appeal is still pending. It exists because of a timing problem: counties need tax revenue on schedule, but your appeal might not be resolved for months. The temporary bill bridges that gap. The legal authority lives in O.C.G.A. § 48-5-311(e)(7), which spells out exactly how the amount gets calculated. The term "temporary assessment" doesn't appear as a formal definition anywhere in Georgia's tax code. You won't find it in § 48-5-2 alongside other defined terms. Instead, it's a practical label for the interim billing mechanism that § 48-5-311 creates. Think of it this way: your county isn't going to wait around while you and the Board of Equalization argue about what your house is worth. They'll bill you a smaller amount now and true it up…