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 4 in 5 Georgia homeowners have never filed an appeal, according to a 2024 homeowner 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.
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 later.
The calculation follows a specific formula, and it tilts in the taxpayer's favor. Your temporary bill is based on the lesser of two values:
Whichever produces the lower tax bill is what you owe temporarily. For most homeowners whose values went up, option two (the 85% figure) will be lower, which is why you'll sometimes hear people refer to the whole mechanism as "the 85% rule."
Say your home was assessed at $300,000 last year. This year, the county bumped it to $400,000, and you appealed.
Your temporary bill would be based on the $300,000 figure, the prior year's value, because it produces the lower assessed value of $120,000. You'd pay taxes on that while your appeal plays out.
Yes, and this catches a lot of new homeowners off guard. If your homestead property had an active building permit and received structural improvements, the prior-year comparison drops out of the formula. Your temporary bill defaults to 85% of the current year's assessed value. Full stop.
Why? Because the prior-year value for a house under construction might reflect bare land or a half-finished structure. Letting someone pay taxes on a $120,000 lot while living in a completed $500,000 home doesn't work for county budgets.
This building permit exception matters in metro Atlanta especially, where 22,943 new residential permits were pulled in 2024 alone, a 12% jump from the prior year. New construction carries a median price of roughly $469,900, about 25% higher than existing homes. If you just built or bought new construction and filed an appeal, expect your temporary bill to land at 85% of whatever the county thinks your finished home is worth.
One more thing new construction owners miss: file your homestead exemption as soon as you move in. Without it, you lose the homestead-specific protections in the temporary billing formula and pay higher taxes across the board.
Yes. Unequivocally, without exception, yes.
Filing an appeal does not pause your tax obligation. This is the single most common mistake people make, and it's an expensive one. Your temporary bill has a due date, and that due date is real. Ignore it and you'll face penalties, interest, and potentially a tax lien, all while your appeal is still pending.
Georgia's Property Taxpayers' Bill of Rights protects your right to appeal, but it doesn't give you the right to withhold payment during the process.
You actually have two options when you file your appeal:
Either way, you're paying something. The only question is how much.
The county treats it like any other unpaid tax bill. Penalties start accruing. In Fulton County, for instance, a 5% penalty kicks in at 120 days past due. Other counties have their own penalty schedules, but none of them carve out exceptions for pending appeals.
Eventually, unpaid property taxes can result in a tax lien on your home. That lien survives your appeal, so even if you win a reduced assessment, you'd still owe the penalties and interest that accumulated while you weren't paying.
The appeal process exists to argue about valuation, not to defer payment. Counties across Georgia have heard every version of "I thought I didn't have to pay while I was appealing" and none of them have been sympathetic.
If your final assessed value comes in lower than what your temporary bill was based on, the county owes you the difference, plus interest. The refund covers the gap between what you paid on the temporary bill and what you should have paid based on the final, reduced value.
The interest component has caps written into the statute: $150 for homestead properties and $5,000 for non-homestead properties, calculated up through the date of final determination.
There's also a powerful incentive buried in the appeals process. If the final determined value comes in at or below 85% of what the Board of Equalization or hearing officer originally decided, you can recover your attorney's fees and costs. That provision exists to discourage counties from defending inflated valuations they can't support.
Refund timelines vary by county. Gwinnett County typically processes refunds within four to six weeks of final determination. Other counties can take longer, particularly during heavy appeal seasons.
If the final value is higher than your temporary billing amount, or the same as the original assessment, you'll owe the difference, also with interest. This is uncommon (Georgia property tax appeals succeed roughly 86% of the time), but it does happen, and you should know the risk exists.
The temporary assessment is a placeholder. The final assessment is the answer.
Your temporary assessment determines what you pay while your appeal is pending. It's calculated mechanically using the formula described above, with no judgment involved, just math. The final assessment is the value that emerges after your appeal is resolved, whether through an informal settlement with the assessor, a Board of Equalization hearing, or further appeal to Superior Court.
Once the final assessment is set, the county recalculates your actual tax liability for the year. If you overpaid on the temporary bill, you get a refund. If you underpaid, you get a supplemental bill.
One important distinction that trips people up: settling informally with the county assessor produces a final assessment, but it doesn't trigger the O.C.G.A. § 48-5-299(c) value freeze. That three-year freeze only kicks in if you go to an actual hearing, present written evidence, and win a reduction. The 2024 amendment through HB 581 tightened this further: simply going to a hearing isn't enough anymore. Your value must actually be reduced for the freeze to apply.
That freeze can be worth real money. If your $540,000 assessment gets knocked down to $510,000 at hearing, that value holds for three years regardless of what the market does. On a property in Gwinnett County with a combined millage rate around 35.21 mills, that $30,000 reduction saves you roughly $423 per year, or $1,269 over the freeze period.
To see how all these pieces fit together, consider a real-world scenario from Gwinnett County.
A homeowner purchased land for $120,000 and began construction in June 2024. On January 1, 2024, the county assessed the property at $195,000, reflecting the land plus partial construction. The home was completed in October 2024. When the January 1, 2025 assessment arrived, the county valued the finished home at $540,000 fair market value.
The homeowner knew the actual construction cost was $485,000, and a comparable home nearby had sold for $510,000. The $540,000 figure didn't reflect reality, so they filed an appeal using Form PT-311A.
Because this was new construction on a homestead property with a building permit, the prior-year comparison didn't apply. The temporary bill was calculated at 85% of the current assessment:
The Board of Equalization reviewed the comparable sale evidence and reduced the value to $510,000. The homeowner's final tax bill dropped accordingly, and the county refunded the overpayment from the temporary bill.
Annual savings from the appeal: $423. With the three-year 299(c) freeze, total savings exceeded $1,269.
Without the appeal, this homeowner would have overpaid by roughly $761 per year based on the 10% overvaluation, and that's before accounting for the escrow impact. New construction assessments routinely create $2,000 to $5,000 escrow shortfalls, which translates to $200 to $400 per month in higher mortgage payments until the escrow account rebalances.
AppealAlly's Do-It-Yourself Appeal Kit ($79 flat fee, 100% money-back guarantee) includes the comparable sales evidence packet and step-by-step instructions for exactly this kind of appeal. For homeowners who'd rather not handle it themselves, AppealAlly's Full-Service Appeal costs $0 upfront. You pay 30% of first-year savings only if the appeal succeeds.
The temporary assessment formula is statewide, but the billing mechanics vary enough across Georgia's 159 counties to cause confusion. Here's what you need to know in the major metro counties.
Fulton gives you a choice at the time you file your appeal: pay the temporary amount (85% or prior year, whichever is less) or pay the full 100%. They have five filing locations across the county, and the 5% late penalty hits at 120 days past due.
Refunds typically arrive within four to six weeks after final determination. One quirk: Gwinnett doesn't send tax bills directly to mortgage companies, so if your taxes are escrowed, make sure your lender has the correct amount. Getting this wrong can compound the escrow shock that already comes with reassessment.
DeKalb's appeal process doesn't accept appeals by email or fax. It's mail, in person, or through their online portal. Tax payments split into two installments: September 30 and November 15. Your temporary assessment applies to both installments proportionally.
Bills typically go out by August 15 with payment due by October 15. Higher-value new construction nearly doubled in Cobb between 2024 and 2025, so if you're in a new subdivision, your neighbors' appeal outcomes could affect your own property's valuation trajectory.
Beyond not paying the temporary bill (which remains mistake number one), several other errors show up repeatedly in Georgia property tax appeals.
Sending your appeal to the Georgia Department of Revenue instead of your county. The DOR doesn't handle individual property tax appeals. Your PT-311A form goes to your county board of tax assessors, and it must arrive within 45 days of the date on your assessment notice. That deadline is strictly enforced.
Confusing the temporary bill with your appeal result. The temporary bill isn't a signal about which direction your appeal is heading. It's just math applied uniformly to everyone who appeals. Don't read into the number.
Settling with the assessor before the hearing. An informal agreement can save time, but it forfeits the 299(c) three-year value freeze. If you have solid comparable sales evidence supporting a lower value, going to the hearing is almost always worth it. Across Georgia, the average successful appeal saves homeowners $497 per year, nearly $1,500 over three years with the freeze.
Missing the 45-day filing window. This one is absolute. The 45-day clock starts from the date printed on your assessment notice, not the date you received it, not the date you opened the envelope. If day 45 falls on a weekend, check your county's specific rules. Some extend to the next business day, others don't.
There's no statewide standard, and this is one of the more frustrating aspects of the process. Board of Equalization hearings are typically scheduled within 60 to 180 days of filing, depending on the county's backlog. After the hearing, the final assessment is usually formalized within a few weeks, and billing adjustments follow shortly after.
In a smooth case, you might go from filing to final bill in three to four months. In a contested case that goes to Superior Court, it could take a year or more. During that entire period, you're paying the temporary amount.
If you disagree with the Board of Equalization's decision, you can appeal to Superior Court within 30 days of the BOE's written decision. That extends the temporary billing period but doesn't change the amount. You keep paying the same temporary figure until there's a final resolution.
A temporary assessment in Georgia is the county's way of keeping revenue flowing while your property tax appeal is pending. The amount is calculated to be lower than your disputed value (the lesser of your prior year's final assessment or 85% of the current year's value) but it's still a real bill with real consequences if you don't pay it.
Pay it on time. Track your appeal timeline. Keep copies of everything you file, and note every deadline in your calendar. If you win your appeal, the refund comes with interest. If you lose, you'll owe the difference, also with interest.
The temporary bill isn't punishment for appealing. It's actually a concession. Georgia could require you to pay the full disputed amount and refund the difference later, but instead the system gives you a discount while things get sorted out. For the 52% of Georgia homeowners who believe their property is overvalued, that discount is the first tangible benefit of deciding to push back.