Reports and distributions by collecting officer; failure to distribute as breach of duty and bond; commissions; long-term notes not entered on property tax digest.

Each collecting officer shall make a report to the commissioner by the tenth day of each month on forms prescribed by the commissioner of all sums collected and remitted under this article for the preceding month. The collecting officer shall retain 6 percent of the tax collected as compensation for said officer’s services in collecting the tax. All such taxes shall be deemed to have been collected by the collecting officer in said officer’s official capacity. Failure to collect and distribute the tax as provided by law shall constitute a breach of the official duty and of the official bond of the collecting officer. In each county in which the collecting officer is on a salary, the 6 percent commission allowed by this Code section shall be paid into the county treasury and shall become county property. The long-term notes secured by real property upon which this tax is based shall not be placed upon the property tax digest prepared and maintained by the tax receiver. It is the intention of the General Assembly that the 6 percent commission permitted under this article for the collection and distribution of this tax by the collecting officer shall be the only compensation permitted to any collecting officer with respect to this tax. History. Ga. L. 1953, Nov.-Dec. Sess., p. 379, § 8; Ga. L. 1955, p. 288, § 3; Code 1933, § 91A-3206, enacted by Ga. L. 1978, p. 309, § 2; Ga. L. 1990, p. 1843, § 4; Ga. L. 1992, p. 1686, § 1; Ga. L. 1994, p. 1767, § 6; Ga. L. 2000, p. 1376, § 1; Ga. L. 2002, p. 1294, § 1; Ga. L. 2012, p. 738, § 1/HB 851. OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL Commission paid to tax official in county where instrument first recorded. — Commission provided for in this statute is to be retained by the tax collector or tax commissioner (now collection officer) of the county where the security instrument is first recorded and to whom the intangibles tax is paid. That the tax collector or tax commissioner collecting the tax is to retain the entire commission is borne out by the provisions of this statute. 1963-65 Ga. Op. Att'y Gen. 96. Commission as to property lying in both 4 percent and 6 percent counties. — Properties covered by a security instrument can lie in both 4 percent and 6 percent counties. Since no specific recognition was given to this possible situation by this statute in the way of prorating the commission among the tax collectors and tax commissioners (now collection officers) of the various counties involved, it must have been the intent of the General Assembly that the rate of commission be determined by the size of the county in which the instrument was first recorded and that the tax collector and tax commissioner collecting the tax in that county retain the entire commission. 1963-65 Ga. Op. Att'y Gen. 96. Commission allowed on long-term notes even when portion of tax revenues used for school purposes. — Six percent commission allowed tax commissioner or tax collector (now collection officer) on long-term notes secured by real estate is applicable even when a portion of tax revenues is used for school purposes. 1962 Ga. Op. Att'y Gen. 567. RESEARCH REFERENCES C.J.S. 85 C.J.S., Taxation, § 1127 et seq.