(a) The commissioner shall carefully examine the tax digests of the counties filed in his office. Each digest for a county in a digest review year shall be examined for the purpose of determining if the valuations of property for taxation purposes are reasonably uniform and equalized between counties and within counties.

(b) For any digest in any digest review year where the digest for the preceding digest review year was conditionally approved by the commissioner, the commissioner shall also carefully examine the digest to determine if it satisfactorily corrects the deficiencies that resulted in the digest for the preceding digest review year being conditionally approved.

(c) For each year, including each year that is not a digest review year for the county, the commissioner shall utilize the overall assessment ratio for the county as provided by the state auditor.

(d) It shall be the further duty of the commissioner to examine the itemizations of exempt properties appearing on the digest and, if in the judgment of the commissioner any properties appearing on the digest are subject to taxation, to so advise the board of tax assessors of the counties concerned with an explanation of his reasons for believing the property is subject to taxation.

(e)

(1) The commissioner may, upon his or her own initiative or upon complaint by a taxpayer, examine the itemizations of properties appearing on the digest, and if in the judgment of the commissioner any properties are illegally appearing on the digest and should not be subject to taxation under this chapter, the commissioner shall strike such items from the digest and return the digest to the county for removal of such items and resubmission to the commissioner. The commissioner shall provide by rule and regulation procedures by which the county board of tax assessors may appeal such finding to the commissioner. If appealed by the board of tax assessors, the commissioner shall, after reviewing such appeal, issue a final order and include a finding as to the taxability of the digest items in dispute and shall finalize the digest in accordance therewith.

(2) If a property has been found by the commissioner to not be subject to taxation under this chapter and again appears on the digest at any time within five years of the initial determination of nontaxability and is again determined to be nontaxable, the commissioner shall strike such item from the digest and return the digest to the county for removal of such item and resubmission to the commissioner. The commissioner shall notify the Department of Community Affairs in writing of his or her finding, and upon receipt of such notice, the qualified local government status of such county shall be revoked for a period of three years following the receipt of such notice by the Department of Community Affairs unless reinstated earlier pursuant to this subsection. Upon such revocation, the governing authority of such county, without regard to any limitation of Code Section 48-5-295, shall be specifically authorized to remove immediately every member of the board of tax assessors and reappoint new members who shall serve for the unexpired terms of the removed members. The county governing authority shall provide written notification of such removal and new appointment to the commissioner. Upon certification of the corrected digest, the commissioner shall notify in writing the Department of Community Affairs, and upon receipt thereof, the Department of Community Affairs shall immediately reinstate the qualified local government status of such county.

(3) If a property has been found by the commissioner to not be subject to taxation under this chapter and if such nontaxable property has appeared on a county digest in any year within the preceding five-year period, then the taxpayer shall be entitled to file a petition directly with the Georgia Tax Tribunal for a refund of all such taxes illegally collected or taxes paid, interest equal to the bank prime loan rate as posted by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in statistical release H. 15 or any publication that may supersede it plus 3 percent calculated from the date of payment of such taxes, and attorney's fees in an amount of not less than 15 percent nor more than 40 percent of the total of the illegally charged taxes and accrued interest. Such petition shall name the board of tax assessors and the tax receiver or tax commissioner of the county as the respondent in their official capacities and shall be served upon such board and tax receiver or tax commissioner. Service shall be accomplished by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery. The petition shall include a summary statement of facts and law upon which the petitioner relies in seeking the requested relief. The respondents shall file a response to the petitioner's statement of facts and law which constitutes their answer with the tribunal no later than 30 days after the service of the petition. The respondents shall serve a copy of their response on the petitioner's representative or, if the petitioner is not represented, on the petitioner and shall file a certificate of service with such response. If in any case a response has not been filed within the time required by this paragraph, the case shall automatically become in default unless the time for filing the response has been extended by agreement of the parties, for a period not to exceed 30 days, or by the judge of the tribunal. The default may be opened as a matter of right by the filing of a response within 15 days of the day of the default and payment of costs. At any time before the final judgment, the judge of the tribunal, in his or her discretion, may allow the default to be opened for providential cause that prevented the filing of the response, for excusable neglect, or when the tribunal judge, from all the facts, determines that a proper case has been made for the default to be opened on terms to be fixed by the tribunal judge. The tribunal judge shall proceed to hear and decide the matter and may grant appropriate relief under the law and facts presented.