2021 Georgia Code
Title 40 - Motor Vehicles and Traffic
Chapter 2 - Registration and Licensing of Motor Vehicles
Article 2 - Registration and Licensing Generally
§ 40-2-33. Issuance of License Plates and Decals; Transfer of Registration to a Digital License Plate; Compensation of Tag Agents; Required Identification

1. 1. Upon compliance with the provisions of this chapter and the payment of the license fee required by law, the tag agent shall accept the application for registration and, except as otherwise provided for in this chapter, if the license plate or revalidation decal applied for is in such tag agent's inventory, he or she shall issue the appropriate plate or revalidation decal.
   2. The commissioner may provide for the issuance of a temporary license plate for any low-speed vehicle, to be displayed until such time as a license plate of the design required by Code Section 40-2-31 has been issued to the registrant as a replacement for such temporary license plate; provided, however, that any such temporary license plate shall designate the low-speed vehicle as such; and provided, further, that the commissioner shall make available for issuance low-speed vehicle license plates of the design required by Code Section 40-2-31 not later than September 1, 2002.
   3. If the metal license plate applied for is not in inventory, the application shall be approved and forwarded to the commissioner, who, upon receipt of a proper and approved application, shall issue the license plate applied for by mailing or delivering the plate to the applicant. Until the license plate is received by the applicant from the commissioner, the applicant may operate the vehicle without a license plate therefor upon the receipt issued to him or her by the tag agent.
   4. At the time of initial application for registration or at any time during the registration period, a vehicle owner may file with the county tag agent, on a form or electronic form prescribed by the commissioner, a request to have a vehicle license transferred to a digital license plate purchased from a digital license plate provider. Such request to the county tag agent shall include all applicable registration fees. Upon approving the application provided in this paragraph, the commissioner or county tag agent shall furnish the digital license plate provider with the appropriate licensing information to be displayed upon the digital license plate. In accordance with Code Section 40-2-8, a 45 day temporary operating permit shall be issued by the commissioner or county tag agent to an applicant for a digital license plate until such license is received by the applicant.
2. Except as provided for in Code Section 40-2-22, the amount of commission permitted as compensation to tag agents under this Code section shall be $1.00 per license plate or revalidation decal issued during any calendar year. Twenty-five cents for each license plate or revalidation decal sold in excess of 4,000 during any one calendar year shall become the property of the county and shall be turned over to the fiscal authorities of the county by the tag agent. The remaining portion of such commissions shall be disposed of as provided in Code Section 40-2-34.
3. 1. Any other provisions of any law of this state, whether general, special, or local, to the contrary notwithstanding, and except as provided in subsection (b) of this Code section and paragraph (2) of this subsection, the fees prescribed in subsection (b) of this Code section shall be retained by the tag agent appointed by the commissioner under this chapter and shall be his or her own personal compensation for the services rendered in the administration of this chapter, regardless of whether such agent may otherwise be an elected or appointed official of the county, and regardless of whether as such county officer he or she is compensated for the performance of the duties of such office on a fee basis or salary basis, or combination thereof. It shall be his or her duty, however, as agent for the commissioner in the administration of the purposes of this chapter, to compensate any additional personnel which may be necessary to enable said agent to effectuate the provisions of this chapter and the rules and regulations promulgated under this chapter by the commissioner.
   2. If such tag agent shall be a salaried employee of the county and at a salary in excess of $7,999.00 per annum, the amount of such fees so collected shall go into the general treasury of the county. In such cases, it shall be the duty of the governing authorities of the county to furnish to the tag agent such additional clerical help as is necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter.
4. The initial issuance of any tag, on or after July 1, 2007, shall not be made unless the applicant presents at the time of application a valid Georgia driver's license or Georgia identification card. This subsection shall not apply to those applicants expressly exempted in Code Section 40-5-21.

(Ga. L. 1955, p. 659, § 3; Ga. L. 1957, p. 197, § 2; Ga. L. 1966, p. 508, § 3; Ga. L. 1970, p. 728, § 1; Code 1981, §40-2-30; Ga. L. 1982, p. 3, § 40; Ga. L. 1985, p. 149, § 40; Ga. L. 1988, p. 377, § 1; Ga. L. 1989, p. 857, § 1; Ga. L. 1990, p. 159, § 1; Code 1981, §40-2-33, as redesignated by Ga. L. 1990, p. 2048, § 2; Ga. L. 1992, p. 779, § 2; Ga. L. 1997, p. 419, § 8; Ga. L. 2000, p. 951, § 3-6; Ga. L. 2002, p. 512, § 7; Ga. L. 2007, p. 531, § 1/SB 38; Ga. L. 2010, p. 9, § 1-68/HB 1055; Ga. L. 2021, p. 124, § 5/SB 210.)

The 2021 amendment, effective July 1, 2021, inserted "or she" near the end of paragraph (a)(1); in paragraph (a)(3), inserted "metal" near the beginning of the first sentence and "or her" near the end of the last sentence; and added paragraph (a)(4).

- Schedule of annual license fees, § 40-2-151.

Minimum salaries of tax collectors and tax commissioners, § 48-5-183.

- For article commenting on the 1997 amendment of this Code section, see 14 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 215 (1997).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Compensation of county tax commissioner.

- There is no conflict between Ga. Const. 1983, Art. IX, Sec. I, Para. III authorizing compensation for tax commissioners based on fees, salaries, or a combination thereof, and O.C.G.A. § 40-2-33(c)(2) which simply constitutes a statutory exception to those fees which otherwise may comprise the compensation paid to a county tax commissioner. Weldon v. Board of Comm'rs, 212 Ga. App. 885, 443 S.E.2d 513 (1994).

O.C.G.A. § 48-5-183 controlled over a local act upon which a tax commissioner relied when, for during the commissioner's entire tenure, the commissioner's minimum salary under that section was higher than that provided in the local act, as well as higher than the maximum salary permitted in order to receive fees pursuant to O.C.G.A. §§ 40-2-33 and48-5-180. Brown v. Liberty County, 271 Ga. 634, 522 S.E.2d 466 (1999).

- Tax commissioner is entitled to an incentive commission for selling license tags as long as the commissioner's salary is less than $7,999.00. Belcher v. Sumter County, 145 Ga. App. 173, 243 S.E.2d 110 (1978).

Limitation of O.C.G.A. § 40-2-33(c)(2) necessarily applies to county officers, such as county tax commissioners, since every tag agent is either a tax collector or a tax commissioner and, thus, a county officer. Brown v. Liberty County, 271 Ga. 634, 522 S.E.2d 466 (1999).

Cited in Laurens County v. Keen, 214 Ga. 32, 102 S.E.2d 697 (1958); Keen v. Lewis, 215 Ga. 166, 109 S.E.2d 764 (1959); Cain v. Lumpkin County, 229 Ga. 274, 190 S.E.2d 910 (1972); Mobley v. Board of Comm'rs, 252 Ga. 33, 311 S.E.2d 178 (1984); Montgomery County v. Sharpe, 261 Ga. App. 389, 582 S.E.2d 545 (2003).

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

Salary in excess of $7,999.00.

- Commissioner salaried in excess of $7,999.00 per year is not entitled to claim tag fees. 1973 Op. Att'y Gen. No. U73-6.