(a) Any person owning, leasing, furnishing, or operating any kind of railroad cars on any railroad in this state shall be deemed a railroad equipment company. Every railroad equipment company shall be required to make returns to the commissioner and shall be taxed as follows:

(1) Ascertain the total number and the value of all cars of the railroad equipment company, the total car-wheel mileage made by the cars in the United States, and the total car-wheel mileage in this state;

(2) Tax the cars at the regular rate imposed on property in this state on a valuation based on the proportion to the entire value of the cars that the car-wheel mileage made in this state bears to the entire car-wheel mileage of the cars in the United States; and

(3) Ascertain the total track mileage in each local tax jurisdiction in this state and tax the cars at the regular rate imposed on property in each local tax jurisdiction on a valuation based on the proportion to the entire value of the cars as determined in paragraph (2) of this subsection that the track mileage in the local tax jurisdiction bears to the entire track mileage in this state.

(b) The returns shall be made to the commissioner by the chief executive officer in charge of the cars in this state. The final assessment of the property of railroad equipment companies shall be fixed in the same manner as the proposed assessments of property of public utilities under this article and Code Section 48-2-18, except that with respect to railroad equipment companies, such assessment shall be final rather than proposed. By following the procedure set forth in subsection (c) of Code Section 48-2-18 for appeals of proposed assessments of public utility property, any railroad equipment company may bring in the Superior Court of Fulton County or in the Georgia Tax Tribunal in accordance with Chapter 13A of Title 50 a de novo action of the final assessment so fixed.

(c) For the purposes of this Code section, a railroad company operating a railroad is not a railroad equipment company.

(d)

(1) The commissioner shall collect all taxes levied by this Code section and shall remit all taxes collected to the authorities entitled thereto, less 1 percent of the amount collected, which shall be paid into the general fund of the state treasury in order to defray the costs of collection.

(2) The commissioner may submit tax bills to railroad equipment companies in one or more stages each year; and the taxes reflected in each bill shall be due 60 days after the commissioner mails the bill to the company and, if not so paid, shall bear interest at the rate specified in Code Section 48-2-40 and become subject to penalty in accordance with Code Section 48-2-44. The commissioner shall remit the taxes collected at least once each year. In arriving at the amount to be billed in each instance, the commissioner shall utilize the millage rate established by each taxing jurisdiction for the year in question unless no such rate has been finally established at the time the bill in question is prepared, in which case the commissioner may decline to include such jurisdiction in the billing or may utilize a millage rate established by court order.

(3) All taxes collected under a millage rate which is later changed shall be collected subject to adjustment upward or downward, as the case may be. Such adjustments may be billed or refunded separately or may be made by offset the following year, in the discretion of the commissioner. If any refunds are made separately, they shall be made by the local taxing jurisdiction.

(4) This subsection shall apply to all tax years beginning on or after January 1, 1981.

(e)

(1) If any chief executive officer of a railroad equipment company required to make a return to the commissioner by this Code section fails to return the taxable property or pay to the state all taxes for which such company may be liable by reason of the return, the commissioner shall issue an execution for the amount of taxes due, according to the law, together with costs and penalties.

(2) The executions issued by the commissioner against any such company shall be directed to all sheriffs, constables, and other lawful officers of this state with directions to levy the execution on the property of the corporation or company and with the authority to issue and serve garnishments upon the debtors of the corporation or company.