(1) If any person, firm or corporation has paid, or shall hereafter pay to the Auditor of Public Accounts or the Commissioner of Insurance, through error or otherwise, whether paid under protest or not, any ad valorem, privilege or excise tax for which the person, firm or corporation was not liable, or if any such taxpayer has paid any tax in excess of the sum properly due and such erroneous payment or overpayment has been paid into the proper treasury, the taxpayer shall be entitled to a refund of the taxes so erroneously paid. Taxes erroneously paid within the meaning of this section shall include double payment, or overpayment, or payment on state, United States, vacant and exempt land, and the purchase price paid for the redemption of lands erroneously sold for taxes.

Claims for refund under the provisions of this section shall be filed with the Auditor of Public Accounts and shall be supported by proper documents showing the overpayment or erroneous payment for which claim is made. The auditor is hereby authorized and required to make a careful investigation and audit of all such claims and if he shall find that the taxes or monies covered by the claim have been erroneously paid into the treasury of the state, county, drainage or levee districts, he shall distribute the claim against each separate fund in proportion to the amount paid over to such fund in each case, and submit the audited claim with the voucher and evidence upon which the claim is based, to the Attorney General for his approval. The Attorney General shall have plenary power to require the claimant or the officer who collected the tax to furnish any additional documents or information as may in his opinion be necessary or proper to enable him to determine the merits of the claim.

If the Attorney General shall be of the opinion that the claim is in proper form and complies with the requirements of this section, he shall approve the claim and return it to the Auditor of Public Accounts, who shall thereupon file in his office the audited claim, together with the Attorney General’s approval and all other documents relating to the claim, as a voucher, and issue his warrant on the State Treasurer in favor of the claimant for the amount of purchase money or taxes erroneously paid into the State Treasury. The auditor shall then certify to the clerk of the board of supervisors, the secretary of the drainage district board, or the secretary of the levee board, as the case may be, the amount, if any, found to be due to the claimant by the county, drainage district or levee district. Upon receipt of the certificate, the board of supervisors, or the commissioners of the drainage district or of the levee district, shall cause a warrant to be issued on the treasurer of the county or drainage or levee district, as the case may be, in favor of the claimant for the amount erroneously paid into their respective treasuries.

If the Attorney General shall disapprove the claim, he shall return it to the Auditor of Public Accounts accompanied by his opinion which shall show the reason for his disapproval, whereupon the auditor shall promptly notify the claimant of the disapproval. A claimant taxpayer being aggrieved at the disapproval may, within six (6) months from the date thereof, file in the chancery court his petition for appeal and review. All petitions for appeal and review shall be filed in the chancery court of the county in which the money for which refund is claimed was originally paid, and shall be accompanied by a bond in the sum of Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) conditioned to pay all costs which may accrue in the case, which bond shall be approved by the clerk of the court. Upon the approval of the bond, the chancery clerk shall give the Attorney General and the Auditor of Public Accounts notice, as required by law, of the filing of the petition. It shall be the duty of the auditor to promptly transmit to the court in which the appeal is pending a certified copy of the entire record of the claim as shown by the files in his office, which record shall be docketed by the clerk in the cause, and the controversy shall be tried by the court on such record. It shall be the duty of the Attorney General to defend on behalf of the state, and he may request the district attorney, county attorney or attorney for the drainage or levee district, as the case may be, to defend on behalf of the county, drainage or levee district. If the claimant taxpayer shall prevail, judgment shall be entered requiring the payment of the claim in like manner as if it had been duly approved by the Attorney General. If, however, the action of the Attorney General in disapproving the claim shall be affirmed by the court, judgment shall be entered against the appealing taxpayer for the costs of the proceedings.

Nothing in this section shall be so construed as to authorize the recovery or repayment of any tax heretofore levied and collected by any special road district, drainage district, or separate school district, on account of, or upon the ground that the law authorizing such tax was unconstitutional, whether the unconstitutionality of such tax be based upon the creation or mode of operation of any special road district, drainage district or separate school district. Provided further, that nothing in this section shall be construed as authorizing the refunding of state taxes paid into the State Treasury through error, or otherwise, or satisfying a judgment or decree against the state except through an appropriation therefor by the Legislature.

(2) This section shall not be construed as repealing or modifying Section 27-73-7, or any other law providing for the application for or the certification of a claim for refund, but shall be taken and construed as an additional and supplemental method of refunding taxes erroneously paid.