(a) The president or chief financial officer of each company subject to this part shall fill out and furnish under oath to the assessor of the county in which the principal office of such company is maintained an assessment schedule in writing, which schedule shall contain the following information:

(1) The number of shares of each class of capital stock issued and outstanding and the par value per share;

(2) The amount of surplus, including special surplus funds, paid-in and contributed surplus and unassigned surplus;

(3) An itemized statement of the value of all property which is exempt from ad valorem taxation by any law of this state or of the United States, showing the appropriate code section granting the exemption for each item;

(4) An itemized statement of the assessed value of all real property and tangible personal property having a situs outside Tennessee, showing the location of each item;

(5) An itemized statement of the assessed value of all real property and tangible personal property having a situs in Tennessee, showing the location of each item;

(6) A statement of the assessed value of all real property in Tennessee occupied by such company as its principal office under a lease, together with a copy of such lease;

(7) A statement of the date such company was first authorized and qualified to do insurance business, or, if such company is the continuing corporation resulting from a merger or consolidation, a statement of the earliest date its predecessor corporations were authorized and qualified to do insurance business; and

(8) Such other facts pertaining to the value of its corporate property and capital stock as may be deemed necessary or material by the assessor.

(b) The assessment schedule filed pursuant to this section shall be derived from, and consistent with, the annual statement of such company as of the last day of the preceding calendar year as filed with the commissioner of commerce and insurance.

(c) The assessor shall furnish by February 1 a reporting schedule in a form approved by the state board of equalization to each company subject to assessment under this part, and the schedule shall be completed and returned by the company by March 1 of the year for which the assessment is to be made. A taxpayer who fails, refuses or neglects to complete, sign, and file the schedule with the assessor of property, as provided in subsection (a), shall be deemed to have waived objections to the forced assessment determined by the assessor, subject only to the remedies provided in subsection (d). In determining a forced assessment, the assessor shall consider available evidence indicative of the assessable value of property assessable to the taxpayer under this section, and having determined the assessable value of property assessable to the taxpayer under this section, the assessor shall give the taxpayer notice of the assessment by United States mail, addressed to the last known address of the taxpayer, or the taxpayer's agent, at least ten (10) calendar days before the local board of equalization commences its annual session. Failure of the assessor to send a schedule or failure of the taxpayer to receive a schedule shall not relieve or excuse any taxpayer from filing such schedule by March 1, nor shall it prevent the assessor from issuing a forced assessment against the taxpayer.

(d) If a forced assessment is shown to exceed the assessable value of the taxpayer's property, then the taxpayer shall have the following remedies:

(1) The taxpayer may appeal to the county board of equalization pursuant to § 67-5-1407, but must present a completed schedule as otherwise provided in this section;

(2) If the deadline to appeal to the county board of equalization has expired, then the taxpayer may request the assessor to mitigate the forced assessment by reducing the forced assessment to the assessable value of the taxpayer's assessable property plus twenty-five percent (25%), so long as the failure to file the schedule or failure to timely appeal to the county board of equalization was not the result of gross negligence or willful disregard of the law. Mitigation of the forced assessment shall follow the procedure provided and be subject to the deadlines provided in § 67-5-509. Gross negligence shall be presumed if notice of the forced assessment, in a form approved by the state board of equalization, was sent certified mail, return receipt requested, to the taxpayer's last known address on file with the assessor.

(e) Whether or not an assessor's error affected the original assessment, the assessor may correct a forced assessment using the procedure provided and subject to the deadlines provided in § 67-5-509, upon determining that the taxpayer was not in business as of the assessment date for the year at issue, and upon determining that the taxpayer did not own property assessable pursuant to this part as of the assessment date for the year at issue.

(f) The taxpayer may amend a schedule timely filed with the assessor in the same manner provided for tangible personal property returns.