Tax Commissioner Joy Hampton Goes the Extra Mile to Help WWII Veteran

Chattooga County Tax Commissioner Joy Hampton went the extra mile in helping WWII Veteran John Shamblin keep his Veteran tag for his new truck.

In Georgia, a disabled veteran can be exempt from TAVT (Title Ad Valorem Tax) on one vehicle at a time.  Mr. Shamblin had one exempt vehicle (TAVT) and another vehicle he pays annual ad valorem taxes on.

“We swapped the license plates between vehicles, so the state thought he was trying to cheat and get the exemption on both. Sadly, in their defense this does happen sometimes.  I understood how it played out but was having a hard time explaining it, and their new system wouldn’t let me do what I knew was right,” Hampton said.

“After advocating to several employees at the customer service desk that this honest, humble 96 year old WWII veteran was deserving and certainly not cheating, I finally drew a cartoon to show the chain of events.  I sent it way up the chain of command and he finally got his exemption and kept his tags,” Hampton explained.

Mr. Shamblin is very appreciative of the work the tax commissioner did so he could keep his tag.