9 Actions Florida Should Take to Help Taxpayers Impacted by Hurricane Ian

1.     Postpone tax notices and waive penalties or interest for late tax filings in affected areas

2.     Extend the date for residents to take advantage of the tax discounts they would normally receive for paying property taxes and special assessments in November and postpone or defer the deadline for property tax installment payments

3.     Protect individual and business taxpayers from the risks for notices that they will likely not receive because their home or business addresses is not accessible anymore

4.     Issue no new audits in severely impacted areas, extend the statute of limitations and postpone existing audits that haven’t reached the assessment stage because these can’t be responded to while entire communities are still recovering

5.     Create procedures for fairly estimating taxes which can’t be calculated because records have been destroyed by the storm, moving away from the current method which significantly overestimates activity if no records are available

6.     Initiate procedures to offer payment plan assistance for late taxes, rather than resorting to the standard collection methods, like liens, levies, or bank freezes

7.     Retroactively apply the recently passed law that provides property tax refunds for residential property rendered uninhabitable as a result of a catastrophic event

8.     Provide tangible personal property relief and allow n on-residential properties rendered uninhabitable to receive property tax refunds

9.     Get Congress to pass a Disaster Tax Relief Act that includes provisions from past packages, including elements such as an Employee Retention Credit, an enhanced casualty loss deduction, and other relief provisions

Other Resources

Florida TaxWatch Statement on Hurricane Ian Recovery

Community Involvement

2025 Budget Turkey Watch Report

An analysis of the transparency and accountability of the budget process

2025 Budget Turkey Watch Report Cover

Florida TaxWatch’s 2025 Budget Turkey Watch Report delivers an independent, line-by-line review of Florida’s conference budget worth $115.1 billion. It identifies 238 appropriations totaling over $413 million that bypassed established vetting procedures or public scrutiny—designating them as “Budget Turkeys”—and flags an additional $799.5 million in member projects that merit heightened executive review.

The analysis places these findings in the context of a 100-plus-day legislative session marked by deep policy disagreements, a historic budget impasse, and more than 1,600 local member projects exceeding $2 billion. It details how many of these projects circumvent competitive grant processes or displace funds from statewide priorities, cataloguing the most problematic categories: university and college construction, agricultural promotion facilities, local parks and boating projects, transportation earmarks, historic and cultural grants, and water-quality line items redirected to member-specific projects.

Florida TaxWatch recommends that the Governor rigorously evaluate each flagged appropriation for alignment with core state functions, transparency, and return on taxpayer investment—vetoing or redlining as necessary—and urges the Legislature to establish statutory, competitive selection processes for recurring project categories to restore accountability, protect statewide priorities, and ensure prudent fiscal stewardship.

Download Full Report (PDF)

Meet the Author:

Kurt Wenner
Kurt Wenner
Senior Vice President of Research
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