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

/ Categories: Research, Budget/Approps, Taxes

2026 Florida Legislative Session Wrap-Up

Pre-Budget Edition

2026 Florida Legislative Session Wrap-Up (Pre-Budget Edition) - Report Cover

For the second year in a row, the Florida Legislature ended its 60-day session without completing its only constitutionally required task — passing a state budget. House Speaker Daniel Perez cited a "fundamental disagreement on what the state budget should look like," with the House seeking to spend less and the Senate more. The House and Senate budget proposals total $113.6 billion and $115.0 billion, respectively.

The gridlock rippled across the entire session. Only 192 general bills passed — fewer than usual — as priority legislation on property tax relief, an artificial intelligence bill of rights, vaccine opt-out expansion, rural development, school choice scholarship reform, and Medicaid oversight all failed to reach the Governor's desk. No final tax package was agreed upon; both the House (HB 7031) and Senate (SB 7046) versions ultimately collapsed, leaving only a corporate income tax decoupling provision from the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Lawmakers are expected to return to Tallahassee in mid-April — after Easter and Passover (April 9) — to resolve the budget, a potential property tax relief constitutional amendment, a state tax package, and congressional redistricting starting April 20. Florida TaxWatch releases this Pre-Budget Edition of our annual Legislative Session Wrap-Up to bring you up to date on what passed and what didn't, with a full follow-up planned once budget conference concludes.

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Kurt Wenner
Kurt Wenner
Senior Vice President of Research
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