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

Florida Senate Recognizes Florida as a Taxpayer-Friendly State

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Florida TaxWatch celebrated Taxpayer Independence Day on Monday, April 20, 2015. Taxpayer Independence Day is the first day in the calendar year that Florida taxpayers, on average, begin earning income that does not go toward federal, state and local taxes. Yesterday, the Florida Senate, led by Senator Jeff Brandes, recognized that Florida remains a low-tax state by adopting Senate Resolution 1668.

Taxpayers Deserve More Than Checking The Box

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"Florida taxpayers and their children are facing more than $10.5 billion in debt due to increasingly rich and consistently over-promised government pensions. These obligations will be paid by taxpayers who don't have access to similar benefits in the private sector, because pension plan beneficiaries take on no risk, yet the taxpayers indemnify losses...

Bill Strengthens Florida's Inspectors General

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The Florida Legislature has once again proven its commitment to increasing accountability in state government by ensuring the state's inspectors general are best equipped to serve the state's taxpayers as trusted, independent investigators...

$4 Billion Dollars Separate House and Senate Budget Proposals

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A more than $4 billion dollar difference between the House and Senate budget proposals is detailed in the latest Budget Watch from Florida TaxWatch. The nonpartisan taxpayer watchdog group's annual analysis of the initial budgets shows that the largest point of contention between the chambers is in funding the health and human services portion of the budget.

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