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

Download the Recommendations

Other Resources

Florida Disaster.biz
FEMA
Florida Department of Financial Services
Florida SBDC
Disaster Contractors Network
Florida Disaster Fund

Florida TaxWatch Statement on Hurricane Ian Recovery

Community Involvement

/ Categories: Research, Budget/Approps

Budget Watch - April's General Revenue Collections Come in $878 Million Below Estimate for the Month

Net General Revenue (GR) collections for the month of April came in $878.1 million (29.4 percent) below estimate. This news comes from new Monthly Revenue Report just released by the Office of Economic and Demographic Research.

This is the first month of data to show a significant decrease in revenues due to the impact of COVID-19 on the state’s economy. April GR collections generally reflect March sales tax activity, so the decline in May collections (reflecting April sales) will be much larger.

The sales tax, by far the state’s largest revenue producer, saw April collections fall $598.1 million ($24.1 percent) below estimate. This decline was largely due to losses in the tourism and hospitality sectors, as well as automobile sales. Tourist and recreation-related sales taxes were 42.7 percent below estimates.

Coming into April, GR collections were running $202.4 million above the estimate made in January 2020. This is the revenue estimate on which the FY2020-21 state budget was built. The decline in April collections mean that GR is $676.7 million below estimate year-to-date.

While these are startling (but expected) revenue numbers, they are tempered somewhat by the fact that a significant portion of the decline is due to state orders delaying payment of some taxes or fees until June or later. These revenue sources (corporate income tax, corporate filing fees, and highway safety fees) were $323.1 million below estimate, accounting for 36.8 percent of the decline. Most of those losses are expected to be recouped in June, the last month of the current fiscal year. 

Besides those three sources and the sales tax, only a couple of other revenue sources had significant dollar losses. Insurance premium taxes were $9.9 million (5.2 percent) below estimate, and GR service charges3 were $15.7 million (25.2 percent) below estimates (see table). Two sources that were significantly impacted by closures or limitations—pari-mutuels taxes and court fees—had large percentage losses but are relatively minor GR sources. Pari-mutuel taxes nearly dried up all together, with actual collections of $300,000 compared to the estimate of $2.5 million. 

Several GR sources actually beat the estimates in April. Alcoholic beverage and tobacco taxes, documentary stamp taxes,4 and intangibles taxes all appeared to not yet be impacted by the COVID-19 economy. Collections for these taxes came in $30.0 million above estimates. The state economists believe the impact is delayed and expect some of these sources to decline in the coming months. 

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