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

Budget Watch - House and Senate Proposed Budgets

The House and Senate released their respective budgets for FY2015-16 following the third week of the legislative session and voted them out of the appropriations committees this week. They will now go to the floor in the two chambers. The House has also released its proposed tax cut package of $690.1 million, the centerpiece being a 3.6 percentage point reduction in the Communications Services Tax on wireless phone, cable and satellite television, and non-residential landline services. The Senate has said it will wait until some health care funding issues have been resolved before deciding on its tax package (see Human Services section on page 3). Lawmakers got some good news last week when the latest revenue estimates provided an additional $143.0 million in general revenue for the new budget (see General Revenue Estimating Conference on page 9 for more information). 

The House budget totals $76.154 billion and the Senate budget comes in at $80.425 billion, which would be the largest budget in history. The House proposal is $826 million (1.1 percent) less than the Governor’s recommended budget and $919 million (1.2 percent) less than current year spending. The Senate budget would be a 4.3 percent increase over current year spending. The higher Senate budget is due to a proposed increase in federal dollars being drawn down (see Human Services section on the next page). In fact, the Senate spends $229 million in general revenue less than the House.

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