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

Budget Watch - New GR Estimates Reduced Slightly

HURRICANE MICHAEL BUDGET AMENDMENTS NOW TOTAL $443 MILLION; MORE THAN $200 MILLION IN CORPORATE INCOME TAXES COULD BE REFUNDED

The eagerly awaited final General Revenue (GR) estimates to be used for the next state budget are out. Legislators and appropriations lobbyists were hoping for an infusion of cash to ease a tight budget year, made even tighter by hurricane-related costs and the competing costly priorities of the Governor and legislative leaders. Well, that did not happen. The estimates did not change much, decreasing by a total of $7.4 million. This follows the December 2018 GR Conference which had adopted the largest estimate increase in more than 10 years: $842 million.

In a rather uncommon result, a significant increase in the current year was offset by a similar decrease in the next year. The General Revenue Estimating Conference increased the revenue projections by $201.3 million in in FY2018-19 but decreased the estimate for FY2019-20 by $208.7 million. Any unspent revenue from the current year will be carried forward, making it available for new budget. This means the 2019 Legislature will have an $7.4 million less in GR collections for the next state budget than was previously expected (December 2018 estimates). In addition, another nearly $300 million in hurricane- related budget amendments have been spent since the last estimates. Meaning total available GR is $300.6 million less than estimated in December.

Total GR collections for FY2018-19 are now estimated $32.907 billion, $1.7 billion (5.4 percent) more than actual FY2017-18 collections. FY2019-20 revenues are now expected to grow by modest $599.9 million (1.8 percent), which would be the smallest annual growth in 11 years. Longer-term, annual growth of 4.3 percent, 3.6 percent, and 3.1 percent is now expected during the following three years (through FY2023- 24). All of these long-term estimates were reduced by the new conference.

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