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

Comparing the 2018 House and Senate Tax Packages

The House unveiled its 2018 tax cut package (HB 7087) almost a month ago, while the Senate’s did not appear until week 8 of the session when it was amended onto SB 620 in the Appropriations Committee.

The full House has approved its bill, but the Senate has not yet taken up its package. The bills have a lot of similarities, but there are big differences that will have to be negotiated before a final tax cut package is approved.

The House bill is much larger, containing $140.3 million in one- time tax reductions and $249.1 million in recurring cuts. This includes $33.7 million in one-time local revenue reductions and $11.9 million in recurring local cuts. The Senate bill contains $88.0 million in one-time tax reductions and $60.4 million in recurring cuts. This includes $25.7 million in one-time local revenue reductions and $6.5 million in recurring local cuts. The House Ways & Means Chair said on the floor that, due to new priorities (spending for school safety), the final tax package will likely be smaller than the current House package.

Most of the changes are relatively small, and include sales, property, corporate income, documentary stamp, and fuel taxes. The House cuts includes $149.2 million that are not traditional tax cuts, but are tax credits for contributions to state scholarship programs.

Both bills include the Florida TaxWatch priorities of reducing the Business Rent Tax, and the creating of Back to School and Disaster Preparedness sales tax holidays. For more information see our BRT report and our 2017 follow up. Also, see why Florida TaxWatch supports sales tax holidays.

The following is a description of the various tax reduction provisions, showing what is included in both bills, what tax reductions are in both bills with some differences and what is only in the House or Senate bill.

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