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: Blog

Fewer, Better Tests

In November 2017, Carlos Alvarez, Principal at the City of Hialeah Educational Academy, received Florida TaxWatch’s Principal Leadership Award as the most outstanding high school principal. Yesterday, Principal Alvarez addressed the House PreK – 12 Quality Subcommittee in support of HB 773, which (among other things) moves state-mandated student assessments to the last three weeks of the school year. In addition to providing more time for instruction, HB 773 will also provide teachers and parents with more useable and timely information regarding student performance.

Moving the state-mandated tests closer to the end of the school year “will give teachers more time to teach and students more time to learn” said Principal Alvarez. Requiring each student’s annual assessment score report to be provided to the student’s current year teacher as close to the end of the school year as possible will allow the current year teacher to use the information to develop improved lesson plans for students.

TaxWatch President and CEO Dominic Calabro stood with Senator Anitere Flores and Representatives Manny Diaz, Jr., and Chris Sprowls at a February 15 press conference at which legislation addressing the need for fewer and better tests was unveiled. “Florida TaxWatch supports the concept of ‘fewer and better tests,’ as well as other measures that afford school districts greater flexibility and control over how student achievement is measured. It is critical that every student who takes the test receives an accurate and valid test score. Florida’s public school students and taxpayers deserve nothing less,” said Calabro.

Print
1310 Rate this article:
No rating

x