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

Florida Is The World's Port Of Call

Florida residents are keenly aware that tourism is an important economic engine providing power to the state economy, and several Florida TaxWatch publications provide economic data supporting this observation. Tourism is one of the top providers of jobs for Floridians and a serves as a major source of tax revenue for the state.

Notably, tourism is one of the few sectors that created jobs during the most recent recession in Florida. One segment of the tourism sector, the cruise industry, is uniquely suited to take advantage of Florida’s natural attributes. No other state or nation can boast the number of cruise lines, port proximity advantages, and welcoming culture that Florida offers. 

Seven Florida seaports handle passenger movements by cruise ship, ferry, or day-cruise vessels. Passengers that use Florida’s ports travel most frequently to the Bahamas, the Caribbean, and Central America. While not the most popular destinations, several South American and Transatlantic options are also available from Florida’s ports. Recently, there has been a significant increase in one-day cruise passengers to destinations such as the Bahamas, especially from ports Canaveral, Everglades, Miami, and Palm Beach.

PortMiami, Port Everglades, and Port Canaveral, the Sunshine State’s three most-visited cruise ports, are also the world’s most visited cruise terminals. The most visited of those, PortMiami, is currently home to eight cruise ships that collectively made 767 calls (a stop to pick up or discharge passengers or cargo, or to undergo repairs) in FY2012-13.

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