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

HOUSE AND SENATE BUDGET PROPOSALS ARE $3.3 BILLION APART

There are Plenty of Issues to Negotiate

The House and Senate have passed their respective budgets and now must hold budget conference meetings to hammer out the differences. An agreement must be reached on every number and every word in the 400-plus page appropriations bill. Budget negotiations are never easy and this year will be no exception, even with so much money available. There is more than enough to haggle over, including big potential sticking points in education, health care, the environment, and public safety, not to mention an unprecedented number of local member projects.

The Senate budget has a bottom line of $108.6 billion and the House spending plan carries a $105.3 billion price tag. These budgets represent increases of 6.8 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively, over current spending of $101.7 billion. Because there are fewer new federal dollars available, more of the budget is made up of general revenue than last year—14.4 percent more in the Senate and 7.4 percent more in the House.

BESIDES THE $3.3 BILLION GULF BETWEEN THE BOTTOM LINES, HOW DO THE HOUSE AND SENATE BUDGETS DIFFER?

This Budget Watch looks at how the House and Senate are proposing to deal with this historic amount of available revenue at their disposal. It highlights the most significant differences between the two plans that will need to be resolved in the budget conference process.

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