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, Insurance, Blog

IDEAS IN ACTION: Florida’s Insurance Crisis—Brought by Lawyers

Guest Column By Josiah Neeley

Crisis conditions in the Florida insurance market are not new. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew devastated southeast Florida. In addition to insured losses of $27 billion ($57 billion in today’s dollars), the category 5 storm caused seven Florida-domiciled insurers to fail, led national insurers to leave the state and catalyzed the formation of statebacked insurance entities.2 Figure 1 outlines the progression of hurricane insurance policy response since 1992. Hurricane Andrew’s destruction was a wake-up call for state regulators to strengthen building codes and a signal for Florida insurers to put adequate reinsurance in place to protect their balance sheets against hurricanes. The Florida legislature also created the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp to be the insurer of last resort for Floridians. Citizens filled the hole left by departing insurers, making coverage available to those who could not secure insurance in the private market. What is more, sophisticated risk models were developed to help insurers better understand the risk they were assuming. All these developments enabled insurers to quantify and withstand Florida’s natural catastrophe risk. However, another factor has turned Floridian insurance from a risky but manageable market into a sea of red ink: litigation. This paper sheds light on the causes of Florida’s insurance woes and proposes what must be done to stabilize the market.

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