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

Improving the Value of Florida's Enterprise Zone Program to Taxpayers

Based on these benefits, the Florida Legislature should revise and extend the program, and take steps to increase the efficacy and taxpayer benefit of the program statewide by considering the following recommendations:

  • Marketing efforts should focus on attracting companies that grow faster and create more jobs: small and medium-sized businesses, specifically second stage companies;
  • The Legislature should require all zones to measure and report their progress, to be periodically recertified based on established, written, and empirical criteria, and to be dissolved if inactive or ineffective;
  • Local authorities should be given some flexibility to best utilize the Enterprise Zone program within their designated community, in consultation with and subject to approval of the state oversight entity;
  • The program should be more transparent: Florida taxpayers should be able to easily access all distributed incentives;
  • The program’s marketing efforts should be improved and the application process simplified;
  • The program could be made more attractive by promoting its coupling with other state and federal programs;
  • Residency requirements for tax incentives should be waived for some Enterprise Zones; and
  • A tiered system could be created with different requirements and thresholds for small and large businesses.

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