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

Manufacturing a Transformational Shift—Expanding Florida’s Workforce Development Through Sector Strategies

A Summary of the 2021 MakeMore Manufacturing Summit

FloridaMakes is a statewide, industry-led, public-private partnership operated by an alliance of Florida’s regional manufacturers’ associations. Since its inception in 2016, FloridaMakes has had an economic impact of $2.6 billion with almost 17,000 jobs created and/or retained. The pandemic underscored the important role Florida’s Manufacturing sector plays in providing products that are crucial to public health and safety, national security, and the continuity of many other industries.

The MakeMore Manufacturing Summit was born in 2018 as a leadership-focused initiative originally developed by FloridaMakes in partnership with the Associated Industries of Florida (AIF), CareerSource Florida, Enterprise Florida, and the Florida Chamber of Commerce. The collective goal of the Summit is to: (1) elevate the state’s more than 22,000 Manufacturing companies and demonstrate their impact on the economy; and (2) recognize the importance of diversifying the economy and prioritizing the growth of an industry that provides high-wage, high- value jobs and that can ultimately improve Florida’s quality of life.

The 2021 Summit was conducted via three virtual events and one in-person event. It brought together distinguished subject matter experts to discuss manufacturing sector challenges and identify strategies to overcome them. The strategies presented during the Summit reflect “sector strategies,” which are collaborative, regional, industry-focused approaches to building skilled talent. Sector strategies have proven to be an effective way to align public and private resources to address the talent needs of Florida manufacturers.

In its review of the three virtual sessions, Florida TaxWatch identified four major challenges that must be addressed if we are to grow Florida’s Manufacturing sector:

  • Finding people with the right skills necessary to keep up with the needs of Manufacturing and technology, particularly for emerging industries;
  • Developing resilient and sustainable supply chains—interactive, dynamic, networks of people, processes, and technologies;
  • Accelerating the adoption and implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies; and
  • Attracting the next generation of manufacturers.

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