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, Taxes

Session Spotlight - Provisions in the House Tax Package & Corresponding Senate Legislation

It appears the 2020 Legislature will cut taxes again. As has been recent practice, the House Ways & Means Committee developed a package of tax cuts and other tax-related provisions, while the Senate has moved individual tax bills through committee. We likely will not see the Senate’s full tax proposal until the House bill (HB 7097) reaches the Senate floor and it offers an amendment. 

 The House package includes $61.6 million in one-time cuts and $128.0 million in recurring cuts. This includes local taxes of $24.8 million (one-time cuts) and $42.5 million (recurring cuts). By delaying the effective date of largest recurring tax cuts until January 1, 2021, the House was able to limit the loss of General Revenue (GR) in the upcoming budget year to $87.3 million. The two biggest House cuts are two Florida TaxWatch top priorities: reductions in the business rent tax and the communications services tax. 

Most of the other House tax cuts are relatively small and narrow in application. Most of these do not have corresponding Senate bills. HB 7097 also includes a number of other tax changes, some of which are administrative 

The House could vote on its tax package this week. The Senate has not yet passed any major tax bills, but two sales tax holiday bills are on the Calendar. 

 

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