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

Taxpayer Independence Day 2026

April 17, 2026

Taxpayer Independence Day 2026 - Report Cover

Friday, April 17 is Florida Taxpayer Independence Day 2026 — the symbolic date when the average Florida household has earned enough to satisfy all federal, state, and local tax obligations for the year. In 2026, that takes 106 out of 365 days, or just over three and a half months. On a daily basis, Floridians' Taxpayer Independence Time falls at 11:19 a.m. each workday.

Taxpayer Independence Day (TID) 2026 arrives two days later than in 2025, when it fell on April 15. Income growth is expected to trail tax bill growth this year, with inflation, higher gas prices, rising health care costs, and climbing insurance premiums squeezing household budgets further. Florida's total tax burden is estimated at $534 billion in 2026 — equal to $57,489 per household, or 29 percent of all personal income in the state. In a historic milestone, local taxes are projected to surpass state taxes for the first time ever in FY 2025-26, driven by property tax levies that have more than doubled over the last decade and now total $59.2 billion.

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Kurt Wenner
Kurt Wenner
Senior Vice President of Research
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