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, COVID Recovery

The Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Florida’s Employment

Variations Across Industry, Region, and Income

AS FLORIDA APPROACHES THE ONE-YEAR MARK SINCE THE STATE REPORTED ITS FIRST POSITIVE COVID-19 CASE, Florida’s recovery picture seems to be a mixed bag. The state closed out 2020 on an optimistic note as unemployment inched downward to 6.1 percent from a high of 13.8 percent in April 2020, but as January 2021 drew to a close, first time jobless benefit claims rose by more than 71,000 across the state.1 Although some of the spike can be attributed to seasonal unemployment following the holidays, the conflicting observations suggest Florida is still far from full strength. Since the pandemic began, much of the focus has been on the state’s ailing tourism industry for good reason. Yet as the recovery has dragged on, the impact of COVID-19 on Florida’s labor market has become more complex than at first glance, with varying effects across different industries, regions, and income levels. To fully capture the pandemic’s employment effects and steer the economy to recovery, these variations and nuances must be explored deeper.

As Florida continues to emerge from the economic downturn that engulfed the state last year, challenges and uncertainty abound. On the surface, the pandemic has crippled the tourism industry, yet a deeper dive reveals other important, more nuanced, variations across industries, regions, and income levels. There is no “one-size fits all” approach to remedy these employment effects, but a more granular view can certainly aid policymakers in tailoring responses, some of which are recommended in Florida TaxWatch’s recent report Bringing The Sunshine State Back: The Impact of COVID-19 Across Florida’s Economy & Options for Recovery. These recommendations, along with many others, offer a starting point to holistically improve Florida’s labor market throughout 2021.

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