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

The Effect of Repealing the Insurance Premium Tax

For at least the last 60 years, Florida’s tax policy has provided a clear preference to insurance companies that had a presence in Florida. Since 1988, that preference has been in the form of a credit against a company’s insurance premium taxes of 15 percent of the salaries paid to Florida-based employees. This preference helps to promote the insurance industry in Florida, a desirable, clean industry with relatively high-paying jobs.

The 2017 Legislature is considering SB 378, a bill that would eliminate the insurance premium tax (IPT) credit. This would result in a tax increase of more than $314.5 million.It must be remembered that, while it certainly provides an economic development incentive, the credit was not created as a new tax cut or benefit to Florida insurers, it was used to lessen a significant tax increase on them. The credit was part of an insurance tax overhaul that took two tries to find the right level of taxation, while maintaining a 40 year preference for Florida companies.

This report examines the issues involved with repealing the salary credit and concludes it should be maintained.

Documents to download

  • IPT-FINAL(.pdf, 150.37 KB) - 842 download(s)

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