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

The Outlook for Tax Relief from the 2017 Legislature

There is likely to be some tax relief passed by the Florida Legislature in 2017, but what that will look like, and how big it will be, is still very much uncertain. Following the patterns of recent sessions, the House has rolled out a big tax cut “package” while the Senate has taken a more measured approach, advancing several individual tax cut bills. The ultimate resolution of this issue will be tied up in the budget negotiations, and there is a large divide between the House and Senate budget plans. The Senate proposes to spend much more than the House, meaning they would have less left for tax reductions.

The House Ways & Means Committee has approved the House tax cut proposal (HB 7109), the cornerstone being a reduction in the Business Rent Tax (BRT) as recommended by Florida TaxWatch. Total state and local tax reduction in the first year is $382.5 million, $129.8 million of which are one-time cuts. The recurring amount is $275.9 million.

Because the proposal would reduce the BRT rate by 1.5 percent (from 6.0 percent to 4.5 percent) for two years and then the increase the rate back up to 5.5 percent permanently, there is $513.3 million in non-recurring cuts for two years. Within this report is a look at the provisions in HB 7109, along with the Senate bills that contain one of these provisions and that have cleared at least one committee. Following this analysis is an examination of several bills and proposed constitutional amendments dealing with property taxes that could also impact the taxes Floridians pay.

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