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

Vote NO on Amendment 1

Proposed Homestead Exemption Benefits Relatively Few Floridians and Will Likely Increase Taxes on Everyone Else

Floridians will be voting on as many as 13 state constitutional amendments on November 6, 2018. The first on the list, Amendment 1 (A1), would create a new $25,000 homestead exemption from property taxes. While voting for A1 will have surface appeal to some voters, Florida TaxWatch research shows that Floridians should vote against A1 for several reasons, including the fact that A1 benefits only a small percentage of Floridians, it will inevitably lead to higher taxes for nearly everyone, and it will further exacerbate the tax shift from homestead to non-homestead property.

The new homestead exemption would apply to the portion of a home’s value from $100,000 to $125,000. This would be in addition to the two $25,000 homestead exemptions that currently exist, which exempt the portion of home values between $0 and $25,000 and $50,000 and $75,000. The first exemption applies to all taxes, the second and proposed third exemption do not apply to school taxes.

At the current average non-school millage rate, it is estimated that the new exemption would be worth $644.7 million in the first tax year, 2019 (FY2019-20). The estimated “savings” would increase to $662.5 million in FY2020-21 and $680.7 million in FY2021-22.

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