Florida is reeling from an unprecedented string of hurricanes, with October’s Category 3 (once a Category 5) Hurricane Milton following Category 4 Hurricane Helene by less than two weeks. August brought Hurricane Debby and there was flash flooding in South Florida in June. People are still recovering from storms in 2023 and 2022. Every Florida county was included in at least one of the numerous state of emergency declarations issued by Gov. DeSantis, most were included in multiple emergencies.
The governor, Legislature and many state and local agencies have been responding in an exemplary fashion first with search and rescue and providing shelter and other necessities to those displaced by the storms. Now comes rebuilding peoples’ lives. Many homes, businesses and other property were destroyed or severely damaged. Rebuilding residential and commercial property, agriculture, infrastructure and our natural resources will be a multi-year endeavor. These are the critical needs and Florida TaxWatch is confident our governments and the citizens of our state will once again rise to the challenge.
As Florida TaxWatch did after the pandemic and Hurricane Ian, it has developed recommendations that can help lessen the taxpayers’ burden of complying with tax laws, protect them from penalties, interest, and over assessments when failure to comply is due to the storms, and help reduce their monetary tax burden.
Florida’s elected officials have been receptive to Florida TaxWatch’s past post-disaster tax recommendations and a number have been implemented, both temporarily and permanently. The following taxpayer protections — which can help Florida taxpayers avoid suffering even greater long-term financial damages as the state moves forward with recovery efforts — include past FTW recommendations that have not been implemented or are not currently in effect:
- The provisions extending filing and payment deadlines that are already in place for counties impacted by Hurricane Helene (see above) should be expanded to include counties impacted by Hurricane Milton, and further extension of the deadlines should be considered. We are confident that the Governor and DOR are planning to include Hurricane Milton.
- Extend the date for taxpayers to take advantage of the tax discounts they would normally receive for paying property taxes and special assessments in November (4%), December (3%), January (2%) and February (1%).
- Postpone the deadlines for property tax installment payments.
- Postpone tax notices and waive penalties or interest for late tax filings in affected areas.
- For the most impacted counties, postpone the April 1, 2025, date that property taxes become delinquent.
- Protect individual and business taxpayers from the risks for notices that they will likely not receive because their home or business address is not accessible anymore.
- Issue no new audits in severely impacted areas, extend the statute of limitations and postpone existing audits that have not reached the assessment (final) stage.
- 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.
- Initiate procedures to offer payment plan assistance for late taxes, rather than resorting to the standard collection methods, like liens, levies, or bank freezes.
- The 2022 Legislature passed a law that provides property tax refunds for residential property rendered uninhabitable as a result of a catastrophic event for at least 30 days. A similar law should be enacted for commercial property. The Legislature should consider reimbursing, or sharing the cost with, local governments for reduced property tax revenues. The 2023 Legislature appropriated $35 million to reimburse counties that were required to refund property taxes to taxpayers whose residential property was rendered uninhabitable by Hurricanes Ian or Nicole.
- Provide tangible personal property relief for businesses, such as refunds for such property that was destroyed by the storms.
- Property taxes have been skyrocketing. Statewide tax levies increased 27.9% from fiscal year 2021-22 to fiscal year 2023-24 and county taxable value increased another 10.2% this year. Most local governments have adopted their new millage rate for this year. Florida TaxWatch urges local governments to roll-back their next adopted millage rates to at least partially offset rapidly growing property values.
- Persuade 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.
Dominic M. Calabro is President and CEO of Florida TaxWatch, a statewide, nonprofit, non-partisan government watchdog and research center for taxpayers. Florida TaxWatch was founded in 1979.
