BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

CS/SB 620 (Hutson) and HB 569 (McClure) allow a business that has been engaged in a lawful business in a municipality for at least three years to claim business damages from the municipality if it enacts or amends an ordinance or charter provision that will cause a reduction of at least 15% of the business’ profit as applied on a per-location basis of a business operated within the jurisdiction. The bills provide three ways for a municipality to cure the business’ claim and avoid paying damages: repeal the ordinance or charter provision; amend the ordinance or charter provision; or grant a waiver to the business from enforcement of the ordinance or charter provision. The bills provide exemptions from business damages claims for various ordinances and charter provisions: ordinances required to comply with, or expressly authorized by, state or federal law; emergency ordinances, declarations or orders adopted pursuant to the state Emergency Management Act; a temporary emergency ordinance that remains in effect for no more than 90 days; ordinances or charter provisions enacted to implement: Part II of Chapter 163 (including zoning, development orders and development permits); the Florida Building Code; the Florida Fire Code; a contract or an agreement, including contracts or agreements relating to grants or other financial assistance; debt issuance or refinancing; procurement; budgets or budget amendments, including revenue sources necessary to fund the budget. The bills specify that in action to recover damages, the courts may award attorney fees and costs to the prevailing party.  The bills are prospective and apply to ordinances and charter provisions enacted or amended after the legislation becomes law.  (O’Hara)

HB 85 (Eskamani) and SB 246 (Book) – Tax Exemption for Diapers and Incontinence Products

HB 201 (Daley) and SB 356 (Jones) – Sales Tax Holiday for ENERGY STAR & WaterSense Products

SB 234 (Jones) and HB 613 (Robinson, F.) – Working Floridians Tax Rebate Program

HB 439 (Smith, C.) and SB 712 (Taddeo) – Small Business Saturday Sales Tax Holiday 

SB 500 (Perry) – Back-to-school Sales Tax Holiday

HB 509 (Yarborough) and SB 830 (Hooper) – Sales Tax on Mobile Homes

HB 589 (Harding) and SB 930 (Hooper) – Sales Tax Exemptions for Public Works

HB 673 (Shoaf) SB 1542 (Gainer) – Tourist development Taxes

HB 763 (Casello) and SB 1146 (Rodriguez) – Tax Exemption for Charges for Private Investigations

SB 808 (Gruters) – Sales Tax Holiday for Disaster Preparedness Supplies

HB 863 (DiCeglie) and SB 1250 (Gruters) – Sales Tax Refunds for Building Mitigation Retrofit Improvements

SB 952 (Gruters) and HB 1293 (Gregory) – Taxation 

HB 959 (LaMarca) and SB 1874 (Boyd) – Department of Financial Services

SB 1130 (Brodeur) and HB 1375 (Goff-Marcil) – Tax Collector Budgets

SB 1132 (Gruters) and HB 801 (Fine) – Valuation of Timeshare Real Property

HB 1163 (Overdorf) – Sales Tax Exemptions for Hydrogen Products

SB 1256 (Gruters) and HB 977 (Caruso) – Sales of Tax Certificates

SB 1382 (Gruters) and HB 1041 (Stevenson) – Tax Administration

HB 1387 (Gregory) and SB 1840 (Gruters) – Determinations for Tax Exemptions

SB 1470 (Stewart) – Taxation of Fees for the Use of Real Property

SB 1610 (Rodriguez) – Ad Valorem Tax Abatement

SB 1698 (Farmer) – Taxes/Marijuana 

SB 1886 (Powell) – Taxes and Fees

HB 6051 (Overdorf) and SB 786 (Hutson) – Aircraft Sales and Lease Tax

HB 6075 (Eskamani) and SB 1898 (Farmer) – Tourist Development Taxes

HB 149 (Tuck) and SB 404 (Rodriguez) specify the methodology for the assessment of the structures and equipment used in aquaculture. The bills allow the property owner to request removal of its agriculture classification if the tax assessed based on such methodology exceeds the tax assessed based on the value of the structures and equipment. (Hughes)

HB 6093 (Gregory) and SB 1558 (Gruters) repeal Section 212.031, Florida Statutes, which subjects the renting, leasing, letting or granting a license for the use of any real property to sales and use tax. (Hughes)

SB 1056 (Hutson) and HB 1345 (McFarland) revise the criteria of the homestead property tax exemption to state that the rental of a portion of a dwelling claimed to be a homestead while the dwelling is physically occupied by the owner does not constitute the abandonment of the dwelling as a homestead. (Hughes)

SB 1318 (Hutson) and HB 1559 (Harding) allow the state's Chief Financial Officer to designate credit unions as qualified public depositories after meeting certain criteria. (Hughes)

HB 751 (Clemons) revises the definition of the term "inventory" to include construction equipment by a heavy equipment rental dealer for sale or short-term rental in the normal course of business on the annual assessment date. This change only applies to non-school levies. (Hughes)

HB 243 (Roth) and SB 1126 (Harrell) exempt, from property taxation, property used by educational institutions that hold a leasehold interest in certain leases that exceed 98 years. (Hughes)

CS/SB 1150 (Rodriguez, A.) and HB 495 (Rodriguez, Ant.) authorize municipalities and counties to adopt ordinances to grant ad valorem tax exemptions to property owners whose properties are used for governmental or public purpose of providing affordable housing. CS/SB 1150 now specifies that property given tax exemptions are considered having a charitable purpose.  (Hughes)

HB 13 (Gottlieb) and SB 154 (Rodriguez) increase the property tax exemption from $500 to $5,000 for homesteaded residents who are widows, widowers, blind or totally and permanently disabled. (Hughes)

HB 839 (Fischer) and SB 1152 (Rodriguez, A.) increase the property tax discount percentage rates for early payment of all property taxes assessed on the county tax rolls. (Hughes)

HB 417 (Fernandez-Barquin) and SB 572 (Garcia) revise factors that a property appraiser must consider in deriving just valuation for a property. For example, the property appraiser may not consider the highest and best use if the necessary zoning changes, concurrency requirement or permits to achieve the highest and best use are not in place on January 1 of the assessment year. (Hughes)

CS/HB 777 (Robinson) and CS/SB 1194 (Boyd) require referenda elections related to tourist development taxes, tourist impact taxes, increases in municipal and county ad valorem tax millages, children's services and independent special district property taxes, ninth-cent fuel tax, local option fuel taxes and certain school millages to be held at the general election. (Hughes)

HB 975 (Borrero) and SB 1280 (Diaz) create an additional assessment limitation for certain low-income seniors if HJR 973, SJR 1278 or a similar constitutional amendment is approved by the voters at the 2022 general election. This additional assessment limitation applies to assessed values of homestead properties with a just value of $300,000 or less owned by a person at least 65 years old whose annual household income does not exceed $20,000. The assessment limitation carries over to a surviving spouse who uses the property as a homestead, who has attained age 65 and meets the household income limitations. The bills also modify the current local option low-income senior property tax exemption to increase the just value requirement from $250,000 to $300,000. (Hughes)

HJR 973 (Borrero) and SJR 1278 (Diaz) propose amendments to the Florida Constitution to authorize the legislature to prohibit increases in the assessed value of homestead property owned by low-income seniors. (Hughes)

HB 283 (Duran) and SB 460 (Rodriguez) provide for an exception from assessment of homestead property at just value upon transfer of property if the property is transferred to a child or a grandchild of the deceased owner. (Hughes)

SB 1890 (Hutson) revises the types of lessees whose purpose and functions are deemed to be governmental, municipal or public purpose in determining the exemption from as valorem taxes for certain real property. These changes are intended to clarify existing law. (Hughes)

SB 1264 (Brandes) and CS/HB 1503 (Fischer) provide for the periodic increase in the additional property tax exemption on a homestead property if SJR 1266 or a similar constitutional amendment is approved by the voters at the 2022 general election. The bills would provide for recalculations of the additional homestead every five years and indexes the exemption amount to the House Price Index for Florida. (Hughes)

SJR 1266 (Brandes) and CS/HJR 923 (Fischer) propose an amendment to the Florida Constitution to provide for the periodic increase of the twenty-five thousand dollar exemption on a homestead property's assessed value that is greater than fifty thousand dollars. (Hughes)

HB 717 (Tomkow) and SB 1186 (Albritton) prohibit the denial or revocations of a property's agricultural classification due solely to the conduct of agritourism or the construction of a nonresidential structure on a bona fide farm that is used to conduct agritourism activities. The nonresidential structures and other improvements to the land must be assessed at their just value and added to the agriculturally assessed value of the land. (Hughes)