BILL SUMMARY DETAILS

CS/HB 1139 (Smith) and CS/SB 1520 (Boyd) provide that a utility easement is an interest in real property and subject to certain actions unless otherwise provided in the instrument creating the easement. These bills revise rights that are not affected or extinguished by marketable record titles and require persons with certain interests in land that may be extinguished by this act to file a specified notice to preserve their interests. (Cruz)

HB 255 (Geller) and SB 1338 (Torres, Jr.) – Legislation by Initiative

HB 6021 (Eskamani) and SB 1020 (Torres) – Rent Control Measures

HB 499 (Benjamin) and SB 576 (Jones) –  Prohibited Landlord Practices

SB 1068 (Taddeo) and SB 567 (Bartleman) – Local Housing Assistance Plans

HB 1543 (Koster) and SB 1150 (Harrell) – Low-income Home Accessibility Program

HB 1469 (Smith) and SB 2002 (Taddeo) –  Florida Commercial Rent Stabilization Fund

HB 13 (Killebrew) and SB 510 (Hooper) specify that funds deposited in the State Housing Trust Fund and the Local Government Housing Trust Fund may not be transferred or used for any other purpose. (Taggart)

HB 81 (Casello) and SB 224 (Berman) – Sales and Use Tax Exemption

SB 302 (Taddeo) and HB 637 (Tant)  – Small Business Saturday Sales Tax Holiday

SB 598 (Perry) – Back-to-school Sales Tax Holiday

HJR 85 (Rizzo) and SJR 156 (Diaz) – Joint Resolution: Homestead Assessment Limitation for School Levies

HB 87 (Rizzo) and SJR 158 (Diaz) – Homestead Assessment Limitation for School Levies

CS/HB 597 (Woodson) and SB 1256 (Polsky) – Homestead Exemption for Seniors 65 and Older

SB 734 (Gruters) – Sales Tax Holiday for Disaster Preparedness Supplies 

HB 749 (Mooney) – Small County Discretionary Sales Surtaxes

HB 1125 (Fischer) and CS/CS/SB 1390 (Gruters) – Capital Investment Tax Credit

CS/CS/CS/HB 1209 (Fetterhoff) and CS/SB 1408 (Burgess) – Department of Financial Services

CS/CS/HB 1429 (Avila) and SB 2008 (Diaz) – Tourist and Convention Development Taxes

HB 6047 (Altman) and SB 842 (Baxley) – Aircraft Sales and Lease Tax

SB 58 (Rodriquez) – Hospitals' Community Benefit Reporting

SB 806 (Book) – Tax Exemption for Diapers and Incontinence Products

SB 986 (Hutson) – Tax Exemption for Disabled Veterans

CS/SB 1254 (Bean) and HB 1519 (Duggan) – Ad Valorem Assessments

CS/HB 649 (Fernandez-Barquin) and SB 996 (Garcia) – Petition for Objection to Assessment

HB 5001 (Appropriations) and SB 2500 (Appropriations) – General Appropriations Act

HB 5003 (Appropriations) and SB 2502 (Appropriations) – Implementing the 2021-2022 GAA

HB 1007 (Killebrew) and CS/SB 1358 (Gruters) revise the method of determining the value of timeshare property by the county property appraiser. The bills require the county property appraiser to defer to the taxpayer for the determination of whether the number of resales is adequate. CS/SB 1358 died in committee. (Hughes)

CS/SB 506 (Garcia) and CS/HB 195 (Persons-Mulicka) require new reporting requirements for nongovernmental entities that receive a least 50 percent of their revenue from a governmental entity or expend at least $750,000 of government funds in any fiscal year. The bill provides that, before receiving funds from a governmental entity, a nongovernmental entity that received state funds in the previous year must submit to the governmental entity an attestation verifying that the nongovernmental entity has submitted the required report. Beginning January 15, 2022, a governmental entity may not expend, transfer or distribute funds to a nongovernmental entity until the nongovernmental entity has complied with the reporting and posting requirements. (Hughes)

SB 516 (Rodriguez) and HB 927 (Tuck) specific 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)

PCB WMC 21-01 (Ways and Means) is the House tax package for the 2021 Session. The bill includes three sales tax holidays. The bill expands the current property tax discount from 50% to 100% for certain multifamily projects that provide affordable housing for low-income families. Other property tax changes in the bill include clarifying the application of an exemption from ad valorem taxation for portions of property used for charitable, religious, scientific or literary purposes; requiring the tax collector to accept late payments on the first installment of prepaid property taxes; and exempting structures and equipment used in the production of aquaculture products from separate ad valorem assessment. The bill also allows that tourist development and convention development taxes can be used for flood mitigation projects at the discretion of local government and requires that all new or increased tourist development and convention development taxes must be approved by voters at a referendum. The bill also makes a number of updates related to tax administration, provides that certain modifications to documents to update an interest rate are not subject to the documentary stamp tax; and repeals the Sports Development Program. The total state and local government negative fiscal impact of the bill in fiscal year 2021-22 is $100 million, with a recurring negative impact of $50 million. (Hughes)

CS/HB 1241 (Stevenson) and SB 7068 (Finance and Tax) make various updates to the statutes administering numerous taxes. Of note, the bills require, rather than authorize, tax collectors to accept late payments of prepaid property taxes through July 31 and deletes a late payment penalty. (Hughes)

HB 1037 (Roth) and SB 1210 (Baxley) authorize property owners of assessed property who have not filed personal property tax returns to qualify for tax exemption without filing an initial return. (Hughes)

CS/CS/SB 50 (Gruters) and CS/CS/HB 15 (Clemons) require retailers with no physical presence in Florida to collect Florida's sales tax on sales of taxable items delivered to purchasers in Florida if the retailer makes a substantial number of sales into Florida or provides for the taxation of sales facilitated through a marketplace provider. The bills also delete a provision that exempts an out-of-state dealer that makes retail sales into Florida from collecting and remitting any local option surtax. The bills temporarily divert the increased collections in sales tax, due to this bill, to the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund until it is replenished to pre-pandemic levels. The bills were amended to reduce the business rent tax from 5.5% to 2% once the Trust Fund reaches its pre-pandemic balance. CS/CS/HB 15 was substituted for CS/CS/SB 50. CS/CS/SB 50 passed the House (93-24) and the Senate (27-12) and is awaiting action by the governor. (Hughes)

SB 132 (Hutson) allows the rental of a portion of a dwelling, claimed to be a homestead for tax purposes, while the dwelling is physically occupied by the owner does not constitute the abandonment of the dwelling as a homestead. (Hughes)

CS/SB 1330 (Rodriguez) and CS/HB 571 (Smith, D.) expand the current exemption from ad valorem taxes for property used for nonprofit homes for the aged. (Hughes)

SB 674 (Rodriguez) and HB 563 (Rodriguez) authorize counties and municipalities to adopt ordinances to grant ad valorem tax exemptions to property owners whose properties are used for the government or affordable housing. The property owner must have taken affirmative steps to prepare the property to provide affordable housing to persons or families that meet specified income limits to qualify for the affordable housing exemption. For the governmental exemption, a governmental or public purpose is served if a person provides a service that the state, any of its political subdivisions or any municipality, agency, special district, authority or other public body corporate of the state could properly perform or serve and if the governmental or public purpose would otherwise be a valid purpose for the allocation of public funds. (Hughes)

CS/SB 1214 (Gruters) and CS/CS/HB 889 (Borrero) specify the conditions for retaining the ad valorem exemption of an exempt property. The bills require that revenue derived from the incidental use of the property must support the charitable, religious, scientific or literacy purpose that the property is used for. (Hughes)

SB 154 (Diaz) amends multiple provisions related to local government financial transparency. The bill expands public notice and public hearing requirements for local option tax increases, other than property taxes and taxes adopted by referendum and new long-term tax-supported debt issuances. Each local government is required to prominently post on its website the voting records on any action taken by its governing board related to tax increases and new tax-supported debt issuances. The bill imposes requirements on county property appraisers and local governments relating to Truth in Millage (TRIM) notices, millage rate history and the amount of tax levied by each taxing authority on each parcel.

Additionally, local governments will be required to conduct a debt affordability analysis prior to approving the issuance of new long-term tax-supported debt. The bill requires the local government annual audit reports to include information regarding compliance with the requirements of this newly created section of law. Failure to comply would result in the withholding of state-shared revenues. The bill revises the local government reporting requirements for economic development incentives. It requires each municipality to report to the Office of Economic and Demographic Research whether the incentive is provided directly to an individual business or by another entity on behalf of the local government and the source of dollars obligated for the incentive (including local, state and federal). (Hughes)

SB 1702 (Hutson) and HB 1555 (Harding) revise the types of lessees whose purposes and functions are deemed to be governmental, municipal, or public purposes. (Hughes)

CS/CS/SB 1186 (Brandes) and CS/CS/HB 1379 (Chaney) implement SJR 1182 or HJR 1377 if approved by 60% of voters at the next general election. The bills specify that changes to elevate certain homestead and non-homestead residential property do not increase the assessed value of the property under specific circumstances. The bills require the property owners to provide certification. (Hughes)

SJR 1182 (Brandes) and HJR 1377 (Chaney) propose an amendment to the Florida Constitution to authorize the Legislature to prohibit the consideration of improvements made to residential real property to improve the property's resistance to flood damage when determining assessed value of the property for the purposes of ad valorem taxation. (Hughes)