The Florida State Capitol buildings (Old Capitol in foreground) in Tallahassee, Florida.
The Florida State Capitol buildings (Old Capitol in foreground) in Tallahassee, Florida.
(The Center Square) – As inflation continues to cause consumer prices to skyrocket, the Florida legislature passed a series of long- and short- term sales tax relief measures that are designed to help.
As well as passing the state’s $112.1 billion budget, the Senate passed HB 7071 Monday, which would deliver $658 million in broad-based tax savings to families statewide.
“Florida cannot independently fix or outrun all of the problems leading to the cost increases that are wreaking havoc on families, especially our most vulnerable,” Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, said. “However, we are working to ease the pain with broad-based sales tax relief and a month-long gas tax holiday. This bill supports growing families, Floridians looking to prepare their homes for severe weather, and the blue-collar working men and women of our state who are trying their best to get by amid record-high gas prices and inflation that many of us have not seen in our lifetime.”
The bill includes several sales tax holidays and a range of tax cuts.
As gas prices began their steady rise last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis called on the legislature to reduce the gas tax. It did do by creating a new gas tax holiday for the month of October that would reduce the tax on motor fuel by $0.25 a gallon.
The legislature also voted to create a new seven-day Skilled Worker Tools Sales Tax Holiday from Sept. 3-9 designed to help skilled trade workers. Tax-free items include certain hand and power tools, work boots, safety equipment, shop lights, toolboxes and belts, plumbing and electrical equipment, and industry textbooks and codebooks.
The legislature also expanded several existing sales tax holidays.
The Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday will now be 14 days long, from July 25 to Aug. 7. Purchases of clothing, footwear and backpacks costing $100 or less, school supplies and learning aids costing $50 or less, and personal computers or computer-related accessories, including non-recreational software costing $1,500 or less, will be tax free.
The legislature also expanded the Freedom Week Sales Tax Holiday.
“Tickets, memberships and passes, purchased during the Freedom Week Sales Tax Holiday for use from July 1 – December 31, 2022, are tax free,” according to the bill. This includes purchases to attend music, sporting, and cultural events; tickets to movies and museums; single admission or season tickets to theater and dance performances; state park admission and annual passes; and use of fitness facilities. Tax free purchases will also include boating and water activity supplies, camping supplies, fishing supplies, general outdoor supplies, and sports equipment.
To prepare for the upcoming hurricane season, the legislature expanded the Disaster Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday for 14 days between May 28 and June 10. Tax free items include flashlights and lanterns costing $40 or less; radios costing $50 or less; tarps costing $100 or less; coolers costing $60 or less; batteries costing $50 or less; smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, and carbon monoxide detectors costing $70 or less; generators costing $1,000 or less; and some items needed to safely evacuate household pets.
Storm preparedness and energy conservation efforts saw other types of tax relief as well.
The bill would create a two-year sales tax exemption from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2024, on the retail sales of impact-resistant windows, doors and garage doors. The purchase of such items can help reduce the damage caused by hurricanes.
It also would create a one-year sales tax exemption – from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023 – on the retail sale of certain ENERGY STAR appliances including refrigerator/freezer units selling for $3,000 or less, and water heaters, washers or dryers selling for $1,500 or less.
The bill creates new sales tax exemptions related to retail purchases for babies, toddlers and children.
The bill, if signed, would create a one-year sales tax exemption from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023, on the retail sale of baby and toddler clothing and shoes primarily for children under age 5. It’s expected to help those caring for Florida’s more than one million children under age five, and nearly 600 babies born daily.
The bill also would create a one-year sales tax exemption from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023, on the retail sale of children’s diapers, including single-use diapers, reusable diapers and reusable diaper inserts.
It also would create a three-month sales tax exemption, from May 14 to August 14, on the retail sale of all children’s books to encourage summer reading.
The bill provides a series of tax relief measures for homeowners.
It permanently cuts in half the state sales tax on new mobile homes from 6% to 3%. It also creates a permanent sales tax exemption for fencing materials used to replace, repair or build farm fences on agricultural land, and exempts all trailers used for agricultural and farm work from sales tax.
The legislature also created new state code to provide tax relief to homeowners affected by a sudden and unforeseen collapse of a residential building. The code requires the tax collector to abate all taxes for destroyed parcels and requires the property appraiser to notify the owners of the abatement.
Another new state code was created to provide for the prorated refund of property taxes on residential properties rendered uninhabitable by a catastrophic event. The bill defines “catastrophic event” as a calamity or misfortune not caused by the property owner. If a residential property is determined to be uninhabitable for 30 days or more, the owner may be refunded a portion of their property taxes for the time the property was uninhabitable.
The bill also increases the property tax exemptions by ten-fold for widows, widowers, the blind and totally and permanently disabled from $500 to $5,000, and expands the number of active deployments that qualify for property tax exemption.