Voting Yes on Amendment 4 Will Impact Your Property Taxes in Florida

Your vote matters this November.  Not only will you be voting to decide the next president of the United States, but you’ll be voting to decide issues that directly affect your pocketbook.  One such issue is Florida’s Amendment 4.

By voting yes on Amendment 4, you will see a change in how property tax is assessed. Under the current law, your property taxes can go up even if the value of your property goes down.  This is called recapture and it is a tax trap Amendment 4 would eliminate.

Homeowners

Florida homeowners have their property’s value reassessed every year and, as a consequence, homeowners have seen their taxes go up as much as three percent annually even if the millage rate has remained the same.

As the law is now, your taxes can go up even if your property’s value has gone down.  Voting yes on Amendment 4 would eliminate recapture for homeowners.

Renters

Landlords pass their property taxes on to their tenants.  This directly affects renters as well as small businesses.

Under the current law, non-homestead property values can go up by as much as 10 percent.  Voting yes on Amendment 4 would lower the cap from 10 percent to five percent and would result in lower taxes over time.

Down the Road

Currently, first-time homebuyers find themselves faced with high taxes.  Voting yes on Amendment 4 would help first-time homebuyers by offering them some tax relief.

Amendment 4 would mean a homebuyer who has never had a homestead exemption or claimed an exemption in the last three years would be able to receive an additional homestead exemption.  This exemption would be half the home’s value up to $150,000 or half the median home price in the county the homebuyer lives. The property tax exemption could remain in place for up to five years after the purchase.

Need another reason to vote yes?  According to a Taxwatch study, a yes vote on Amendment 4 will do more than lower your property tax.  It will mean 315,000 home sales that otherwise would not have occurred, an additional $5.3 billion added to the income of residents and 20,000 new jobs created.