Small Tax Break for Commercial Owners
This week Florida lawmakers agreed upon a revision to our current tax structure which you may have been following. While it makes most of the provisions for homesteaded properties and focuses on “Portability” of the exemptions for these properties, the commercial market got a small bit of good news.Â
Under the new law, properties recognized as non-homestead and income producing will have an annual cap of 10% on the increase in taxable value of their property. This will go into effect on the 2009 year tax roll, using 2008 as the baseline year to put the 10% cap into effect. So if your property has an assessed value of $1,000,000 in the 2008 year tax roll, then in 2009 the value can not increase above $1,100,000 and your taxes can not increase above 10% accordingly. This provision will be in effect for 10 years and then the voters will be responsible for keeping going after that time.
 These changes will go to a final vote in January at which time many are expecting the changes to the law to pass with flying colors. We will continue to keep you up to date with legislation changes for tax and insurance problems that affect commercial property owners in Florida.
Peter J. Barnett, CCIM
