FLORIDA SNOWBIRDS SEEING LOWER TAX BILLS

It looks like some of our favorite investors are starting to see lower property tax bills this year. This along with them finding the Panhandle of Florida, lower interest rates, and new insurance carriers entering the Florida market place should make 2009 an interesting year. So keep your eye on the ball and don't forget to get your market update from the "Trust Platinum Blog".


MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. – Jan. 21, 2009 – Florida snowbirds, so long left out in the cold when it comes to lower taxes, may find their property tax bills falling this year – along with real estate market values.“The people with the biggest break this year will be non-homesteaded property owners whose values dropped,” said Dale Friedley, a tax analyst with the Manatee County Property Appraiser’s Office.“In most cases those values are dropping between 8 and 15 percent. If their values went down 10 percent and millage is the same, they’ll save 10 percent, compared to last year’s bill,” Friedley added.About 95 percent of Manatee nonhomesteaders will likely pay less on their tax bills this year, Friedley estimated, assuming that the millage rates stay the same.About 78 percent of homesteaded owners saw actual savings last year on their tax assessments, though maybe not as much as they would have liked.A state rule passed in 1995 requires assessed property values to grow by 3 percent or by the Consumer Price Index, whichever is less, as long as the property’s market value doesn’t dip below the assessed value.That means even homeowners whose property’s market value dropped over the past year might see lower savings or even a slight increase in their taxes, he said, adding that’s especially true for valuable homes.“Generally, if you’re just looking at your tax bill, this will probably be the first good year for snowbirds in awhile,” said Kurt Wenner, director of tax research for Florida TaxWatch, a nonprofit research foundation.“Snowbirds are probably going to see a reduction in their taxes, or at least are not going to grow at the rate they’ve been growing,” he added. “The tax shift occurred over the last 15 years, it might be a little shifted back this year.”“This could be the first year where people under Save Our Homes taxes go up, and people with non-homestead properties go down,” said Wenner.Still, it all depends upon what local government decides when it comes to setting millage rates, Wenner emphasized. The higher the amount of revenue government requires, the more taxpayers can expect to pay, he noted.Voters overwhelmingly approved Amendment 1 last year. It effectively doubled the homestead exemption on nonschool taxes for primary homeowners to $50,000; made the Save Our Homes tax protection more portable; and created a $25,000 tax break on tangible personal property for businesses. Amendment 1 also placed a 10 percent cap on yearly increases in assessments for nonhomesteaded properties, saving snowbirds from the astronomical tax increases they’d seen in years past.However, the 10 percent cap this year may seem irrelevant to snowbirds, since values for most of them are dropping.Copyright © 2009 The Bradenton Herald, Fla., Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services