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Host highlights how homestead rules can yield large differences in Indian Harbour Beach tax bills
Summary
Using household examples, John W. Coffee explained how Florida's Save Our Homes cap and homestead exemptions can produce wide disparities in city tax bills for properties of similar market value.
John W. Coffee illustrated how Florida's homestead rules and the Save Our Homes cap can lead to sharply different city tax bills for similar houses. He gave three on-air examples to show the effect of assessment and homestead timing on taxes.
"We all know save our homes has a cap on the annual growth of taxable valuation," Coffee said, then offered household examples: a long-term homeowner with a taxable value of about $526,000 paying $459 in city taxes; a homeowner who homesteaded three years ago on the same value paying about $2,400; and an out-of-state owner of a rental property paying about $2,900. Coffee pointed out that all three homes require the same streets and emergency services, yet their city tax bills can differ widely because of the homestead and assessment rules.
He said when a city's tax 'pie' is not growing, these disparities mean either services must decline, discretionary revenue sources must grow, or property taxes must slowly increase to meet service demands.
