Floridians, our fate is in our hands. Passage of Amendment 1 will return money to homeowners right away and put nearly $10 billion back into Florida’s economy over the next five years.

This tax cut is in addition to the $15 billion property tax cut created during a June special legislative session that rolled back property taxes to 2006 levels.

Amendment 1 benefits those who want to move into a different home, seniors seeking to downsize, and business owners facing rising property values.

Have you been dreaming of moving into a bigger house because your family is growing? Have you lived in your home for years and are looking to buy a smaller home because the kids have grown up and moved to a new city? The scenarios below can help explain how the property tax cut from Amendment 1 will save your money.

Looking for a larger house?

If you bought a house for $95,000 in 1995 and its current market value now is $300,000 and the assessed value is only $150,000-- you could transfer the full $150,000 difference to buy a more expensive home.

If the purchase of your new home costs $400,000, you would be paying about $6,300 in taxes without portability. But with the tax savings from Amendment 1 including the Save our Homes portability and the double homestead exemption, the new annual taxes would be about half or $3,600.

Want to downsize?

Under the new tax plan, portability also will apply if you want to move to a less expensive property. Instead of transferring the difference, your transfer will be your existing Save our Home percentage.

For example, if you live in a $300,000 house with an assessed value of $150,000, you pay taxes on $125,000 or about $2,100. If you wanted to move to a $200,000 condo the savings will be significant.

In this case, you would bring 50% or $100,000 in savings that reduces your assessed value to $100,000 on the new property. With the newly increased $50,000 homestead exemption from Amendment 1, the taxable value for all local government taxes other than school taxes would fall to $50,000. The new total annual tax bill would be about $1,000 or about half of the old tax bill.

Do you live in a mobile home?

More than 1.1 million Floridians currently live in mobile home or manufactured housing parks and communities. Currently, if you live on a leased lot in a park or community, you are paying tangible personal property taxes on your porches, sunrooms, storage rooms, and carports. With the passage of Amendment 1, you will have an exemption up to $25,000…so most of you will no longer pay this tax at all!

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