FL H0049

Creates section 196.2003 to allow property owners whose residential dwellings were damaged or destroyed by a natural disaster in 2016 to receive an abatement of taxes initially levied in 2018.

Property owners must file applications with the property appraiser no later than March 1, 2018, identifying the damaged property, the specific disaster, damage date, and number of months the property was uninhabitable.

Property appraiser must investigate applications and issue a written statement to the tax collector by April 1, 2018, containing the pre-disaster just value, post-disaster just value, percent change in value, and months uninhabitable.

Tax collector calculates a "disaster relief credit" by multiplying the damage differential by timely paid taxes initially levied in the disaster year, then reduces 2018 taxes by this amount with any excess carried forward to subsequent years.

Tax collector must notify the Department of Revenue and affected local governments by May 1, 2018, of all tax reductions; uninhabitable residential improvements receive zero value; provision applies retroactively to January 1, 2016, and expires January 1, 2020.