Senate Passes Tax Bill and how does a property tax write off provision affect Florida?

Tavares, FL            Dec. 2, 2017

Whoopee - the Senate just approved a tax bill, so it will be merged with the House version and sent to Trump to approve before Christmas! One condition added back by Senator Susan Collins was to still allow deductions of up to $10,000 in property taxes from Federal Income Tax returns. If it makes it to the final bill, that benefits states that have HIGH property tax rates. So I looked up how Florida compares to other states in average property taxes, and we are middle of the pack. Many northern states and Texas are double Florida's average property tax rate, so their residents get taxed higher, but will get more tax write-offs.

 

But this also means Florida residents will still get to deduct the first $10,000 of their property taxes from their Federal Tax Return.  Since Florida's tax rate is half of New Jersey, etc. it means to reach that $10,000, people with more expensive homes will get a bigger write off as a percent of home value.

 

By that, I mean that if a New Jersey home owner pays 2% on a home, that means their $10,000 maximum deduction will be reached at a valuation of $500,000. But since Florida's average rate is about 1%, their $10,000 deduction will cover a million dollar home.  Thus the deduction benefits wealthier families in Florida

 

However, if both state residents have $500,000 homes, the New Jersey resident gets the full $10,000 Federal tax deduction while the Florida resident only gets a $250,000 deduction (but they paid less in taxes). 

 

Here is the chart.

 

Here is an AP article on the Senate passing the tax bill, and below is the excerpt about the property tax write off provision (which could be changed by the time it reaches Trump for approval).

 

"People would be allowed to deduct up to $10,000 in property taxes, a demand of Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. That matched a House provision to keep some GOP votes from high-tax states like New York, New Jersey and California."

Vance Jochim

FiscalRangers.com