The hurricane sales-tax holiday runs from May 31 through June 8, the back-to-school holiday will run from Aug. 1 through Aug. 3, and vehicle registration fees have been scaled back to pre-2009 levels, among other measures Gov. Rick Scott signed into law.
Taxes
Your Amazon Holiday Is Over: Giant Starts Collecting Sales Tax in Florida in 2 Weeks
For Floridians who are supposed to pay the taxes but haven’t, the announcement of Amazon’s entry into the state’s brick-and-mortar retail landscape could mean about $80 million a year in sales taxes, according to one business lobbying group.
More Parents Are Defaulting on College Loans For Their Children, Costing Taxpayers
The Parent Plus program allows parents to take out essentially uncapped amounts to cover college costs, regardless of the borrower’s income or ability to repay the loan. But default rates, while still modest, have nearly tripled over the last four years.
Red-Light Cameras Won’t Be Repealed This Year, But Restrictions on Profits May Yet Pass
Red-light cameras’ powerful lobby defeated Senate Transportation Chairman Jeff Brandes’s attempt to end the use of the devices, but several proposed restrictions are still moving through the Legislature, such as limiting profits to safety uses and requiring safety studies before cameras can be installed.
As March 31 Deadline Nears: Going Without Health Insurance Will Likely Cost You At Tax Time
If you thought you could get health coverage later this year, you may not get that chance until November, which means that you’ll most likely have to pay a penalty of 1 percent of your income at tax time, even if only a single member of your family is not insured. Penalties rise in subsequent years.
Palm Coast’s Red-Light Cameras: How the City Council Locked In a Fraud on Taxpayers Through 2019
Palm Coast’s red-light cameras siphon off more than $2.5 million out of the local economy every year, in the share that goes to the state and to ATS, the company that runs the scheme, yet the city council quietly approved the deal through 2019, long past the terms of every one of the council members and some of their successors.
Florida Lawmakers Reeling Up Billion-Dollar Tax Breaks For Film and TV Industries
Less than a week after a measure was introduced in the House to provide $1 billion in tax credit to film and television production efforts in Florida, the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee released a proposal that offers $300 million in tax credits.
Another Tax Cut for Business: Putnam Proposes Reducing Electricity Sales Levy By Half
By phasing in the reduction from 7 percent to 3.5 percent, the impact to state revenue should be a reduction of about $85 million the first year, and an additional $70 million in each of the two following years. Residential customers would see no tax cut.
In Latest Re-Election Ploy, Scott Proposes 10-Day Sales Tax Holiday, Triple the Usual Length
Scott announced Friday he wants lawmakers to approve a 10-day sales tax holiday in August. The extended tax-free period is the latest of the budget proposals Scott has rolled out in advance of the 2014 legislative session.
Solar Panel Users as Freeloaders: ALEC Network’s State Lobbyists Attack Homeowner and Business Subsidies
According to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative network better known as ALEC, our solar panels make us “free riders.” What? Yes, according to ALEC, an organization that specializes in getting the right-wing agenda written into state laws, people like me who invest in energy-efficiency and shrinking our carbon footprints ought to be penalized, writes Isaiah J. Poole.