Proposed Committee Bill WMC 20-01 – Relating to Taxation

On Wednesday, February 19, PCB WMC 20-01, sponsored and heard by the House Ways & Means Committee, was reported favorable with 12 yeas and 4 nays. AIF’s Senior Vice President of State and Federal Affairs, Brewster Bevis, stood in support of this legislation and stood in opposition to Amendment 60000.

The bill provides for several tax reductions and other tax-related modifications designed to directly impact both families and businesses. Specifically, the bill provides for a 0.5 percentage point reduction in the state communications services tax. Several provisions related to sales tax are included:

• A reduction in the tax rate for commercial property rentals from 5.5% to 5.4%;
• A three-day “back-to-school” tax holiday for certain clothing, school supplies, and personal computers; and a seven-day “disaster preparedness” tax holiday in May and June of 2020 for specified disaster preparedness items;
• A requirement that School Capital Outlay sales surtaxes approved in the future be proportionately shared with charter schools;
• A change in distributions made under the Tax Collection Enforcement Diversion Program; and
• Future sunset of the Charter County and Regional Transportation System Sales Surtax currently levied in Miami-Dade County, and a requirement that any future levy of the tax in any eligible county be limited to 20 years in duration.
  
  

The bill also provides for a one-time increase of $8.2 million available for the brownfields tax credit program and includes a provision that amends the calculation of a taxpayer’s “final tax liability” for purposes of calculating certain corporate income tax refunds.

AIF supports legislative actions that reduce taxes on businesses which allows further growth and employment opportunities.

 

Proposed Committee Bill WMC 20-02 – Relating to Adoption of the Internal Revenue Code for Purposes of the Corporate Income Tax

On Wednesday, February 19, PCB WMC 20-02, sponsored and heard by the House Ways & Means Committee, was reported favorable with 15 yeas and 0 nays. AIF’s Senior Vice President of State and Federal Affairs, Brewster Bevis, stood in support of this legislation.

Florida imposes a 5.5% tax on certain income of corporations doing business in Florida. Florida uses federal taxable income from federal tax returns as a beginning point to calculate corporate income tax owed to Florida. Florida updates its utilization of the Federal Internal Revenue Code (IRC) by adopting the code as it exists on January 1 in any given year. Adopting the code on an annual basis ensures the Florida tax code reflects any relevant changes to the IRC that were made during the prior year.

The bill adopts the IRC as of January 1, 2020, applicable retroactively to January 1, 2020.

AIF supports a reduced corporate income tax on businesses to encourage corporate growth and the expansion of employment opportunities in Florida.