Buyer's guides / Taxes
Your Florida property tax will change when you buy: Save Our Homes, homestead and portability
One of the most common Florida surprises is the first tax bill after a purchase. The listing shows the seller's taxes, but the seller may have owned the home for years under a cap that ends when they sell. Here's how to estimate your bill instead.
Three values on every record
- Just value: the property appraiser's estimate of market value as of January 1.
- Assessed value: just value minus any cap differential. For a long-held homestead, this can be far below just value.
- Taxable value: assessed value minus exemptions, such as the homestead exemption. Your tax bill is the taxable value times the local millage rates.
Save Our Homes, and why it resets
For a homesteaded home, Florida's Save Our Homes cap limits the yearly increase in assessed value to 3% or the change in the consumer price index, whichever is lower. Over 10 or 20 years, that gap between just value and assessed value can grow large. When the home sells, the cap goes away: the assessed value resets to just value as of the next January 1. Your bill is calculated on that new value, not the seller's.
Non-homestead property, such as a rental or second home, has a separate 10% cap on yearly assessment increases for non-school taxes, and it also resets after a sale.
Estimate your first bill
- Start from the just value on the property appraiser's record (or your purchase price, if it's notably higher).
- Subtract the homestead exemption if it will be your primary residence: up to $50,000, with the second $25,000 not applying to school taxes.
- Multiply by the total millage rate for that address, which the tax collector or property appraiser publishes.
- Add non-ad valorem assessments, such as solid waste or stormwater fees, which appear on the tax bill as flat charges.
Many county property appraisers offer an online tax estimator for new buyers that does this math for you.
Apply for homestead by March 1
If the home is your permanent residence on January 1, apply for the homestead exemption with the county property appraiser by March 1 of that year. Missing the deadline usually means waiting a year.
Bring your savings with you: portability
If you're moving from another Florida homestead, you may be able to transfer, or "port", your Save Our Homes benefit, the difference between just value and assessed value on your old home, up to $500,000. You must establish homestead on the new home within three tax years of giving up the old one, and file the portability application with your homestead application. Ask the property appraiser in the county you're moving to.
Rates, exemptions and deadlines are set by law and by local governments and can change. Confirm with your county property appraiser and tax collector.