So if I own a million dollar home here and a condo in Key West and several yachts and travel half of the year I would pay almost nothing in taxes to Florida. Consumption taxes hit the lower income earners and benefit the higher income earners.

It is the opposite of a progressive tax system which we have had for a hundred years where we as a society recognize that the wealthy should bear a greater burden of the operation of government. It is a very old truth, the obligation of the wealthy.

Of course rich people and their bought representatives in the legislature have little interest in how burdened the poor might be. They just need to find their bootstraps and wait for the trickle down which is coming from all those tax cuts for the rich.

If rich people have bought the representatives, they aren’t getting their money’s worth!

In 2020, the top 1 percent of income earners earned 22 percent of all income and paid 42 percent of all federal income taxes – more than the bottom 90 percent combined (37 percent).

Gee, I wonder if there was anything special about 2020 that would have you pick that year.. oh yes the pandemic and the tax credits. Now try a more honest statistic. Federal income taxes are only 25% of the total tax burden. The other 75% are state and local taxes including sales taxes, and Soc Sec and Medicare taxes.

Come back and tell me what the relative tax burden is when you look at the entire tax payment picture. And you do realize this proposal is just Florida making looking at the Federal income tax fairly meaningless. This proposal would increase the tax burden on the poor if it is revenue neutral.

One way or another you are going to pay taxes. The State does not operate on Fairy Dust (unless you live in Disney). A consumption tax is a really bad idea. It will continue to creep up and up. With property tax at least you know what you are going to pay for that year!

We would lose all our property tax exemptions and hurt the poor and disadvantaged. Keep well enough alone.

A study on this would be good. One of the reasons Florida has no income tax is because it collects enough from the tourists. A consumption tax would also collect from the tourists. Let's do the analysis and see what it shows.

For me, with a 5% consumption tax I would come close to paying the same amount as my property taxes. I certainly don't want to see sales tax increase to 12% but I don't think it would need to. If it increased by only 2% (9% total tax) I could live with that and save money too.

Snowbirds would win since they would no longer pay property tax but also would not pay the consumption tax for the six months they are gone.

Renters *might* break even. They would have to pay the increased consumption tax but the savings in property tax might result in lower rents or at least lower increases in rents.

Tourists would end up paying more.

Business property could go either way. Would a business pay as much in additional sales tax as they would save in property tax? That is something the study would show.

There is no proposal to implement anything yet, just to conduct a study to determine what the impact would be. It will be an interesting study to read.

If you have money to spend your annual taxes will be higher for sure, one new mid-range car purchase should just about cover your savings in property taxes. Add up what you spend a year and you will be surprised at what it is going to cost to do something like this.

Ultra high taxes
 

Yes, Florida is quickly becoming the unaffordable state. The “No Income Tax” facade is quickly collapsing as homeowners find themselves paying 10-12 thousand a year in taxes and bond if they buy in the Villages.

Then pile on 800-1000 every six months for auto insurance and 1500-2000 for homeowners and it can be a very pricey place to live.