[Tchrep]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

No, your taxes don't get raised "indiscriminately." There's a thing called Homesteading.

Basically here's how it works:

You buy a home, you get assessed, the tax is $xxxxxx/year.

BUT - you apply for homesteading by the deadline. That means you are using that specific home as your primary residence for a minimum of 6 months and 1 day every year.

When you do that, you get a DISCOUNTED property tax.

So it's not that non-homesteaders pay more, it's rather that homesteaders pay less. It's a matter of perspective.

This is part of how Florida can get by without income tax. The property taxes for the state are somewhat high, UNLESS you live in the state most of the year.

There are also rules about owning multiple properties in Florida that affect homesteading. You'd have to look that up though, I only know the rules exist, and don't know what the rules are.

Thank you very much for your reply It has cleared up my misunderstanding.

[petiteone]

Originally Posted by Tim C.

I would do anything I could do avoid paying taxes to the Empire State just on principle alone

I love NY and have lived here for the last 55 years after med school. We get a lot for our tax money. We spend a beautiful 6 months in our NY home and 6 months avoiding the snow in our lovely Villages home. One problem with FL is that I have never found an MD in Florida that could compare to the MDs/hospitals/health insurance in NY. When I was practicing, MDs that got kicked out of NY ran to Florida to practice. I think the large FL hospitals are coming of age and I trust Shands (and associated Villages/Leesburg hospitals) and other large city hospitals more every year.