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Property Taxes

Posted by Franziska Smith on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 9:06am.

Lee County:

(Bonita Springs, Estero Fort Myers area and the Beach, Cape Coral, Lehigh Acres, Sanibel Island and Captiva Island)

 

 How does Lee County determine what you will pay in taxes?

  1. The sales price of an individual property does not directly affect the assessed value used to calculate taxes. Rather, the sales of like properties throughout the year as well as other statistical and valuation methods are used to create the assessed value. As long as the Estimated Sales Price entered is a reflection of the market, the assessed value used in the calculation will be a reasonable estimate for this purpose.
  2. Likewise, if the Estimated Sales Price is significantly lower or higher than what other similar properties have sold for the results of the calculation will not be a reasonable estimate.
  3. Typically, real estate transactions include costs such as real estate agent fees. When sales are used as part of determining assessed values an adjustment is made for those fees. For this Estimator we used 90% of the entered sales price to establish an assessed value. Your actual assessed value to sales price ratio may be higher or lower than this amount.
  4. The actual tax rate used to calculate property taxes is set every year by the various taxing authorities in Lee County. Historically tax rates have fluctuated within a fairly narrow range. For the purposes of this Estimator we use the tax rate from the immediately previous tax year. The actual tax rate may differ based on the decisions made by those taxing authorities.

 above information was provided by the Lee County Property Appraisers website. www.Leepa.org

 

How do you know what you will pay in taxes?

This amount varies from district to district. The general rule of thumb is that you can expect to pay between 1.5 and 2.0 of your sales price towards property taxes. If you are buying in a community that has a CDD (community development district) assessment or an assessment for road, water, sewer or drainage improvements they will be added to your tax bill as well.  

 The Lee County Property Appraisers website has a great tool for estimating taxes called "New Tax Estimator". It estimates your taxes for a specific property. If you are interested in a property and want to get an idea of what the taxes would be once you purchase just follow these steps:

 

  1.  Log on to www.Leepa.org
  2.  Look on the left side bar (towards bottom of page) until you see PROPERTY DATA SEARCH -click
  3. Click "I agree" and then click on REAL PROPERTY SEARCH
  4. You can enter either the strap number, owners name or address - most people use address and you will not need a zip code. I would also leave out road, drive, lane etc. as they use abbreviations and it may not match what you put in. 
  5. It should give you a landing page with a link to the detailed information by clicking on the strap number (property id number ) 
  6. This page is the property appraisers detail page. Lots of good information here for you to look at - but for the tax estimator click on TAX ESTIMATOR link. This will give you the disclaimer I have posted above. 
  7. Click on "OK" and you are finally here! Put in the amount you think you would pay for the property and hit calculate.
This will give you an estimated value, current mileage rate and estimated taxes with and without homestead exemption. 
  

 Collier County: 

(Naples, Marco Island, Golden Gate Estate, Golden Gate City)

General Tax Information: 

 How much can my taxes go up?

If this will be your primary residence you can apply for homestead exemption. As of January 1, 2008 the homestead exemption is now $50,000.00. Your assessed value has to be over $50,000 for this to apply. You will not receive an exemption for more than your assessed value. 

If you have homestead status on your property (this is your primary residence) than your tax assessed value cannot go up more than 3% per year (or by the consumer price index - whichever is less). So even though your "market" value may go up over time, you "tax" assessed value cannot go up more than either 3% or the CPI. 

Second homes:  

Second home owners now have a 10% yearly assessment cap on qualified properties. This new amendment applies to all taxing levies except for school districts. 

 

Portability of Save our Homes:

In the past, if you had homestead on a Florida property and you moved to a different home, you would lose your Save our Homes benefit and would have to start all over on your new home. That has been changed so you can now "port" over  some or all of your benefit.  (CLICK FOR LEE COUNTY APPRAISER SITE)

Homestead Exemption:

 As mentioned above you can now apply for up to $50,000 in homestead exemptions. To qualify you must be a permanent resident of the state of Florida as of January 1 of the year you apply for the exemption. If you or a spouse has a residence exemption in another state you cannot also claim homestead in Florida. 

 The following items are required as proof of legal residence:

 

  1.  Evidence of ownership
  2.  Social Security numbers for all owners
  3. Florida voter registration (for local county) prior to Jan 1
  4. Florida Drivers License prior to Jan 1
  5. Florida vehicle registration prior to Jan 1
  6. You must have taken legal and equitable title to the property and have resided in it prior to Jan 1 

Other exemptions:

Senior exemption:

Lee County information: 

Collier County Information:

Franziska Smith

Broker/Owner

Coastal Elite Properties

Specializing in SW Florida Real Estate - Naples - Bonita Springs, Fort Myers

I help clients avoid costly mistakes when buying or selling real estate.  

 

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