By ED BRIMNER
Property Appraiser
The Florida Department of Revenue recently announced Wakulla County is receiving $2,006,736 in Fiscally Constrained County funds in 2024. This is a $625,529 increase from the $1,381,207 received in 2023. Why is Wakulla receiving this money from the State of Florida and why did it increase?
The legislature provides citizens and businesses with many tax breaks including Homestead exemption for homeowners and Tangible Personal Property (TPP) tax breaks for businesses. The Wakulla County Property Appraiser constantly searches for people and businesses who can benefit from these breaks to both inform them and assist with the required forms. Legislators recognize these tax breaks might mean small counties are unable to raise enough funds to operate their governments. With this in mind, they passed additional laws to partially compensate “Fiscally Constrained Counties” due to the state-mandated tax breaks. Since Wakulla County is a “Fiscally Constrained County, the State is providing $2,006,736 to partially hold Wakulla County harmless for state-mandated 2023 tax breaks.
One source of increase is business TPP. The first $25,000 of a business’s TPP is tax free. Historically, it appears Wakulla County made little effort to track small businesses whose TPP filing would be less than $25,000. After all, why make small businesses fill out another form that resulted in no taxes and is a bureaucratic waste of time. But is it a waste of time? As it turns out, the State essentially reimburses the lost taxes due to the $25,000 exemption for businesses in Wakulla County. In 2021, I assigned Mr. Chuck Turner the responsibility to locate every business in Wakulla County, no matter how small, and ensure they filed a TPP return as mandated by State law. Since then, hundreds of new TPP accounts have been established that resulted in no new taxes for the business owners while increasing our Fiscally Constrained County distribution from the State. Despite paying no taxes on the first $25,000 of a business’s TPP value, small businesses establishing a TPP account with this office results in large dividends to the county coffers.
As the Wakulla County Property Appraiser, my goal is to provide Honest and Impartial Assessments. This office is responsible for providing assessments for both Real Property and business Tangible Personal Property. We also track all exemptions and annually apply for distribution of fiscally constrained county funds. Accurate tracking of these exemptions results in higher distributions and better funding for our county.
If we can be of assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us at (850) 926-0500 or stop by to meet with a member of our staff. You can also visit our updated website for information associated with your property in Wakulla County at mywakullapa.com.
Ed Brimner is Wakulla County property appraiser.
