(or "Save Our Homes")
Approved by a majority of Florida voters in 1992, Amendment 10 (also known as Save Our Homes) caps the annual increase in assessed values on homestead exempt properties at a maximum of 3% or less if the C.P.I. drops below that threshold. F.S.193.155 was enacted to implement Amendment 10.
The base year for capping is set at the assessed value for the year when homestead exemption was first filed. For example, if you purchased property in 2008 and filed for homestead exemption for the 2008 tax roll, your base year value for Amendment 10 is the 2009 value and your cap begins in 2010.
Exceptions to the limitation include additions or new construction. Partial commercial-use properties and multiple dwellings or multiple-owner properties may also not be eligible for the full Amendment 10 "cap."
Once the property is sold, the cap is removed and the assessment subject to taxation reverts to the just value at that time. However, since the passage of portability in 2008, eligible property owners may be entitled to take up to $500,000 of their caps with them to their new homes.
What does that mean? One direct result of Amendment 10's capping in the burgeoning marketplace of the late 1990's and early-to-mid 2000's was that taxable values for homesteaded properties might have been very different from those of neighboring properties homesteaded in a prior or subsequent year. As market activity continued, this situation became more and more apparent.
Now that the market has gone down, why aren’t the Amendment 10 values going down, too? According to the “recapture” provision in Florida Administrative Code Chapter 12D-8.0062(5),”where the current year just value of an individual property exceeds the prior year assessed value, the property appraiser is required to increase the prior year's assessed value by the lower of: (a) Three percent; or (b) The percentage change in the Consumer Price Index (C.P.I.).” As a result, so long as the market value for the property exceeds the assessed value, the Property Appraiser must increase the assessed value by the lower of either 3% or the C.P.I. (The assessed value shall never exceed the market value.)
Assessed value cannot gain in value more than 3% a year. This does not mean that taxes cannot go higher than 3%, however. The various taxing authorities may propose taxing rates that cause the increase in taxes to be higher than 3%. Millage rates are determined by the levying authorities and are not a part of the Amendment 10 provision.