Florida voters on Tuesday approved a major overhaul of the state's property tax system. But the droves of billionaires and other ultrawealthy people who recently moved there are unlikely to notice much of a difference from its headline tax break.
Amendment 3—which raises the homestead exemption on non-school property taxes from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and to $250,000 in 2028—passed with 62% of the vote, according to the ***** ociated Press. Supporters pitched Amendment 3 as relief for everyday homeowners, and for many, it is. But because the exemption is a flat dollar amount, it does far less for the billionaires who turned South Florida into one of the country's wealthiest enclaves.
Take Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, who moved his firm from Chicago to Miami, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also moved to Miami in 2023 and has since bought a $237 million compound on Indian Creek, the island nicknamed "Billionaire Bunker." Bezos is also reportedly buying a $69.5 million oceanfront estate in nearby Golden Beach.
Experts told Fortune, though, the bigger factor of Amendment 3 for people like Griffin and Bezos is a less-noticed part: a tighter limit on how fast taxes can rise on second homes, rentals, and other properties that aren't a primary residence. Florida caps how much those properties' taxable values can increase each year, and Amendment 3 cuts that cap from 10% to 5%. In a hot market like South Florida's, that slows tax growth on homes whose values are climbing quickly, and many wealthy buyers own more than one.
But for a billionaire who claims a Florida homestead, the savings from Amendment 3 aren't that noticeable. Raul Gastesi, a real estate attorney and cofounder of Miami law firm Gastesi Lopez Mestre & Cobiella, calculated that at the statewide average non-school tax rate, the expanded exemption will save a homestead owner about $2,085 a year once fully in place. A home ***** sed at $350,000 would see its local services property tax bill fall from about $3,135 to about $1,050. A $50 million homestead would go from about $524,000 to about $522,000.
#Florida #moved
Amendment 3—which raises the homestead exemption on non-school property taxes from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and to $250,000 in 2028—passed with 62% of the vote, according to the ***** ociated Press. Supporters pitched Amendment 3 as relief for everyday homeowners, and for many, it is. But because the exemption is a flat dollar amount, it does far less for the billionaires who turned South Florida into one of the country's wealthiest enclaves.
Take Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, who moved his firm from Chicago to Miami, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos also moved to Miami in 2023 and has since bought a $237 million compound on Indian Creek, the island nicknamed "Billionaire Bunker." Bezos is also reportedly buying a $69.5 million oceanfront estate in nearby Golden Beach.
Experts told Fortune, though, the bigger factor of Amendment 3 for people like Griffin and Bezos is a less-noticed part: a tighter limit on how fast taxes can rise on second homes, rentals, and other properties that aren't a primary residence. Florida caps how much those properties' taxable values can increase each year, and Amendment 3 cuts that cap from 10% to 5%. In a hot market like South Florida's, that slows tax growth on homes whose values are climbing quickly, and many wealthy buyers own more than one.
But for a billionaire who claims a Florida homestead, the savings from Amendment 3 aren't that noticeable. Raul Gastesi, a real estate attorney and cofounder of Miami law firm Gastesi Lopez Mestre & Cobiella, calculated that at the statewide average non-school tax rate, the expanded exemption will save a homestead owner about $2,085 a year once fully in place. A home ***** sed at $350,000 would see its local services property tax bill fall from about $3,135 to about $1,050. A $50 million homestead would go from about $524,000 to about $522,000.
#Florida #moved
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