Art. VII, § 3, Fla. Const. · Article VII. FINANCE AND TAXATION

Taxes; exemptions.

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As revised in 1968 and subsequently amended (Online Sunshine, retrieved 2026-10-04)

(a) All property owned by a municipality and used exclusively by it for municipal or public purposes shall be exempt from taxation. A municipality, owning property outside the municipality, may be required by general law to make payment to the taxing unit in which the property is located. Such portions of property as are used predominantly for educational, literary, scientific, religious or charitable purposes may be exempted by general law from taxation.

(b) There shall be exempt from taxation, cumulatively, to every head of a family residing in this state, household goods and personal effects to the value fixed by general law, not less than one thousand dollars, and to every widow or widower or person who is blind or totally and permanently disabled, property to the value fixed by general law not less than five hundred dollars.

(c) Any county or municipality may, for the purpose of its respective tax levy and subject to the provisions of this subsection and general law, grant community and economic development ad valorem tax exemptions to new businesses and expansions of existing businesses, as defined by general law. Such an exemption may be granted only by ordinance of the county or municipality, and only after the electors of the county or municipality voting on such question in a referendum authorize the county or municipality to adopt such ordinances. An exemption so granted shall apply to improvements to real property made by or for the use of a new business and improvements to real property related to the expansion of an existing business and shall also apply to tangible personal property of such new business and tangible personal property related to the expansion of an existing business. The amount or limits of the amount of such exemption shall be specified by general law. The period of time for which such exemption may be granted to a new business or expansion of an existing business shall be determined by general law. The authority to grant such exemption shall expire ten years from the date of approval by the electors of the county or municipality, and may be renewable by referendum as provided by general law.

(d) Any county or municipality may, for the purpose of its respective tax levy and subject to the provisions of this subsection and general law, grant historic preservation ad valorem tax exemptions to owners of historic properties. This exemption may be granted only by ordinance of the county or municipality. The amount or limits of the amount of this exemption and the requirements for eligible properties must be specified by general law. The period of time for which this exemption may be granted to a property owner shall be determined by general law.

(e) By general law and subject to conditions specified therein:

(1) Twenty-five thousand dollars of the assessed value of property subject to tangible personal property tax shall be exempt from ad valorem taxation.

(2) The assessed value of solar devices or renewable energy source devices subject to tangible personal property tax may be exempt from ad valorem taxation, subject to limitations provided by general law.

(f) There shall be granted an ad valorem tax exemption for real property dedicated in perpetuity for conservation purposes, including real property encumbered by perpetual conservation easements or by other perpetual conservation protections, as defined by general law.

(g) By general law and subject to the conditions specified therein, each person who receives a homestead exemption as provided in section 6 of this article; who was a member of the United States military or military reserves, the United States Coast Guard or its reserves, or the Florida National Guard; and who was deployed during the preceding calendar year on active duty outside the continental United States, Alaska, or Hawaii in support of military operations designated by the legislature shall receive an additional exemption equal to a percentage of the taxable value of his or her homestead property. The applicable percentage shall be calculated as the number of days during the preceding calendar year the person was deployed on active duty outside the continental United States, Alaska, or Hawaii in support of military operations designated by the legislature divided by the number of days in that year.

Notes and commentary — not constitutional text

History

Am. S.J.R.’s 9-E, 15-E, 1980; adopted 1980; Am. C.S. for S.J.R.’s 318, 356, 1988; adopted 1988; Am. S.J.R. 152, 1992; adopted 1992; Am. H.J.R. 969, 1997; adopted 1998; Am. C.S. for S.J.R. 2-D, 2007; adopted 2008; Ams. proposed by Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, Revision Nos. 3 and 4, 2008, filed with the Secretary of State April 28, 2008; adopted 2008; Am. H.J.R. 833, 2009; adopted 2010; Am. C.S. for H.J.R. 193, 2016; adopted 2016.

Note 1

Note.—Section 34, Art. XII, State Constitution, provides in part that “the amendment to subsection (e) of Section 3 of Article VII authorizing the legislature, subject to limitations set forth in general law, to exempt the assessed value of solar devices or renewable energy source devices subject to tangible personal property tax from ad valorem taxation . . . shall take effect on January 1, 2018, and shall expire on December 31, 2037. Upon expiration, this section shall be repealed and the text of subsection (e) of Section 3 of Article VII . . . shall revert to that in existence on December 31, 2017, except that any amendments to such text otherwise adopted shall be preserved and continue to operate to the extent that such amendments are not dependent upon the portions of text which expire pursuant to this section.” Effective December 31, 2037, s. 3(e), Art. VII, State Constitution, will read:

(e) By general law and subject to conditions specified therein, twenty-five thousand dollars of the assessed value of property subject to tangible personal property tax shall be exempt from ad valorem taxation.

Note 2

Note.—This subsection, originally designated (g) by Revision No. 4 of the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, 2008, was redesignated (f) by the editors to conform to the redesignation of subsections by Revision No. 3 of the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, 2008.

Source of truth

Edition: As revised in 1968 and subsequently amended (Online Sunshine, retrieved 2026-10-04)
Official file: https://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?Mode=Constitution&Submenu=3&Tab=statutes
Text hash: sha256 49a9f9dc8bbcfc7190e2bcd0a296e4ed3656909e2e562a0bdab0e2d03dac9e18
Composed by: compose_v2.py 2026-10-04: the Legislature's structured HTML read in document order; verify_v2.py's independent reading agrees character for character

composed from the Legislature's structured HTML (one source of text; no PDF extraction); a second, independent reading of the same bytes agrees character for character
2 footnote reference mark(s) are omitted from the text; the notes they mark are under Notes

This section cites

Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.

Constitution of the State of Florida

Art. VII, § 6, Fla. Const.Homestead exemptions.Printed as section 6 of this article

Cited by 14 provisions

Provisions in this library whose text cites Art. VII, § 3, Fla. Const.. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.

The Florida Statutes

Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.