Relocating to Tampa

The tax bill you will actually get

Florida levies no state personal income tax on residents. Article VII, Section 5(a) of the state constitution bars the state from taxing the income of natural persons who are residents or citizens beyond an amount creditable against a similar federal tax, and no such federal credit exists, so the effective rate is zero. Property tax carries more of the load, and it is arithmetic: assessed value times millage. There is no single statewide rate. Each taxing authority sets its own — county government, school board, municipalities, special districts — so the same house produces a different bill in Hillsborough County than it would elsewhere.

Here is the part that costs out-of-state buyers the most money. A tax figure quoted on a listing is the current owner's bill, not yours. When homestead property protected by the Save Our Homes cap changes ownership — any sale, foreclosure, or transfer of legal or beneficial title, per Fla. Stat. 193.155(3) — it loses that protection and is reassessed at just (market) value effective January 1 of the following year. A few narrow exceptions exist, including transfers between spouses, certain transfers on death, transfers where the same persons keep entitlement to the exemption before and after, and title corrections. Absent one of those, the seller's long-capped assessed value does not come with the house. Budget from your own number.

Once the property is your homestead, the protections restart in your name. The base exemption is $25,000 of assessed value and applies to all levies, including school district taxes. A second exemption applies to assessed value between $50,000 and $75,000 and to non-school taxes only; Constitutional Amendment 5, approved November 2024, indexes it to CPI every January 1, and the Florida Department of Revenue's 2026 bulletin sets it at $26,411 — which makes the familiar $50,000 total stale. For 2026 the correct total is up to $51,411. Save Our Homes then limits annual increases in your assessed value to the lower of 3% or the CPI change, and for the 2026 tax year the CPI figure of 2.7% is the one that governs. Filing is with the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser: Form DR-501, by March 1, with the property your permanent residence as of January 1. If you are moving from another Florida homestead you can transfer up to $500,000 of accumulated Save Our Homes benefit, provided the new homestead is established within three years of January 1 of the year you abandoned the old one and Form DR-501T is filed alongside DR-501 by that same March 1 deadline.

Insurance is the line item people miss

Price insurance while you are still choosing, not after you are under contract. Three things about it work differently here than they do in most states.

First, the hurricane deductible is a percentage of your dwelling coverage, not a flat dollar amount. Florida insurers must offer 2%, 5%, and 10% options in addition to a flat $500 option, unless the percentage amount would come to less than $500, and the Florida Department of Financial Services notes it appears as a dollar figure on the declarations page even though you chose a percentage. It switches on when the National Hurricane Center issues a hurricane warning for any part of Florida and stays in effect through 72 hours after the last hurricane watch or warning for any part of the state is terminated. The storm has to be officially declared a hurricane for that deductible, rather than the standard all-other-perils deductible, to apply.

Second, the inspections. A 4-point inspection covers a home's electrical wiring, HVAC and heating, plumbing, and roofing, and carriers commonly ask for one when underwriting a new policy, especially on older homes. A wind mitigation inspection is a separate report documenting construction features — roof shape, roof-to-wall connections, opening protection — that affect how a structure handles high wind, and it can qualify the homeowner for premium discounts. Ask which of the two a carrier wants before you assume the quote is final.

Third, flood is its own policy. Standard homeowners insurance in Florida does not cover flood damage; FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program is the usual route to it, and it must be purchased separately. Ask your lender how it will be paid rather than assuming anything about escrow. One scheduling note worth carrying into move week: Florida carriers commonly suspend binding new policies and coverage increases once a tropical storm or hurricane watch or warning is issued for the state. Ask your agent directly what their binding rules are, and what happens to a pending effective date if one goes up.

HOA and CDD are two different bills

An HOA is a private organization of the owners in a community. Its dues are billed to you directly, for rules and shared upkeep. A CDD is a special-purpose government district; its assessments arrive on the annual county property tax bill alongside the levies of the other taxing authorities that each set their own rate, and they are not optional. A property can carry both, either, or neither, and two similar addresses a street apart can total very differently.

Check it before you write an offer, not after. Ask the association for its governing documents, current budget, and fee schedule. Pull the parcel with the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser and the most recent bill through the Hillsborough County Tax Collector, where CDD and other non-ad-valorem assessments show up as their own line items. If there is a CDD, ask how much of the assessment is bond debt, which can eventually be paid down, and how much is district operations, which continues. The HOA and CDD page walks the full check, and the community list further down this page records which of the two each Tampa community carries.

The 30-day clock and the 10-day clock

Two deadlines, one set of triggers, and the shorter one is the one people miss.

Both clocks start the same way. Fla. Stat. 322.031 gives a nonresident who accepts employment, engages in a trade, profession, or occupation in Florida, or enrolls children in Florida public schools 30 days from that point to obtain a Florida driver license, if they drive on Florida highways. Fla. Stat. 322.01(35) separately defines a resident for licensing purposes: domicile in Florida for more than six consecutive months, registering to vote here, filing a declaration of domicile, or filing for a homestead exemption.

Fla. Stat. 320.38 sets the vehicle deadline at 10 days from those same triggers — accepting employment, beginning a trade, profession, or occupation, or enrolling children in Florida public schools. Exceptions exist for nonresident migrant and seasonal farm workers and for full-time students at accredited institutions. Ten days, not thirty, is the deadline that arrives first.

Insurance comes before the plate. Florida requires minimum Personal Injury Protection of $10,000 in medical and disability benefits combined, plus $5,000 in death benefits, per motor vehicle, before registration; within that $10,000 cap, PIP pays 80% of reasonable medical expenses and 60% of lost income. Minimum Property Damage Liability is $10,000 for injury to or destruction of the property of others in any one crash. Both errands are done after you arrive — the move-in checklist carries the FLHSMV and Hillsborough County Tax Collector links for Tampa.

What the calendar asks of you

One date range organizes a Florida year for a new resident. The Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30, per the National Hurricane Center, across the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf basin.

Those six months are why your policy carries a separate hurricane deductible at all, why that deductible switches on the moment a hurricane warning is issued for any part of Florida and stays on until 72 hours after the last watch or warning is terminated, and why a move scheduled inside the season should be planned around your carrier's binding window as much as the moving company's calendar. A watch or warning anywhere in the state can pause new binding statewide, which is a date problem before it is a coverage problem.

None of that calls for alarm. It calls for dates on a calendar and a policy that is already in force. Preparation itself — alerts, the kit, and what Hillsborough County specifically publishes — is the Storm Ready page's job, and it is one of the first things the move-in checklist points you back to once you are here.