OFFICE OF THE TAX COLLECTOR |
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In Florida, Tax Collectors are independent Constitutional Officers
duly elected in their counties of residency by their fellow citizens and taxpayers.
It is this independence coupled with the fact that Tax Collectors
deal with a variety of duties and responsibilities while providing a myriad of important
public services that allows them to exercise valuable leadership roles in Florida's
government. They direct, plan, organize, budget, set and implement policies which affect
not only local government but state agencies as well.
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Along with their own local involvement in
personnel and financial matters, Tax Collectors are involved with the executive branches
of state government which include the Department of Revenue, Department of Highway Safety
and Motor Vehicles and the Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission. Because Tax
Collectors see all these departments as a whole, they are able to coordinate and
analyze the impact they may have collectively on the taxpayers.
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Staff members from the various state departments along with state
legislators draw heavily on the broad base of knowledge accumulated by the Tax Collectors
in drafting tax legislation and establishing rules and regulations for carrying out laws
regarding the collection of taxes. Furthermore, the Tax Collectors are the only locally
elected officials with whom almost every citizen will have occasion to deal.
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| The elected county office of
Tax Collector in Florida was established in the 1885 state constitution based on the idea
that local taxes could best be collected at the local level and by being an elected
officer, the Tax Collector would be more responsive to the needs of the community in
which he or she was elected. In most counties, the Tax Collector is responsible for not
only the collection of ad valorem taxes, which is the single largest tax collected in
Florida, but also collection of other taxes at the local level, such as taxes imposed
by special levying districts and taxes imposed by state agencies.
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| If you have questions for the Tax Collector, please do not hesitate to contact Barbara Ford-Coates at |
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101 S. Washington Blvd. |
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