Tax Facts
(From the desk of Mrs. Rhonda Skipper)
It is my mission as your Walton County Tax Collector to keep our citizens informed of the functions of our office and how we arrive at fee amounts and where those monies actually go after being collected. The following is some general information we hope will help you in understanding the fee process that is set by the Florida Legislature and the local taxing authorities.
The Tax Collector does not have any power or authority to levy a tax or set fee amounts. Local property taxes and exemptions are determined by the local taxing authorities. We also do not determine fees for driver licenses, tag registrations, titles, hunting and fishing, birth certificates or any other services that we provide.
The tax collector’s office collects taxes and disperses them to the many agencies of the State of Florida which include, Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, Department of Agriculture, Department of Health, The Florida Wildlife Commission and meet the requirements of the Department of Homeland Security for Driver License issuance. We also collect monies for 19 local taxing authorities which include Northwest Florida Water Management District, Mosquito Control, South Walton Fire District, Walton County School District, Walton County Board of County Commissioners and others. In addition we collect taxes for the local municipalities of the City of DeFuniak Springs and the City of Freeport.
You can obtain a complete list of the agencies and taxing authorities on our website at waltontaxcollector.com.
Since we are an agent of these various agencies we receive a small portion of each Legislated fee that we collect. These include fees from issuing Driver Licenses, Vehicle Titles, Registration Renewals, Concealed Weapon Permit Applications, Vessels, Hunting & Fishing Licenses and Florida Birth Certificates. The majority of these funds go to the General Fund for the State of Florida.
Examples of these fees are that on a basic tag renewal the cost is $46.10. The State would keep $43.60 and $2.50 is kept by the Tax Collector.
Driver license renewals cost $54.25. The state keeps $48.00 and the Tax Collector keeps $6.25.
The portion of these fees kept by the Tax Collector are what we use to help fund our budget; paying for operating, capital, and personnel costs. Fees over the actual expenditures are returned to the Taxing authorities each year. During my time as your tax collector we have returned $15,895,871 (FY05 to FY17) in excess fees to the Board of County Commissioners on behalf of the taxing authorities.
Please feel free to contact the Walton County Tax Collector’s office at 850.892.8121 if you have any further questions.
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