The Florida TRIM Notice Explained

Florida's annual notice is formally the Notice of Proposed Property Taxes, usually called the TRIM notice (Truth in Millage). Unlike Texas's notice of appraised value, its form is standardized statewide by statute. Two things people commonly get wrong about it:

• It is not a bill. The form itself says "DO NOT PAY — THIS IS NOT A BILL."
• Most of it is about proposed budgets, not your value. The first page is a table of taxing authorities and what your taxes would be under last year's rate, the rolled-back rate, and the proposed rate.

What is on it

• Page 1: for each taxing authority — your taxes last year, last year's adjusted (rolled-back) rate, your taxes this year if no budget change is adopted, the proposed rate, your taxes if the proposed budget is adopted, and the date/time/location of that authority's public hearing.
• Page 2 (the value page): the parcel's market value and, for each taxing authority, the assessed value, value of exemptions, and taxable value for both the previous and the current year, plus each assessment reduction and exemption that applies.
• The petition date: the notice states that if the property appraiser cannot resolve your market-value concern, you may file a petition with the Value Adjustment Board, and the form shows the date petitions must be filed on or before. That printed date is your deadline for that year.

Worked example (illustrative)

Illustrative reading of a value page with made-up numbers — not a valuation and not your property.

1. Inputs from the notice: market value $410,000; assessed value $341,000; exemptions $50,000; taxable value $291,000; prior-year assessed value $330,000.
2. Step — chain check: assessed ($341,000) is below just/market ($410,000), consistent with a Save Our Homes limitation at work. Taxable ($291,000) equals assessed minus the exemptions listed. The chain adds up.
3. Step — year-over-year: assessed rose $330,000 → $341,000, about +3.3%.
4. Interpretation: slightly above 3% — but the actual limit is the lower of 3% or the year's CPI change, so +3.3% may be entirely proper. This is a question for the property appraiser, not a conclusion.

What this tells you: reading the notice carefully can confirm the value chain is internally consistent and show you the exact exemptions applied — useful context before contacting anyone.

What it does not tell you: whether the market value is correct (that needs market evidence), whether the cap was computed right (that needs the year's CPI and your assessment history), or what your final bill will be (budgets change at the hearings listed on page 1).

What to do after reading it

• Questions about market value, classification, or exemptions: contact the property appraiser first — the notice says so, and informal resolution is part of the statutory process.
• If that does not resolve it and you are within the printed window: file a VAB petition.