Florida’s Save Our Homes Portability Benefit and Divorce: Is it a Marital Asset?
If you are going through a Florida divorce, you may worry about how to protect your home, your long-term tax burdens, and your financial stability. Many high-income professionals focus on dividing the home itself, but Florida’s Save Our Homes Portability Benefit also carries real value. If you have established a homestead in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota, or elsewhere in Florida, this benefit can reduce your future property taxes, yet it is often overlooked during divorce. When you understand how it works, you can make better decisions and avoid losing tax advantages that could protect your financial future.
Quick Answer: Is Florida’s Save Our Homes Portability Benefit a Marital Asset?
Yes. Florida’s Save Our Homes Portability Benefit is usually treated as a marital asset because it grows during the marriage and can reduce future property taxes for one or both spouses. It has a value that can be taken into consideration when reaching a divorce agreement.
Key Takeaways
- The Save Our Homes (SOH) Cap limits annual increases of a homestead’s assessed value to 3% or CPI.
Authority: §193.155(1), Fla. Stat.
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0100-0199/0193/Sections/0193.155.html - Portability lets you transfer up to $500,000 of that savings to a new Florida homestead.
Authority: Art. VII, §4(d)(8), Fla. Const.
https://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?submenu=3#A7S04 - If one spouse keeps the marital home without abandoning homestead, only that spouse keeps 100% of the portability benefit.
- If the home is sold or the homestead is abandoned, the spouses can usually split the benefit or agree to a different allocation using the Florida DR-501TS form.
Form: https://floridarevenue.com/property/Documents/dr501ts.pdf - Portability affects long-term housing costs and often becomes part of equitable distribution during divorce.
What the Save Our Homes Portability Benefit Actually Is
Florida’s Save Our Homes law limits how fast your homestead’s assessed value can rise. Even when the market value increases sharply, the assessed value can only increase by 3% or the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower. This creates a gap between market value and assessed value, known as the assessment difference. Over time, this difference becomes meaningful because it reduces your property taxes year after year.
Portability allows you to take up to $500,000 of that assessment difference with you when you establish a new Florida homestead. This lower starting assessment can reduce your taxes for many years, especially if you plan to stay in your new home long-term.
Understanding “Abandonment”
Florida portability rules only apply when the prior homestead is legally abandoned. Abandonment does not mean walking away from the home. It means you either sell the property or remove the homestead exemption so the property appraiser can reassess it at full market value.
Authority: §193.155(8)(a), Fla. Stat.
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0100-0199/0193/Sections/0193.155.html
Even after abandonment, the spouse keeping the home may continue living there and may re-establish homestead. However, they will only bring their allocated share of the portability benefit to the new homestead status, not the full pre-abandonment cap.
Why the Portability Benefit Matters in a Florida Divorce
During a divorce, you divide not only the property you own today but also the financial advantages built during the marriage. The portability benefit is one of those advantages. Even though it does not appear on a bank statement, it can shape the future property taxes you pay when you buy your next home in Florida.
If one spouse keeps the marital home and continues the homestead exemption, the home is not abandoned. That spouse keeps 100% of the portability benefit, and the other spouse loses access to it. If you plan to buy a Florida home after the divorce, that loss may affect your long-term housing costs.
How Florida Treats Portability in Equitable Distribution
Most divorce lawyers and even the Courts usually do not take into account the Save Our Home Portability Benefit when dividing marital asset. However, the benefit has all of the features of a marital asset. It grows during the marriage and has a value that can be determined, and the benefit can either be split or compensated for.
The portability benefit can only be transferred when the marital homestead is legally abandoned. When the home is sold or the homestead exemption is removed, each spouse can usually port half of the assessment difference, up to the constitutional limit.
Authority: §193.155(8)(d), Fla. Stat.
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0100-0199/0193/Sections/0193.155.html
Spouses may choose to allocate the benefit differently (other than 50/50) by filing the DR-501TS form with the property appraiser.
Form: https://floridarevenue.com/property/Documents/dr501ts.pdf
If one spouse keeps the home and the homestead exemption remains and it is not otherwise addressed or acted upon before divorce or the changing of title, the portability benefit cannot be transferred. The spouse moving out loses the tax advantage unless the settlement includes an offset through other marital assets.
When One Spouse Keeps the Marital Home
If you keep the marital home after the divorce, by default you also keep the entire portability benefit because the homestead remains active. The spouse who moves out loses the ability to port any portion of the assessment difference to a future Florida home.
Florida law does allow spouses to split portability even if one spouse keeps the home. To do this, the spouses must legally abandon the homestead, which causes the property to be reassessed at full market value. The spouse keeping the home may face higher property taxes, while the spouse leaving the home gains the tax benefit. Because this benefit is marital in nature, couples sometimes treat this choice as part of a broader financial resolution that balances tax impacts and long-term stability for both sides.
Key Factors to Consider When Deciding Whether to Split or Use Portability
- Will you buy another home in Florida? Since this is a benefit that the State of Florida offers, portability has no value if you plan on moving outside Florida.
- What is the likely price of your next home? The benefit has the greatest value when your new home is equal to or more expensive than the marital home.
- How long do you plan to stay in your next home? The longer you stay, the more you benefit.
- How large is the existing Save Our Homes cap? Keeping the homestead intact may produce more family value than splitting portability.
- Would a financial offset create a fairer resolution? Many couples use portability as a negotiation tool to balance other assets.
How Collaborative Divorce Helps You Address Portability Fairly
Collaborative Divorce gives you and your spouse a private, structured way to address financial issues like portability without going to court.
A key advantage of the Collaborative Process is the involvement of a Neutral Financial Professional, who helps both spouses understand the tax impact of keeping, splitting, or abandoning the homestead. The Financial Neutral guides you through the numbers so you can make informed decisions about what is best for your family’s financial future.
With Collaborative Divorce, you remain in control of the outcome rather than giving taxing issues or property questions to a judge. The process supports thoughtful solutions, protects your privacy, and helps both spouses plan with confidence.
Next Steps
If you want guidance on how the Save Our Homes Portability Benefit fits into your divorce, you can schedule a private virtual planning meeting or contact Family Diplomacy: A Collaborative Law Firm by clicking the button below.
When discretion matters, count on us.
Family Diplomacy Managing Attorney Adam B. Cordover is a leader in the Florida and international Collaborative Divorce community. He is a former president of Next Generation Divorce and former board member of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals. He is recipient of the Florida Academy of Collaborative Professionals’ inaugural Visionary Award for founding and teaching that organization’s Leadership Institute. Cordover is an American Bar Association author and a trainer of judges, lawyers, and other professionals, having travelled throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Middle East teaching Collaborative Practice and other forms of dispute resolution.
The author is not an accountant or tax attorney. This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as tax or legal advice.
