How much does it cost to file a Florida property tax appeal? VAB filing fees range from $15 to $50 by county in 2026. See every major county's fee and who pays it.
Florida Statute §194.013 authorizes county VABs to charge a filing fee for each petition. The fee is intended to cover administrative costs of processing the appeal: subsection (4) directs that collected fees be used to defray the cost of running the board. Historically the cap was $15 per parcel, but HB 7031 (effective July 1, 2025) raised the maximum to $50 per parcel. Each county now sets its own fee anywhere up to $50, and the fee is not refundable — counties state this plainly, and nothing in §194.013 or in Rule 12D-9.015 provides for returning it.
Filing fees vary significantly across Florida's 67 counties. The following are confirmed or best-available fees as of 2026. Fees may change annually — always verify with your county VAB before filing.
In almost every case, yes. The filing fee is a small fraction of the potential savings: on a $1,500 annual saving, even a $50 fee is a 3% cost, and a reduction keeps saving you money every year it holds while the fee is paid once. The fee is not refundable, so it is a real cost whether you win or lose. That makes the question not whether to pay it, but whether your comparable sales evidence supports a realistic reduction — which is what we check before you pay.
You do, directly to the county. TaxAppeal USA charges a flat $89 that covers the petition, the comparable values analysis, and the ready-to-sign kit we mail to you. The county VAB filing fee is not part of the $89 and we don't pay it: you write a cheque to the county for the amount on your checklist and put it in the return envelope with your signed DR-486. The envelope is already addressed to your county's Value Adjustment Board, so there is no guessing which office to send it to.
Nothing — the filing fee stays with the county. Florida Statute §194.013 sets the fee and directs in subsection (4) that collected fees defray the cost of operating the value adjustment board; it contains no provision for returning one, and neither does Fla. Admin. Code R. 12D-9.015. Counties say so on their own pages: Lee County charges “a non-refundable $30.00 per petition” and Orange County refers to “the non-refundable $50 filing fee”. What a reduction does change is your tax bill. If the board lowers your assessed value before you have paid, you simply owe less. If it lowers your value after you have already paid, you have overpaid, and §194.014(2) requires the county to refund the excess taxes with interest — that refund comes from the tax collector, not the VAB, and it is the only refund chapter 194 provides for.
We check first. If an appeal will lower your bill, we mail you a ready-to-sign kit for $89 flat. You sign it and mail it, and you keep 100% of your savings.
TaxAppeal USA is a self-service document-preparation service. We prepare a ready-to-sign appeal kit and mail it to you; you sign it and mail it to the county yourself. In every state we serve, including Florida, we are not property tax consultants, agents, or representatives, we do not provide tax or legal advice, and we do not file appeals or represent customers before any appraisal district, board of assessors, board of equalization, value adjustment board, or review board. Every appeal, protest and petition is prepared for the property owner, signed by the owner, and mailed by the owner in the owner’s name. In Florida your petition is signed by you as the property owner under section 194.011(3), Florida Statutes, and the county’s Value Adjustment Board filing fee is paid by you directly to the county. TaxAppeal USA does not sign as your representative, does not appear before the Board, and does not present evidence or argument at a hearing.