This guide covers what every Florida small business owner should know about sales tax: what the rates actually are, what’s taxable, what changed recently (a few things changed materially in 2025), how to register and file, and the mistakes that cost businesses real money.
This is educational, not tax advice — for situations specific to your business, talk to a CPA or the Florida Department of Revenue.
The basics: Florida’s sales tax rate
Florida charges a general state sales tax of 6% on most retail sales, leases of tangible personal property, and certain services. There are a few exceptions with different state rates:
- 4% on amusement machine receipts
- 5.5% on rental, lease, or license to use real property (residential, transient — see commercial rent note below)
- 6.95% on electricity
- 7% on mobile home sales (new)
For most businesses selling goods or services, 6% is the number that matters.
County discretionary surtax
On top of the state rate, most Florida counties impose a discretionary sales surtax — an additional sales tax that varies by county. The surtax ranges from 0.5% to 2%, and a handful of counties have no surtax at all.
A few things to know about the surtax:
- It applies to most transactions that are subject to state sales tax
- It’s calculated on the same tax base as the state sales tax — not on top of it
- It only applies to the first $5,000 of a single item’s sales price for many tangible goods (the cap doesn’t apply to services or rentals)
- It’s the rate at the location where the sale occurs (or where the item is delivered)
The Florida Department of Revenue publishes a current list of county surtax rates (Form DR-15DSS) — worth checking once a year because counties do adjust rates. As an example, Hillsborough County’s 1% surtax was temporarily suspended effective January 1, 2025, after a court ruling.
What’s taxable in Florida
Most goods sold at retail are taxable. Some categories that are commonly misunderstood:
Taxable:
- Tangible personal property (most physical goods)
- Prepared food (restaurant meals, hot food)
- Admissions (sporting events, movies, concerts)
- Short-term rentals (hotels, vacation rentals under 6 months)
- Nonresidential cleaning, pest control, security, detective, and investigative services
- Rental of tangible personal property (equipment rentals)
Generally exempt:
- Groceries (most unprepared food)
- Prescription drugs and medical supplies
- Most professional services (legal, accounting, medical, architectural)
- Wholesale sales for resale (with a valid resale certificate)
- Manufacturing equipment (with specific exemptions)
The line between taxable and exempt isn’t always obvious. Prepared food is taxable, groceries aren’t — but a rotisserie chicken from a supermarket can be either depending on whether it’s sold hot or cold. When in doubt, the Florida Department of Revenue publishes industry-specific guides (called “GT-800” series publications) that walk through the tax treatment for specific business types.
Recent changes worth knowing
Two material changes affect Florida sales tax in 2025–2026:
Commercial rent sales tax fully repealed. As of October 1, 2025, Florida no longer charges sales tax on commercial real property rentals. Florida had been the only state in the country to charge sales tax on commercial rent, and the rate had been declining for years (from 5.5% down to 4.5%, then 2%, then zero). If you rent office, retail, or warehouse space for your business, you should no longer be paying sales tax on that rent. If your landlord is still charging it, that’s an error.
The repeal does not apply to:
- Residential rentals
- Short-term transient rentals under 6 months (hotels, vacation rentals)
- Parking, docking, or storage spaces
- Aircraft tie-down spaces
Use tax still applies. If you buy something outside Florida and bring it into the state for use — and you didn’t pay sales tax on the purchase — you owe use tax to Florida at the same rate. This catches a lot of small businesses ordering equipment, furniture, or supplies from out-of-state vendors who don’t collect Florida sales tax.
Registering for sales tax
If your business sells taxable goods or services in Florida, you need to register with the Florida Department of Revenue before you start making sales. Registration is free and done through Form DR-1 (or the online registration system, which is faster).
Once registered, you receive:
- A Certificate of Registration (Form DR-11) — must be displayed at your business location
- A Florida Annual Resale Certificate (Form DR-13) — used to make tax-free purchases for resale
- Sales tax return forms (Form DR-15)
You’ll also be assigned a filing frequency — monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual — based on the amount of tax you collect.
Filing and paying
Sales tax returns are filed using Form DR-15, and they’re generally due on the first day of the month following the reporting period. Payments are due at the same time. Filing electronically is mandatory for most businesses.
A few specifics:
- Monthly filers owe by the 1st of the following month
- Quarterly filers owe by the 1st of the month after the quarter ends
- Returns must be filed even if no tax is owed for the period
- A “collection allowance” of 2.5% of the first $1,200 of tax due is available if you file and pay on time, electronically
Late filing penalties start at 10% of the tax due (minimum $50), and interest accrues on unpaid tax. The penalties stack quickly if you miss multiple periods.
Selling into Florida from out of state
If your business is based outside Florida but you sell to Florida customers, you may still need to collect Florida sales tax. The threshold:
- $100,000 or more in remote sales to Florida customers in the prior calendar year
Once you cross that threshold, you’re required to register, collect, and remit Florida sales tax on sales to Florida customers. The same applies to marketplace sellers, though in many cases the marketplace (Amazon, eBay, Etsy, etc.) handles the collection itself.
Common mistakes
The patterns we see most often with Florida small businesses and sales tax:
- Not registering before the first sale. Penalties and back tax are real if the state finds out you’ve been selling without a sales tax account.
- Charging the wrong rate — using the state 6% rate but forgetting the county surtax, or applying the wrong county’s surtax.
- Mixing taxable and exempt sales without tracking them separately. Makes filing slow and error-prone.
- Forgetting use tax on out-of-state purchases brought into Florida.
- Still charging sales tax on commercial rent after the October 2025 repeal.
- Late filing. Even one missed return creates penalties; multiple missed returns can lead to your sales tax account being revoked.
Good bookkeeping handles most of these by tracking sales tax as its own liability account, not as part of revenue.
Frequently asked questions
Most professional services in Florida are exempt — legal, accounting, medical, consulting, architectural, and similar. But some services are taxable: nonresidential cleaning, pest control, security, detective and investigative services, and certain repair services on tangible personal property. Check the Florida Department of Revenue’s guidance for your specific service type.
Register now and start filing. The longer you wait, the more penalties accrue. The Florida Department of Revenue does have voluntary disclosure programs that may reduce penalties for businesses that come forward, but those are time-sensitive — talk to a CPA before reaching out.
Sales tax is collected from a customer at the point of sale. Use tax is owed by the buyer when sales tax wasn’t collected — usually on out-of-state purchases brought into Florida. They’re the same rate; just collected differently.
We organize the sales tax data within your bookkeeping so it’s clean and ready to file, but we don’t file sales tax returns on your behalf. The filing itself is straightforward once the underlying records are correct — most businesses file it themselves through the Florida Department of Revenue’s online portal, or their CPA handles it.
Where to start
If your sales tax records aren’t clean — or if you’re not sure whether you’ve been collecting the right rate, filing on time, or accounting for the commercial rent change — that’s worth fixing before it becomes a problem.
SoFlo360 helps Florida small business owners keep their bookkeeping (including sales tax tracking) clean and current. Spanish-friendly support is available for owners who’d rather handle financial conversations in Spanish.
Book a free consultation or learn more about our bookkeeping services.