Florida doesn’t charge a personal income tax, and locals love reminding you of that at every barbecue. But the state still needs to pay for roads, schools, and hurricane cleanup, so it leans hard on sales tax instead. If you sell anything in the Sunshine State, or buy anything in it, you’re going to run into this tax sooner or later.
This guide breaks down the current rates, what’s taxable, who has to collect it, and how to file, without the legalese. Grab a coffee (untaxed, by the way) and let’s get into it.
Florida’s statewide sales tax rate sits at 6%. It’s been that way since February 1988, and it applies to most retail sales of goods and select services across the state.
On top of that base rate, individual counties can tack on a discretionary sales surtax. Combined rates typically land somewhere between 6% and 8%, depending on where the sale happens.
A few categories break from the standard rate entirely. New mobile home sales are taxed at 3%, amusement machine receipts at 4%, and electricity at 6.95%. So no, it’s not always a flat 6% across the board, and that trips up plenty of new business owners.
Here’s where things get a little more interesting. Florida doesn’t let cities set their own sales tax, but it does let counties add a discretionary surtax on top of the state rate. That surtax typically ranges from 0.5% to 2%, and it funds local projects like schools, transportation, and infrastructure.
A few real examples for 2026:
One important wrinkle: the discretionary surtax only applies to the first $5,000 of a single tangible item’s sales price. Buy a $10,000 boat, and you’ll still only pay county surtax on the first $5,000 of it. The 6% state rate, on the other hand, applies to the full sale.
County rates reset every January 1, so what’s accurate today might shift next year. The Florida Department of Revenue publishes the full, current table if you need to double-check a specific county before a big purchase or an invoice run.
The math itself isn’t complicated. Take the combined rate for the county where the sale is sourced, and multiply it by the sale price.
Say you’re buying a $500 laptop in Orange County, where the combined rate is 6.5%. That’s $500 × 0.065, which comes out to $32.50 in tax, for a total of $532.50.
Businesses do need to follow Florida’s rounding rule, though. Since July 2021, dealers must carry the tax calculation to the third decimal place; if that third digit is 5 or higher, round up to the next cent. It’s a small detail, but auditors do check for it.
Florida taxes most tangible personal property, meaning anything you can see, touch, or physically move. Clothing, furniture, electronics, vehicles, and most retail goods fall under this umbrella.
Services are a different story. Florida generally does not tax services, which puts it in a friendlier spot than many other states. That said, a handful of specific services are taxable, including:
Shipping charges get their own quirky rule. If the charge is separately listed on the invoice AND the customer could have chosen to skip it (say, by picking the item up themselves), it’s exempt. Otherwise, it’s taxable, according to Florida Administrative Code Rule 12A-1.045.
Labor works similarly. Labor-only repairs, where no parts change hands, usually aren’t taxed. But the moment any part or material gets used, even a single drop of oil in a repair, the entire charge becomes taxable. Florida’s Department of Revenue actually calls this the “one drop of oil” rule, and it’s caught more than one auto shop off guard.
Not everything gets taxed, thankfully. Florida exempts several categories that matter for everyday life:
Qualifying buyers can also skip sales tax entirely with the right paperwork. Government agencies, registered nonprofits, and resellers can present an exemption or resale certificate at checkout instead of paying tax upfront.
If you’re doing business in Florida, you likely need to register as a dealer and collect sales tax. This applies whether you have physical nexus (a store, warehouse, employees, or inventory in the state) or economic nexus.
Economic nexus kicked in on July 1, 2021. If your taxable remote sales into Florida exceed $100,000 in the previous calendar year, you’re required to register and collect, even without setting foot in the state.
Certain business activities trigger registration regardless of sales volume, including renting short-term accommodations, leasing personal property, charging admission fees, or offering taxable services like security or pest control.
E-commerce sellers follow the same $100,000 economic nexus threshold as everyone else. Once you cross it, you’re on the hook for collecting Florida sales tax on remote sales, plus any applicable county surtax based on the buyer’s delivery address.
Florida also has a marketplace facilitator law. If you sell through Amazon, Etsy, or a similar platform, the marketplace itself is generally responsible for collecting and remitting the tax on your behalf. That takes some pressure off individual sellers, though it’s smart to confirm your platform is actually handling it correctly.
Because Florida is destination-based, the tax rate always follows the buyer’s location, not the seller’s. A shipment to Miami-Dade gets Miami-Dade’s rate, even if you’re shipping from Orlando.
Sales tax gets collected by the seller at the point of purchase. Use tax is the backup plan for when that doesn’t happen.
If you buy something out of state (or online, from a seller who didn’t collect Florida tax) and bring it into Florida for use, storage, or consumption, you technically owe use tax directly to the state. The rate matches whatever sales tax would’ve applied.
Most consumers never think about this, but businesses that buy equipment or supplies from out-of-state vendors need to track it carefully. It’s the same tax, collected differently, and the state does audit for it.
Once you’re registered, Florida assigns you a filing frequency, monthly, quarterly, or annually, based on how much tax you expect to collect. You can file and pay online through the Department of Revenue’s eFile & Pay system, or by mailing in Form DR-15.
Returns are due on the 1st of the month following the reporting period, and they become late after the 20th. Miss that window, and Florida charges a penalty of 10% for every 30 days late, capping at 50% of the tax owed, with a minimum $50 penalty, plus interest on top.
Even if you had zero taxable sales in a period, you still have to file. Skipping a “zero return” doesn’t save you any paperwork; it just invites a penalty.
Florida runs some of the most generous sales tax holidays in the country, and the calendar keeps growing.
The Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday runs from July 20 through August 20, 2026. During that window, clothing and footwear priced at $100 or less, school supplies at $50 or less, learning aids and puzzles at $30 or less, and computers priced at $1,500 or less (for noncommercial home use) are all exempt.
Florida also made its disaster preparedness exemption permanent starting August 1, 2025. Items like flashlights, batteries, tarps, portable generators, and smoke detectors are now tax-free year-round, with no price cap and no need to time your shopping around a specific window.
A hunting, fishing, and camping holiday is scheduled for September 7 through December 31, 2026, covering outdoor recreation gear.
A few notable shifts have landed recently, and they’re worth knowing if you run a business in the state.
Florida repealed its sales tax on commercial real property leases, effective October 1, 2025. Florida was the only state in the country that taxed business rent, so this was a genuinely big deal for commercial tenants.
The state also rolled out a new eFile & Pay system in December 2025. If you’re a returning filer, note that old login credentials didn’t carry over automatically.
County surtax rates shifted for 2026 as well, most notably Palm Beach County’s drop from 1% to 0.5%. Always check current rates before finalizing an invoice, since these numbers move every January.
Keeping up with county-by-county rates, filing deadlines, and exemption rules gets old fast, especially once you’re selling across multiple counties or states. Accounting software like Xero can help by organizing your sales records, reconciling transactions, and generating reports that make tax time far less painful. It won’t file your return for you, but it takes a lot of the manual tracking off your plate, which matters when your attention is better spent running the business.
Not everywhere. The state rate is 6%, and the total climbs to 7% only in counties that add a 1% surtax, like Miami-Dade. Other counties land at 6%, 6.5%, 7.5%, or even 8%, depending on local surtax rates.
Unprepared groceries, prescription medications, prosthetic devices, and most professional services (legal, medical, accounting) are exempt. Most other tangible goods are taxable unless a specific exemption applies.
It depends. Shipping is exempt only if it’s separately stated on the invoice AND the customer had the option to avoid it, like picking the item up in person. If either condition isn’t met, the shipping charge is taxable.
Labor-only charges, where no parts or materials are provided, are generally exempt. But if any tangible part is included in the job, even a minor one, the entire charge, labor included, becomes taxable.
Yes. Florida runs a month-long back-to-school holiday (July 20–August 20, 2026), a permanent year-round disaster preparedness exemption, and a hunting, fishing, and camping holiday later in the year.
Yes, if you have physical or economic nexus in the state. Businesses register through the Florida Department of Revenue and receive a Certificate of Registration before making taxable sales.
Rates and thresholds reflect Florida Department of Revenue guidance current as of 2026. Sales tax rules, especially county surtax rates and holiday dates, change annually, so confirm details at floridarevenue .com before filing or making major purchasing decisions.