Florida Department of Revenue RT-6 Filing Requirements

Florida’s RT-6 filing requirements apply to every employer with an active Reemployment Tax account: file the Employer’s Quarterly Report (Form RT-6) with the Florida Department of Revenue after the close of each calendar quarter, report wages for every covered employee up to the $7,000 annual cap, and pay tax at your assigned rate by the last day of the month following quarter-end. You file even in quarters where you paid no wages, and most employers must file and pay electronically.

Who Has to File

You become liable for Reemployment Tax, and therefore responsible for the RT-6, once your business hits either of two thresholds in a calendar year: paying at least $1,500 in total wages during any single quarter, or employing one or more workers for any part of a day in 20 different weeks.¹ The 20-week test does not require the same worker all 20 weeks, and even a few hours in a given week counts.

Before you can file, you need a Reemployment Tax Account Number. Register through the DOR’s online Florida Business Tax Application, which runs an interactive wizard to determine your obligations, or submit a paper Form DR-1.² Your first RT-6 is due the month after the calendar quarter in which you first employ workers.¹

Here is the point new employers most often miss: once your account is active, you must file an RT-6 every quarter, even if you had no employees and owe nothing.³ A skipped “zero” quarter is a late filing and triggers the same $25-per-month penalty as any other missed report.

Quarterly Due Dates

The RT-6 is due the first day of the month following each calendar quarter and is late if not filed by the last day of that month:³

Q1 (January–March): due by April 30
Q2 (April–June): due by July 31
Q3 (July–September): due by October 31
Q4 (October–December): due by January 31 of the following year

When a due date falls on a weekend or state holiday, paper filers get until the next business day. Electronic payments go the other direction. You must initiate the payment and receive a confirmation number by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the business day before the due date.⁴ A payment confirmed after 5:00 p.m. does not process until the next business day, which makes it late.

Electronic vs. Paper Filing

If your business employed 10 or more workers in any quarter during the preceding state fiscal year (July 1 through June 30), you must file the RT-6 electronically and pay the tax electronically.³ No waiver exists from the electronic payment requirement. If a valid business reason prevents electronic filing of the wage report itself, you can request a filing waiver by calling the DOR’s Tax Information and Assistance line at 850-488-6800.

To file online, log into the DOR’s File and Pay portal using your Reemployment Tax account number and either your federal employer identification number (FEIN) or a DOR-issued user ID and password.³ You can key wage data in manually or upload a formatted file. Electronic payment runs through ACH Debit (the DOR pulls funds from your bank) or ACH Credit (you push the transfer through your bank using the format in Form DR-600TP).⁵ You do not have to enroll in eServices to pay Reemployment Tax electronically, but you will need to supply two identifying numbers (such as FEIN and Reemployment Tax account number) each time.

Employers who stayed below 10 employees in every quarter of the preceding fiscal year can file paper. The DOR mails them an RT-6 each quarter automatically.³ Make checks payable to “Florida U.C. Fund.”

What the Form Asks For

Each quarter, the RT-6 requires:⁶

The number of full-time and part-time covered workers who performed services or received pay during the payroll period containing the 12th of each month in the quarter.
Each employee’s Social Security number and name (last name first, up to 12 characters of the last name and 8 of the first).
Gross wages paid to each employee during the quarter.
Excess wages (the portion above the $7,000 annual cap, which is not taxable).
Taxable wages (gross minus excess).
Tax due (taxable wages multiplied by your assigned rate).

Wrong Social Security numbers are one of the most common RT-6 errors and they trigger the erroneous-report penalty. Verify every SSN before you submit.

Calculating What You Owe

Reemployment Tax applies only to the first $7,000 in wages you pay each employee per calendar year.¹ Once an employee crosses that line, additional pay is excess wages. You still report the excess on the RT-6; it just does not get taxed.

New employers file at an initial rate of 2.7%, which holds for the first 10 quarters of filing (sometimes 11, depending on when you became liable). After the introductory period, the DOR assigns an experience-based rate reflecting your former employees’ unemployment claims history. For 2026, rates range from 0.1% ($7 per employee annually) to 5.4% ($378 per employee annually), applied to the first $7,000 of wages.⁷ Your current rate appears on the annual rate notice the DOR mails to contributing employers; keep it accessible when quarter-end approaches.

Reportable wages are broader than salary and hourly pay. Commissions, bonuses, back-pay awards, and the cash value of non-cash payments all count. Tips count too, but only if the employee gives you a written statement of them.⁸ Payments to genuine independent contractors are not reportable; only wages paid to employees go on the RT-6. Florida uses a 10-factor common-law test to decide which category a worker falls into, and intentional misclassification is a felony.⁹

If an employee transferred to your Florida payroll from another state during the year, you can credit wages already reported and taxed in that other state (up to the $7,000 cap) when calculating what is taxable in Florida.¹⁰

E-Verify Certification on Your First RT-6 of the Year

Private employers with 25 or more employees performing services in Florida must use the federal E-Verify system to confirm the work eligibility of new hires. These employers must certify E-Verify compliance each year on the first RT-6 they file for the calendar year, using the signature block on the form.¹¹ The certification is required every January, not just the first year you begin using E-Verify. All public agencies must certify regardless of size.

Fixing a Return After You File

If you spot an error after submitting, such as a wrong SSN, incorrect wages, or a missing employee, you need to file a correction. Employers required to file electronically must submit corrections electronically through the DOR’s filing portal; the DOR publishes a detailed guide (Form RT-800003). Paper filers submit corrections on Form RT-8A, the Correction to Employer’s Quarterly or Annual Domestic Report.³ The DOR can require corrections going back up to five years.

Penalties and Interest

Filing problems stack. You can owe a late-filing penalty, an erroneous-report penalty, and interest on the same quarter.

Late Filing

A delinquent RT-6 draws a penalty of $25 for every 30 days (or any fraction of 30 days) the report remains unfiled.³ The DOR can waive the penalty for good cause, but “I forgot” generally does not qualify.¹²

Erroneous or Incomplete Reports

A report with wrong SSNs, missing employees, or other errors draws $50 or 10% of the tax due, whichever is greater, up to $300 per report.³ The penalty is waived if you file an accurate corrected report within 30 days of receiving the notice, but you can only use that waiver once in any 12-month period.

Failure to File Electronically

If you are required to file electronically and send paper instead, the penalty is $25 per report plus $1 per employee listed, up to $300.³

Interest on Unpaid Tax

Unpaid tax accrues interest at a floating rate the DOR updates on January 1 and July 1. For the first half of 2026 the rate is 11%, and the rate cannot exceed 1% per month.¹³ If you do not file at all, the DOR can estimate your wages and assess tax, interest, and the stacked penalties on its own.

Recordkeeping and Audits

Keep accurate payroll records for five calendar years. The DOR can audit and require filings or corrections across that full window.¹⁰ If you cannot produce requested records during an audit, the DOR strips your earned experience rate and assigns the maximum 5.4% rate until the quarter after you provide the documentation. For an employer with dozens of employees, that jump costs thousands of dollars per quarter. The 5.4% rate can also be imposed as a penalty on employers more than a year delinquent on filings.⁷

When You Can Stop Filing

The RT-6 obligation continues until you formally close the account. If your business shuts down or you stop employing workers, notify the DOR in writing after paying final wages and file a final RT-6 covering the last quarter in which wages were paid.¹⁴ Until you do, the DOR expects a quarterly filing and will assess late-filing penalties for every missing report. If you later resume hiring, you reestablish liability the same way any new employer would.

If you acquire an existing Florida business, in whole or in part, file Form RTS-1S within 90 days so the DOR can determine whether you qualify as a successor employer and whether you want the prior owner’s experience rate.¹⁵

One group may not file the RT-6 at all. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit or government agency can elect to be a “reimbursing employer,” billed dollar-for-dollar on Form RT-29 for the unemployment benefits actually paid to its former employees rather than paying a percentage-based quarterly tax.¹⁶ A newly liable nonprofit electing reimbursement must file written notice within 30 days of being determined subject to the law, and the election locks in for the rest of the current calendar year plus the next full year.

1
Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Reemployment Tax
2
Florida Department of Revenue. Account Management and Registration
3
Florida Department of Revenue. Reemployment Tax Return and Payment Information
4
Florida Department of Revenue. Florida eServices Calendar of Electronic Payment Deadlines
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Florida Department of Revenue. Filing and Paying Taxes Electronically
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Florida Department of Revenue. Employer’s Quarterly Report RT-6
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Florida Department of Revenue. Reemployment Tax Rate Information
8
Florida Department of Revenue. What Employers Need to Know About Reemployment Tax
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Florida Department of Revenue. Classification of Workers for Reemployment Tax
10
Florida Department of Revenue. Employer Guide to Reemployment Tax
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Florida Department of Revenue. New Employee Eligibility and E-Verify Frequently Asked Questions
12
Official Internet Site of the Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 443.141 – Contributions and Reimbursements
13
Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Tax and Interest Rates
14
Florida Department of Revenue. Reemployment Tax Additional Topics
15
Florida Department of Revenue. Report to Determine Succession and Application for Transfer of Experience Rating Records
16
Official Internet Site of the Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 443.1312 – Reimbursements Nonprofit Organizations