Florida Sales Tax Certificate: Registration, Filing, and Resale

Any business selling, renting, or leasing tangible goods in Florida, or providing certain taxable services, must obtain a Florida sales tax certificate — formally, a Certificate of Registration — from the Florida Department of Revenue before making its first taxable sale. Online registration is free, processing usually takes about three business days, and operating without the certificate is a first-degree misdemeanor that can escalate to a felony if you ignore a DOR notice to register.¹

Who Has to Register

Florida requires registration from any business with a sufficient connection — “nexus” — to the state. The connection can be physical or economic.

Physical Presence

You have physical nexus if you keep an office, warehouse, or other location in Florida, or if you have employees, contractors, or agents in the state who solicit sales, deliver goods, or perform services. Assembling, installing, or repairing products in Florida counts too, even when your main operations sit elsewhere.²

Remote Sellers

Since July 1, 2021, out-of-state businesses with no physical presence in Florida must register if their taxable remote sales into the state exceeded $100,000 in the previous calendar year. Exempt sales don’t count toward the threshold. Once you cross it, you have to register by January 1 of the following year.³

Marketplace Sellers

If you sell through a platform like Amazon or Etsy, the marketplace provider is generally responsible for collecting and remitting Florida sales tax on those sales, provided it has certified that it will do so. You exclude those transactions from your own return. Any sales you make outside the marketplace still require your own certificate and your own collection.³

What Counts as Taxable

The most common taxable activities are selling, renting, or leasing tangible personal property and leasing commercial real estate.⁴ Several services fall under Chapter 212 as well, including repair work, installation, nonresidential cleaning, and pest control. If your business touches any of these, you need the certificate.

What to Gather Before You Apply

Having your information ready before you start the online application prevents the small errors that hold up processing:

Your business structure — sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or LLC.
Your Federal Employer Identification Number if you’re a corporation, partnership, or LLC. Sole proprietors without employees can use a Social Security Number.
Full legal name, title, home address, and Social Security Number for every owner, partner, officer, or managing member. The DOR uses this to establish personal liability for unpaid sales tax.
The street and mailing address of every Florida location where taxable transactions happen. Mobile vendors give their primary administrative address.
An estimate of how much sales tax you expect to collect, which the DOR uses to set your filing frequency.
The exact date you began or plan to begin making taxable sales.
Your NAICS code, or a plain description of what you do if you don’t know the code.

Applying for the Certificate

Florida’s online portal walks you through screens matching the information above. You’ll first create a user profile on the DOR’s Online Taxpayer Application system.⁵ The system validates your FEIN or SSN against federal records, then asks you to select the tax types you need. Choose “Sales and Use Tax” at minimum.

Online registration is free. Paper registration on Form DR-1 is available if you don’t have internet access, but expect a slower turnaround. Allow at least three business days before checking status.⁶ Once approved, the DOR mails a welcome package with your Certificate of Registration, your Annual Resale Certificate, and a new dealer guide.

You have to display the Certificate of Registration in a conspicuous spot at your business location at all times. Failing to register brings a $100 late registration fee, a first-degree misdemeanor charge, and possible injunction proceedings that can close the business. Willfully ignoring a DOR notice to register is a third-degree felony.¹

When a Bond Is Required

Most applicants don’t need one. The DOR requires a cash deposit, surety bond, or irrevocable letter of credit only if you have a controlling interest in a business with an unsatisfied tax warrant, an outstanding liability of $2,500 or more, a previously revoked certificate, or no permanent Florida location.⁷ If none of that applies, the application moves through without a bond.

The Annual Resale Certificate That Comes With It

Your welcome package includes an Annual Resale Certificate (Form DR-13). It lets you buy inventory and other items you intend to resell without paying sales tax at purchase. It expires each December 31, and the DOR automatically issues a new one every November as long as your registration stays active.⁸

Use it only for items genuinely intended for resale. If you buy something tax-free with the certificate and then use it in your own business, you owe use tax on that item. Fraudulent use triggers civil and criminal penalties under Section 212.085 of the Florida Statutes.⁹

When you’re on the seller side and a buyer hands you a resale certificate, document the sale by obtaining a copy of the buyer’s current DR-13, a transaction authorization number, or a vendor authorization number. That documentation protects you from liability if the buyer later misuses the exemption.⁹

Collecting the Right Amount of Tax

Florida’s statewide rate is 6%. Most counties add a discretionary sales surtax on top.¹⁰ The surtax rate depends on the county where goods are delivered or services are performed, not where your business is located.

For 2026, county surtax rates run from zero (Citrus and Collier charge nothing) up to 2% in Hamilton County, with most counties between 0.5% and 1.5%.¹¹ Total combined rates therefore range from 6% to 8%. The DOR publishes an updated rate chart (Form DR-15DSS) every year; check it each January.

One detail trips up new dealers: the surtax only applies to the first $5,000 of a single item’s price. On a $10,000 piece of equipment sold in a county with a 1% surtax, you charge 6% on the full $10,000 but the 1% surtax only on the first $5,000.

Filing Returns and Paying What You Collect

You must file a return for every reporting period once you’re registered, even in periods with no sales. Missing a period brings a minimum $50 penalty regardless of whether tax was due.¹²

How Often You File

The DOR sets your schedule from your annual sales tax collections:¹⁰

More than $1,000 per year: monthly returns.
$501 to $1,000 per year: quarterly returns.
$101 to $500 per year: semiannual returns.
$100 or less per year: annual returns.

These thresholds run on tax collected, not gross revenue. Most retail businesses land in the monthly tier.

Deadlines and Penalties

Returns are due the first day of the month after your reporting period ends, and the DOR treats a return as timely if you file and pay by the 20th of that month.¹⁰ Miss the 20th and you owe 10% of the unpaid tax or $50, whichever is greater.¹² Willfully failing to collect tax after a DOR notice triggers a 100% penalty on the uncollected amount plus criminal charges that scale with the dollar amount.¹³

Electronic Filing

Businesses that paid $5,000 or more in sales tax during the most recent state fiscal year (July 1 through June 30) must file and pay electronically.¹⁴ Smaller filers can use the online portal voluntarily, and most do. Returns are submitted on Form DR-15, the Sales and Use Tax Return.

The Collection Allowance

If you file and pay electronically, you can deduct 2.5% of the first $1,200 in tax due as a collection allowance, capped at $30 per reporting location per period.¹⁰ Across a year of monthly filings that’s $360 per location. The DOR can deny the allowance on an incomplete or late return.¹²

Keeping Records

Florida law requires dealers to keep complete records of all transactions, including invoices, receipts, resale certificates, and exemption certificates. The general retention period is five years. If you file a substantially incorrect return, the DOR has six years to assess additional tax. If you fail to file or file a fraudulent return, there is no time limit on assessment. Organized records from day one are the easiest audit protection you have.

Buying or Selling a Business

If you buy more than 50% of a Florida business, its assets, or its inventory, you inherit the seller’s unpaid sales tax liability. This is successor liability, and your exposure is capped at the greater of the fair market value of what you purchased or the total price you paid.¹⁵

Protect yourself by requiring the seller to produce a DOR certificate of compliance showing all returns are filed and tax paid. Either party can also request a DOR audit of the seller’s records, which the department must complete within 90 days.¹⁵ You can also withhold part of the purchase price and pay it directly to the state within 30 days of closing if the seller owes a balance. Skipping these steps is one of the most expensive mistakes a Florida business buyer can make.

Closing the Account When You’re Done

When you stop doing business in Florida, notify the DOR and close the sales tax account through the online portal.¹⁰ File a final return for your last reporting period and remit any remaining tax. An open account without filings racks up $50 minimum penalties every period, so close it promptly after your last taxable sale.

1
Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 212.18 – Registration
2
Florida Dept. of Revenue. Information for Out-of-State Businesses
3
Florida Department of Revenue. New Registration Requirement for Persons Making Remote Sales and for Marketplace Providers and Sellers
4
Florida Department of Revenue. Sales and Use Tax on Tangible Personal Property Rentals
5
Florida Department of Revenue. Create New User Profile – Online Taxpayer Application
6
Florida Dept. of Revenue. Account Management and Registration
7
Florida Department of Revenue. Registering Your Business
8
Florida Dept. of Revenue. Annual Resale Certificate for Sales Tax
9
Legal Information Institute. Fla. Admin. Code Ann. R. 12A-1.039 – Sales for Resale
10
Florida Dept. of Revenue. Florida Sales and Use Tax
11
Florida Department of Revenue. Discretionary Sales Surtax Information for Calendar Year 2026
12
Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 212.12
13
Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 212.07
14
Florida Department of Revenue. Taxes, Fees, Remittances, and Reports with Electronic File and Pay Requirements
15
Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 213.758 – Transfer of Tax Liabilities