Florida no longer charges sales tax on commercial rent. House Bill 7031 repealed section 212.031 of the Florida Statutes effective October 1, 2025, which ended both the state sales tax and every county discretionary surtax on rent and license fees for commercial occupancy on or after that date. Florida had been the only state in the country taxing businesses to rent office space, storefronts, and warehouses. That tax is gone, but a few categories of space are still taxable under a different statute, and landlords who collected the old tax still have returns and liabilities to close out.
What the Repeal Covers
The repealed tax applied to nearly any physical space leased for business purposes: office buildings, retail storefronts, warehouses, manufacturing facilities, and self-storage units. It was calculated on total rent, which included base rent plus common area maintenance charges, property tax pass-throughs, and insurance premiums required by the lease. All of that is now outside the sales tax base for occupancy periods beginning October 1, 2025 or later.
Exemptions that mattered under the old regime, like the 501(c)(3) exemption using a Florida Consumer’s Certificate of Exemption (Form DR-14) and the carve-out for government tenants, no longer matter for standard commercial leases. They still carry weight for the categories that remain taxable.
Spaces That Are Still Taxed
Section 212.03 of the Florida Statutes was not touched by the repeal. Sales tax continues to apply at 6 percent, plus any county discretionary surtax, to three categories the reader may assume were swept up and were not:
- Parking spaces in lots or garages, including towed-vehicle storage facilities.
- Boat slips and storage at docks and marinas.
- Aircraft tie-downs and hangar storage at airports.
One narrow exception: if a vehicle, boat, or aircraft is stored at the direction of law enforcement, the charges tied to that lawful impoundment are not taxable.
Rent That Straddles October 1, 2025
The Department of Revenue’s Tax Information Publication 25A01-04 keyed the tax to occupancy, not to when the payment was made or invoiced.
- Rent for any occupancy period ending on or before September 30, 2025 is still taxable, even if the tenant pays months late. A payment received in 2026 for August 2025 occupancy still owes the tax.
- Rent for any occupancy period beginning on or after October 1, 2025 is not taxable, regardless of when it was paid. A tenant who prepaid October rent in September should not have been charged tax on it.
- A single payment covering both sides of the cutoff must be prorated, with tax applied only to the portion allocable to pre-October occupancy.
Year-end reconciliations follow the same logic. If CAM adjustments or property tax true-ups for 2025 arrive during 2026, tax applies only to the share allocable to occupancy before October 1, 2025.
Getting a Refund if Tax Was Collected on Post-Repeal Rent
A tenant who was charged sales tax on rent for an occupancy period starting October 1, 2025 or later should go to the landlord first, not the Department of Revenue. The Department will not process refund claims from tenants who paid the tax to a landlord.
Once the landlord refunds the tax to the tenant, the landlord can recover that money from the state by filing an Application for Refund (Form DR-26S) with documentation showing the tenant was reimbursed. There is no automatic process. Nobody at the Department is going to initiate this; the parties have to act.
This is worth watching through 2026 because of late reconciliations. A property manager issuing CAM true-ups or property tax adjustments for the 2025 year may send an invoice that mishandles the pre- and post-October split. Review those line items before paying.
Final Returns, Account Closure, and Back Liabilities for Landlords
Landlords who collected commercial rent tax before the repeal still owe final returns. The Department set the final reporting periods by filing frequency:
- Monthly filers: July, August, and September 2025.
- Quarterly filers: July through September 2025.
- Semiannual filers: July through December 2025.
- Annual filers: January through December 2025.
A return is required for each period even if no tax is due. If September 2025 had no tenants, a zero-balance return still had to go in.
Account closure is partly automatic. If your sales tax account was used only to collect commercial rent tax, the Department has stated it will close the account after final returns are filed. If the same account is also used for other taxable activity, like running a retail business, the registration stays active. Either way, verify the account status rather than assume the closure happened cleanly.
The repeal does not forgive anything owed from earlier periods. Penalties and interest that accrued on late or unfiled returns before October 2025 are still due, and the Department has said unresolved liabilities may trigger further enforcement. Florida’s floating interest rate on delinquent taxes is 11 percent for January through June 2026, and that rate applies to any unpaid commercial rent tax from prior periods. Interest keeps running on top of whatever penalties were already assessed.
What to Check Right Now
If you are a commercial tenant, pull a recent invoice. No sales tax line should appear on rent for any occupancy period after September 30, 2025. If one does, raise it with the landlord and request a refund for the overcharge.
If you are a commercial landlord, confirm that your billing stopped adding sales tax as of October 1, 2025, file any outstanding returns through September 2025, and verify with the Department that your account closed properly if commercial rent was your only taxable activity. If you also rent out parking spaces, boat slips, or aircraft tie-downs, keep collecting the 6 percent plus any county surtax on those; the repeal does not reach them.