How to Close Your Florida Sales Tax Account Online

To close a Florida sales tax account, submit a cancellation request to the Florida Department of Revenue (FDOR) and file a final sales tax return (Form DR-15) with all tax paid within 15 days of your closing date. Miss either step and the account stays open, which means the FDOR keeps expecting returns and will eventually issue estimated assessments with penalties and interest attached.

Should You Cancel or Go Inactive?

Cancel the account if you are shutting the business down, selling it to a new owner, changing the legal structure (a sole proprietorship becoming an LLC, for example), or permanently ending taxable sales even though the business itself continues. In a sale, the buyer needs their own separate registration; the seller’s account cannot transfer.

If the pause is temporary, the FDOR lets you place the account in inactive status instead. An inactive account will not receive an annual resale certificate and does not require regular return filings while dormant. Cancellation is permanent and cannot be reversed. Choose inactive status only if you genuinely plan to resume taxable sales.

Cancel Through the FDOR Online Portal

The fastest route is the FDOR’s online tool, “Request a Change of Business Name, Address, and/or Account Status.” Work through it in this order:

Complete the account identification section with your sales tax certificate number and business details.
Check the box for Sales and Use Tax as the tax type you are canceling.
In the account status section, select “Cancel” and enter your exact closing date. This is the last day you made or will make taxable sales, and it sets your final reporting period.
Enter a phone number and email where the FDOR can reach you after the business closes.
Review the closing date carefully and submit.

The FDOR does not mail a formal confirmation letter. Check the portal or call Taxpayer Services to verify the status change went through.

File the Final Sales Tax Return

Your final DR-15 covers the period from the day after your last filed return through your closing date. All tax owed is due within 15 days of the closing date, which is shorter than the normal monthly due date of the 20th, and missing it triggers penalties immediately.¹

The return must account for every taxable transaction during that last period, including any liquidation or bulk sales of inventory, equipment, furniture, or fixtures. Report the applicable discretionary county surtax on top of the 6% state rate.² File the return even if no tax is due; if none arrives, the FDOR will estimate your liability and impose penalties.

Collection Allowance

File electronically and pay on time and you can still claim the collection allowance on the final return. It is 2.5% of the first $1,200 in tax due, up to $30 per reporting location.² Small, but there is no reason to leave it behind.

Credit Balance Refund

A credit balance from prior overpayments does not come back automatically when you cancel. File Form DR-26S (Application for Refund – Sales and Use Tax) alongside the final return, with a detailed explanation of how you calculated the refund amount, the dates of the overpayment, and a copy of your final DR-15.³ Documentation can be submitted electronically by contacting the FDOR Refunds office at (850) 617-8585.

Use Tax on Inventory You Keep

This catches people off guard. If you bought inventory tax-free under your resale certificate and then keep it for personal use instead of selling it, you owe use tax on those items. The same applies to any merchandise originally bought for resale that never gets resold.² Report it on the final DR-15.

Equipment is treated differently. If you already paid sales tax when you originally purchased it, you generally do not owe again. The sale of non-inventory business property during a complete liquidation may qualify as an exempt isolated transaction, meaning the buyer owes no sales tax on it either. Inventory never qualifies for that exemption. Sales of inventory are always taxable.

If You Are Closing Because You Sold the Business

Anyone who purchases more than 50% of a Florida business, its assets, or its stock of goods becomes personally liable for the seller’s unpaid sales tax, capped at the greater of the purchase price or the fair market value of what was transferred. The buyer clears that liability by requiring you to provide a certificate of compliance from the FDOR showing all returns filed and all taxes paid, or by requesting a full FDOR audit of your books, which the department must complete within 90 days.⁴

Expect the buyer to ask for the compliance certificate. Getting your final return filed and any balance paid is what lets the FDOR issue it.

Penalties for Missing the Deadline

Miss the 15-day deadline and the FDOR imposes a penalty of 10% of the tax owed, with a minimum of $50 even when no tax is due.⁵ That $50 floor is the part that surprises owners who assume a zero-balance final return does not matter.

If the FDOR later finds unreported tax, the penalty escalates: 10% of the unpaid amount for the first 30 days, then an additional 10% for each 30-day period the tax remains unpaid, up to a maximum of 50%.⁵ Florida also charges a floating interest rate on all delinquent tax. For the first half of 2026, that rate is 11%.⁶

The worst outcome is walking away and never closing the account at all. The FDOR keeps generating return obligations for every filing period, and when nothing arrives, it issues estimated assessments. Those estimates are rarely in your favor, and each one carries its own penalty and interest. Owners who abandoned an account years ago sometimes learn they owe thousands they never knew about.

Records to Keep After You Close

Canceling does not end your obligations. Florida law requires every dealer to maintain complete records of all taxable transactions and to make them available to the FDOR for inspection.⁷ Plan on at least three years, because that is how long the FDOR has to assess additional tax after a return is filed or due, whichever is later.⁸

Keep sales receipts, purchase invoices, exemption certificates, and copies of every filed return including your final DR-15. A dealer who fails to maintain or produce required records commits a first-degree misdemeanor, and intentionally destroying records to evade taxes is a third-degree felony.⁷ Beyond criminal exposure, if you cannot produce records during an audit, the FDOR will estimate your liability, and those estimates tend to be unfavorable.

Closing the Tax Account Is Not Dissolving the Business

Canceling your sales tax registration with the FDOR and dissolving your entity with the Florida Division of Corporations (Sunbiz) are two separate processes. Neither triggers the other. Dissolve your LLC with Sunbiz and your sales tax account can still sit open, with the FDOR expecting returns from a business that no longer exists. Close the tax account and your entity keeps existing, potentially owing annual report fees.

If you are shutting down for good, handle both, and do the tax account first. Cancel with the FDOR while the entity is still alive so you can file the final return and settle any tax owed. Then file articles of dissolution with the Division of Corporations. Reversing that order leaves you trying to resolve tax issues on behalf of an entity you have already dissolved.

1
Florida Department of Revenue. Instructions for DR-15 Sales and Use Tax Returns
2
Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Sales and Use Tax
3
Florida Department of Revenue. Instructions – Application for Refund Sales and Use Tax
4
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 213.758 – Transfer of Tax Liabilities
5
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 212.12 – Dealer’s Credit, Penalty for Delinquencies
6
Florida Department of Revenue. Floating Rate of Interest for Deficiencies and Late Payments
7
Justia. Florida Code 212.13 – Records Required to Be Kept; Power to Inspect; Audit Procedure
8
Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 95.091 – Limitation on Actions to Collect Taxes