How to File Florida’s DR-15 Sales and Use Tax Return

To file Florida’s DR-15 sales and use tax return, register with the Florida Department of Revenue, calculate your gross sales, allowable deductions, use tax, and discretionary sales surtax for the reporting period, and submit the return with payment electronically so your confirmation posts by 5:00 p.m. ET on the business day before the 20th of the following month. The DR-15 covers the 6% state sales tax, use tax on untaxed purchases, and the county-level surtax that most Florida counties layer on top, all on one form.¹ Filing on time and electronically also preserves the small collection allowance the state gives dealers for handling the tax.

Register First and Confirm Your Filing Frequency

You cannot file a DR-15 without a Certificate of Registration. Any business selling, leasing, or renting tangible personal property or taxable services in Florida must register through the Florida Business Tax Application. Out-of-state sellers must register once their taxable remote sales into Florida exceed $100,000 in the previous calendar year.² The certificate number issued at registration is your identifier on every return that follows.

The DOR then assigns you a filing frequency based on how much sales tax you remitted over the previous four calendar quarters:

Annual: $100 or less in total tax remitted.
Semiannual: $500 or less.
Quarterly: $1,000 or less.
Quarterly return with monthly payments: more than $1,000 but not over $12,000.
Monthly: more than $12,000.

File a return for every assigned period even when you owe nothing. Skipping a zero-tax period is one of the fastest ways to draw a penalty notice. If a one-time large sale pushes you above your current threshold, you can ask the DOR in writing to keep your existing schedule as long as the spike is nonrecurring.³

Prepare Your Numbers Before You Open the Form

Most of the work happens before you touch a single line on the DR-15. Start with total gross sales for the period, which includes every transaction — taxable, exempt, and use-tax-only. Nothing is excluded from that top-line figure.

From there, subtract allowable deductions to get your taxable base. The common ones are sales for resale backed by a valid resale certificate, sales to government agencies or organizations holding a Florida Consumer’s Certificate of Exemption, and returned merchandise you fully refunded. Florida also exempts most unprepared groceries, prescription and many over-the-counter medicines, medical devices, diapers and incontinence products, menstrual products, oral hygiene items, and prescription eyewear.⁴ These sales still appear in your gross number and are subtracted out before tax is applied.

Keep every exemption certificate, credit memo, and supporting document for at least three years from the date the return is filed or its due date, whichever is later.⁵ If an auditor asks for documentation you cannot produce, the deduction is reversed and you owe the tax plus interest.

Use Tax on Untaxed Purchases

Use tax picks up purchases that should have carried sales tax but didn’t. If you buy something for business use online or from an out-of-state vendor who didn’t collect Florida tax, you owe use tax at 6% plus any county surtax. The same applies when you pull inventory bought tax-free for resale and use it in your operations. If you already paid another state’s sales tax at a rate below 6%, you can claim a credit for what you paid on Line 6 of the DR-15.⁶

Discretionary Sales Surtax by County

Most counties add a discretionary sales surtax on top of the 6% state rate. The rate is based on the county where the goods or services are delivered, not where your business sits. For 2026, county rates range from 0% to 2%; a few counties, including Citrus and Collier, impose none.⁷

For sales of tangible personal property, the surtax applies only to the first $5,000 of the price of any single item. Anything above $5,000 on that item is exempt from surtax, though the full 6% state tax still applies to the whole price.⁸ The cap does not apply to services, admissions, service warranties, transient accommodations, vehicle parking or storage, boat docking, or aircraft storage. On those, surtax is owed on the full amount.⁹ If your inventory includes items priced above $5,000, separate those transactions in your worksheet so the cap gets applied correctly. Miscalculating surtax is one of the more common DR-15 errors and it tends to surface in audits.

Filling Out the DR-15 Line by Line

The form is laid out in columns. Each row is a transaction category, and the columns walk you from gross amounts through exempt amounts to the tax due for that category.

Line A takes your gross sales of taxable goods, services, and electricity. Enter exempt sales in the next column; the difference is your taxable amount, and 6% of that is the state tax for the line.¹

Line B is where taxable purchases subject to use tax go. Credits for tax paid to another state get claimed on Line 6.⁶

Line C historically captured commercial rental income. Florida repealed the state sales tax on commercial real property rentals effective October 1, 2025, so for any rental period beginning on or after that date, no state tax or surtax applies. On a 2026 return, Line C should generally be zero unless you’re still reporting tax on a pre-repeal rental period.¹⁰

Lines 15(a) through 15(d) handle the surtax. You report the portion of tangible personal property sales exempt from surtax because of the $5,000-per-item cap, sales delivered to counties with no surtax, and the total surtax collected. Errors here roll into your total tax due, so double-check them.

The form then combines all the line-level tax amounts, applies your collection allowance if you qualify, subtracts credits for taxes paid to other states, and produces your final amount due.

File and Pay by the Right Deadline

Returns and payments are due on the 1st of the month following the reporting period. The DOR treats the return as late if it isn’t filed and paid by the 20th of that month. If the 20th falls on a weekend or state holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day.¹

Electronic filing through the DOR’s online portal is standard. To be timely, you must initiate the payment and receive a confirmation number by 5:00 p.m. ET on the business day before the 20th.¹ Dealers who wait until the 20th itself often find the payment doesn’t clear in time and the penalty attaches to the payment portion even when the return was filed. Treat the effective deadline as the business day before the 20th.

Dealers who paid $20,000 or more in sales and use tax during the most recent state fiscal year must file and pay electronically the following calendar year. Paper filing is available for smaller dealers, but paper filers forfeit the collection allowance.

Claim the Collection Allowance

Florida credits dealers 2.5% of the first $1,200 of tax due, capped at $30 per reporting period per location, for the administrative burden of collecting tax. You only get it if you file and pay electronically and on time.¹¹ File late, pay late, or file on paper and it disappears.⁵ The dollar figure is small, but skipping it every month adds up over a year, and preserving it costs nothing beyond filing on schedule.

Fixing a Return After You File

When you find an error after submitting, you correct it by filing an amended replacement return. Through the DOR’s online portal is fastest. On paper, download a blank DR-15, mark it “Amended replacement,” and fill in every line with the corrected figures for that period. You’re replacing the original entirely, not reporting the difference.⁵

If the corrected numbers show you underpaid, remit the additional tax with the amended filing. If they show an overpayment, the DOR applies a credit to your account. To take a refund in cash instead of a credit, file Form DR-26S (Application for Refund – Sales and Use Tax) with the original and amended returns, source invoices, and accounting records showing the overpayment.¹² If the overpayment involves tax you collected on a sale that turned out to be exempt, you also need proof you refunded the tax to the customer.

What Late or Wrong Filings Cost

Late filing and late payment each carry a 10% penalty of the tax owed, with a minimum $50 even when no tax is due. Miss both at once and the DOR imposes only one 10% penalty, not two.¹³

Underreporting is treated more harshly when the DOR finds it. That penalty is 10% of the unpaid amount for the first 30 days, plus another 10% for each subsequent 30-day period or fraction of one, up to a maximum of 50% of the unpaid tax.¹³

Interest accrues on any delinquent tax from the 21st day of the month after the reporting period until the balance is paid in full. Florida uses a floating interest rate updated every January 1 and July 1. For the first half of 2026, the annual rate is 11%, computed daily.¹⁴ Correcting an error early keeps the interest column from growing.

If You Should Have Been Filing All Along

If your business should have been collecting Florida sales tax but never registered, the DR-15 isn’t your starting point — voluntary disclosure is. The DOR’s program limits your lookback to three years before the disclosure request, and penalties are waived. The one exception: if you collected tax from customers and never remitted it, the DOR imposes a 5% penalty on those amounts.¹⁵ To qualify, the DOR must not have contacted you about the liability first; you have to come forward on your own. The program is authorized under Section 213.21(7), Florida Statutes. Compared with being caught in an audit, where penalties can reach 50% and the lookback may extend further, coming forward is almost always the cheaper path.

1
Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Sales and Use Tax Return DR-15
2
Florida Dept. of Revenue. Information for Out-of-State Businesses
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The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 212.11 – Tax Returns and Regulations
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Florida Department of Revenue. Nontaxable Medical Items and General Grocery List
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Florida Department of Revenue. Instructions for DR-15 Sales and Use Tax Returns
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Florida Department of Revenue. Instructions for DR-15 Sales and Use Tax Returns
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Florida Department of Revenue. Discretionary Sales Surtax Information for Calendar Year 2026
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Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 212.054 – Discretionary Sales Surtax
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Florida Department of Revenue. Discretionary Sales Surtax
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Florida Department of Revenue. Sales Tax on Commercial Rentals Repealed Effective October 1, 2025
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Florida Dept. of Revenue. Florida Sales and Use Tax
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Florida Department of Revenue. Instructions – Application for Refund Sales and Use Tax
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The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 212.12 – Dealer Registration, Penalties
14
Florida Dept. of Revenue. Tax and Interest Rates
15
Florida Dept. of Revenue. Voluntary Disclosure of Tax Liabilities