Florida Form RTS-3, the Employer Account Change Form, is what you file with the Florida Department of Revenue to update your reemployment tax account. Use it to change a mailing or business address, update a corporate name, inactivate or reactivate or cancel the account, or report that you have started leasing your workforce. The changes apply to your reemployment tax account by default, and the form lets you extend the same update to other Florida tax accounts you hold.1Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Form RTS-3 Employer Account Change Form
What RTS-3 Can and Cannot Change
The form handles five categories of updates:
- Address updates, including your business location, general mailing address, and the addresses where you receive benefit and claims notices, quarterly reports, and tax rate notices.
- Account status changes: inactivate the account when you have suspended operations and have no employees, reactivate it when you resume paying wages, or cancel it when you have no plans for future business activity.
- Corporate name changes, with the new name and the effective date.
- Employee leasing notifications when you begin leasing all or part of your workforce.
- Cross-account updates that apply the same change to other Florida tax accounts, such as sales and use tax, corporate income tax, or communications services tax.
RTS-3 does not cover a change in legal entity type or a change in ownership. Converting from a sole proprietorship to a corporation, switching from a partnership to an LLC, or selling the business to a new owner all require a new Florida Business Tax Application (Form DR-1) instead.1Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Form RTS-3 Employer Account Change Form And if a business sale involves transferring the seller’s experience rating to the new owner, that goes on Form RTS-1S, which both parties must sign and return within 30 days of notification.2Florida Department of Revenue. Employer Guide to Reemployment Tax
Before You Start
Download RTS-3 from the Department of Revenue’s forms library at floridarevenue.com. Have your seven-digit Reemployment Tax (RT) Account Number and your Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN) in front of you.3FloridaCommerce. Reemployment Assistance Employer FAQ The form has seven sections, and you fill in only the ones that apply to the change you are making.
Filling Out Each Section
Section 1: Identify the Account
Every submission starts here. Enter the account name, RT Account Number, mailing address, Business Partner Number, Tax Certificate Number, FEIN, and your contact information (email, phone, fax). These identifiers connect your requested changes to the correct account, so check them against your most recent quarterly report or tax rate notice.1Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Form RTS-3 Employer Account Change Form
Section 2: Tax Type
By default the form updates only your reemployment tax account. If you want the same change to reach other Florida tax accounts, check the appropriate boxes here. The options include corporate income tax, motor fuels tax, gross receipts tax, documentary stamp tax, communications services tax, solid waste fees, sales and use tax, and prepaid wireless fees.1Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Form RTS-3 Employer Account Change Form
Section 3: Address Change
Select which address you are updating and enter the new one. The form distinguishes among your business location, your general mailing address, and the addresses used for specific reemployment tax correspondence: benefit and claims notices, quarterly reports, and tax rate notices. You can update more than one on the same form.1Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Form RTS-3 Employer Account Change Form
Section 4: Account Status
Choose one action and give an effective date:
- Inactivate, if operations are temporarily suspended and you have no employees.
- Reactivate, if you are active again and paying wages.
- Cancel, if you have no plans for future business activity.
Cancellations cannot be reversed, so choose that option only when you are sure the business is closed for good. If you are closing, record both the date of your final wage payment and the date operations actually stopped. That lets the Department deactivate the account and stop generating quarterly return requirements.1Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Form RTS-3 Employer Account Change Form
Section 5: Corporate Name Change
Enter the new name exactly as it appears on updated articles of incorporation or other official state filings, and give the effective date. A name change is not the same as a change in legal entity: renaming an existing corporation is an RTS-3 matter, converting to a different structure is a DR-1 matter.1Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Form RTS-3 Employer Account Change Form
Section 6: Leasing Employees
Indicate whether you are leasing all or part of your workforce, and give the date leasing began. You also need the leasing company’s RT Account Number, FEIN, and Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) license number.1Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Form RTS-3 Employer Account Change Form
Section 7: Signature
An authorized person (the business owner, a general partner, or a corporate officer) must sign and date the form and give a daytime phone number and title. The signature certifies legal authority to make changes to the account.
How to Submit the Form
You have three options:1Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Form RTS-3 Employer Account Change Form
- Mail: Florida Department of Revenue, P.O. Box 6510, Tallahassee, FL 32314-6510
- Email: DOC_MGR@floridarevenue.com
- Fax: 850-922-0859
For questions before or after you file, call 850-488-6800. If your change goes beyond what RTS-3 covers, such as updating e-services contact information or banking details, file a new DR-1 or update your enrollment at floridarevenue.com/taxes/eEnroll.1Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Form RTS-3 Employer Account Change Form
Why It Pays to File Promptly
Florida law penalizes employers who miss required reports. Each delinquent report draws $25 for every 30 days (or fraction of 30 days) it is late, and further penalties apply once an assessment notice goes out. An erroneous, incomplete, or illegible report carries a separate penalty of $50 or 10 percent of any tax due, whichever is greater, capped at $300 per report; the Department will waive that penalty once every 12 months if you file a corrected report within 30 days of the penalty notice.4Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 443.141
Those penalties attach to quarterly and other required reports rather than to RTS-3 itself. Still, an out-of-date account triggers exactly the problems that lead to those penalties: delinquent notices mailed to an old address, incorrect tax rate assignments, quarterly returns generated for a business that no longer exists.
Federal Filings That May Go With It
Some of the business changes that prompt an RTS-3 also trigger federal reporting. Handling both at once avoids gaps.
Changing your business name or address does not require a new Employer Identification Number. Changes to entity type or ownership generally do. A sole proprietor who incorporates or forms a partnership needs a new EIN. A corporation that merges into a new entity or converts to a sole proprietorship needs one. Partnerships that incorporate or dissolve and re-form need new numbers as well.5Internal Revenue Service. When to Get a New EIN
For an address change or a change in the business’s “responsible party” (the person who controls or manages the entity), file IRS Form 8822-B. A responsible-party change must be reported within 60 days.6Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8822-B, Change of Address or Responsible Party – Business
If the Business Is Being Sold or Acquired
When a Florida business is sold, the new owner can either accept the seller’s reemployment tax experience rating or take the standard initial rate of 2.7 percent. That choice runs through Form RTS-1S, not RTS-3. The successor must notify the Department of the acquisition within 90 days of the date the transfer began, and the signed RTS-1S must be returned within 30 days of the date the Department mails the notification of option. Missing either deadline means the transfer is denied.2Florida Department of Revenue. Employer Guide to Reemployment Tax
Partial transfers follow the same deadlines. If the buyer acquires only one unit or division, both parties sign the RTS-1S and provide the total number of employees before the transfer, the number in the transferred unit, and when that unit first began operations under the seller. When common ownership, management, or control exists between the two employers, the experience rating transfer is mandatory rather than optional.2Florida Department of Revenue. Employer Guide to Reemployment Tax
Keep a copy of every RTS-3 you submit, along with the underlying documents (updated articles of incorporation, a lease agreement, a closing date record) that support the change.