How to Get a Seller’s Permit in Florida: Apply, Collect, File

To get a seller’s permit in Florida, register your business with the Florida Department of Revenue using Form DR-1, the Florida Business Tax Application. Registration is free, can be completed online, and results in a Certificate of Registration (Form DR-11) that authorizes you to collect Florida’s 6% state sales tax on taxable sales.¹ You need the permit before your first taxable sale, not after.

Do You Actually Need to Register

Florida requires a Certificate of Registration for any business engaged in activity subject to state sales or use tax. The most common triggers are retail sales of tangible personal property, repairs or alterations of that property, short-term rentals of hotel rooms and vacation accommodations, and leasing of equipment or vehicles.¹ Temporary vendors selling taxable items at craft fairs, festivals, or trade shows also need to register before the event, even for a single weekend.

A boundary worth knowing: Florida repealed the state sales tax on commercial real property rentals effective October 1, 2025. If leasing commercial office or retail space is your only activity, that alone no longer triggers a registration requirement.²

Out-of-State Sellers

You don’t have to be physically in Florida to owe registration. Out-of-state businesses must register if they have a physical presence in the state (employees, an office, a warehouse, or inventory) or if they meet Florida’s economic nexus threshold: more than $100,000 in taxable sales to Florida customers during the previous calendar year.³¹

Marketplace Sellers

If you sell exclusively through a marketplace like Amazon, eBay, or Etsy, the platform is treated as the dealer and collects the tax for you. Florida law requires marketplace providers to collect and remit sales tax on taxable retail sales made through their platform.⁴ That coverage stops at the platform’s edge. If you also sell direct through your own website or at in-person events, you still need your own permit for those sales.

What to Gather Before You Apply

Form DR-1 asks for a specific set of details. Have these ready before you start:

Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN). Sole proprietors without an FEIN can use a Social Security Number instead.⁵
Business entity type: sole proprietorship, LLC, corporation, partnership, or other.⁶
The date your taxable activity began or will begin.⁶
Names, addresses, Social Security Numbers, and driver license numbers for all owners, partners, officers, or managing members.⁵
Physical location, mailing address, and contact information.
An estimate of your monthly taxable sales.

One point that catches multi-site operators: if your business runs from more than one location, each address needs its own Certificate of Registration and its own application.¹

Submit the Application

The fastest path is the Department of Revenue’s online registration portal. An interactive wizard walks you through the questions that determine which taxes apply to your business, auto-populates some fields, and returns your certificate number electronically once approved.⁷

If you prefer paper, print Form DR-1, complete it, and mail it to the Department’s Account Management office in Tallahassee, or drop it at a local taxpayer service center.⁵ Paper takes longer to process. If you have a launch date coming up, file online.

What You Receive

Online applicants can retrieve their certificate number through the registration portal within a few business days. The Department then mails two documents to the business address: the Certificate of Registration (Form DR-11) and the Florida Annual Resale Certificate for Sales Tax (Form DR-13).⁸

Display the Certificate of Registration prominently at the business location it was issued for. That’s a requirement, not a suggestion. If the Department needs anything else to process the application, it will contact you.

What Comes With the Permit

Getting registered is the easy part. The permit obligates you to collect the right amount of tax, file on schedule, and file even when there’s nothing to remit.

Collect State Tax Plus County Surtax

Florida’s base state sales tax rate is 6%.⁹ Most counties add a discretionary sales surtax of 0.5% to 1.5%. You charge the surtax based on the county where the product is delivered, not where you’re located. If delivery is to a county with no surtax, you collect only the base 6%.¹⁰

For tangible personal property, the surtax applies only to the first $5,000 of any single transaction. A $10,000 equipment sale in a 1% surtax county gets 6% on the full $10,000 and 1% on the first $5,000. That cap does not apply to transient rentals, admissions, or services. The Department publishes updated county rates each November on Form DR-15DSS and provides an address lookup tool for confirming the correct rate.¹⁰

File on Time, Every Period

Sales tax returns are due on the 1st of the month following the reporting period and become late after the 20th. January sales on a monthly schedule are due February 1 and late after February 20.¹ State tax and county surtax go on the same return, Form DR-15.¹⁰

The Department assigns your filing frequency based on volume. Businesses collecting more than $1,000 a year generally file monthly; those collecting $100 or less may file annually. File a return for every reporting period even if you collected zero tax. Skipping a zero-dollar return triggers a minimum $50 penalty, which surprises a lot of new registrants who assume no sales means no filing.¹

Filing on time earns a small collection allowance of 2.5% of the tax due, capped at $30 per report. Late filers forfeit it.

Closing the Permit

If you stop doing taxable business in Florida, formally cancel the registration through the Department’s online account portal. Cancellations are permanent and cannot be reversed. File a final return and pay all tax due within 15 days of the closing date. Leaving the account open without canceling means filing penalties keep accruing on every missed period.¹¹

Buying an Existing Business Instead

If you’re acquiring a Florida business rather than starting one, request a tax clearance from the Department of Revenue before closing. Florida can hold a successor liable for the previous owner’s unpaid sales tax, and without a clearance confirming the seller is current, those debts can transfer with the business. Contact the Department with the seller’s account information and the details of the purchase, and build extra weeks into your timeline for the clearance letter to come back.

1
Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Sales and Use Tax
2
Florida Department of Revenue. Sales Tax on Commercial Rentals Repealed Effective October 1, 2025
3
Florida Department of Revenue. Information for Out-of-State Businesses
4
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 212.05965 – Marketplace Providers
5
Florida Department of Revenue. Instructions for Completing the Florida Business Tax Application
6
Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Business Tax Application
7
Florida Department of Revenue. Account Management and Registration
8
Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Annual Resale Certificate for Sales Tax
9
Florida Department of Revenue. Tax and Interest Rates
10
Florida Department of Revenue. Discretionary Sales Surtax
11
Florida Department of Revenue. Request a Change of Business Name, Address, and/or Account Status