How to Get Your Florida Certificate of Registration (Form DR-11)

To get a Florida Certificate of Registration (Form DR-11), file a Florida Business Tax Application (Form DR-1) with the Florida Department of Revenue, either through the online registration portal or on paper. There is no fee.¹ The physical DR-11 arrives by mail after approval; if you apply online, your certificate number is retrievable from the portal within three business days.

Who Has to Register

Florida Statutes 212.18 requires any person operating as a “dealer” in Florida to apply for a certificate of registration for each place of business before making taxable sales.² Dealer status covers more than storefront retail. You need to register if you:

Sell or rent tangible personal property at retail.
Lease, rent, or license living quarters in hotels, motels, vacation rentals, apartment houses, rooming houses, or trailer camps subject to tax under Section 212.03.
Provide nonresidential cleaning, nonresidential pest control, or detective and security protection services.³
Sell admissions (event tickets, amusement park entry, recreational charges).
Retail prepaid wireless telecommunications services, which also triggers the 40-cent Prepaid Wireless E911 Fee on each sale.⁴

Wholesalers and manufacturers who sell mainly to other businesses still need the certificate if they engage in tax-exempt transactions, because the DR-11 validates their dealer status for both collecting tax and claiming exemptions.

Out-of-State and Remote Sellers

If you have no physical location in Florida, you still have to register once your taxable remote sales into the state exceed $100,000 in the previous calendar year. Florida uses only a dollar threshold; there is no transaction-count trigger.⁵ Sales made through a marketplace provider (Amazon, Etsy, and the like) don’t count toward the threshold, because the marketplace collects and remits on those sales itself.

What to Gather Before You Apply

Have this information ready before starting the DR-1:

Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN). Required if you’re registering for Reemployment Tax. Sole proprietors with no employees who don’t need an FEIN can use their Social Security Number instead.⁶
Legal business name, exactly as registered with the Florida Department of State.
Your six-digit NAICS code (primary code listed first if you use more than one).
Physical business address, plus a mailing address if it’s different.
For corporations, LLCs, and partnerships: name, Social Security Number, driver license number, residential address, and contact information for each officer, partner, managing member, or trustee.¹
Bank routing and account numbers if you plan to enroll in electronic filing during registration.

Filing Form DR-1

Online

The Department of Revenue’s online registration portal is the fastest route. An interactive wizard walks you through the questions and determines which tax types you need to register for based on your answers.⁷ New users create a username and password to begin, and you can save your progress and finish later.

The application asks for a business start date, which sets when your tax-reporting obligations begin. Most retail businesses select Sales and Use Tax, and the wizard may prompt you to register for additional taxes (Reemployment Tax, Prepaid Wireless Fee, and others) based on your responses. Choose your entity type carefully; it drives which owner and officer fields the form asks you to complete.

Once you submit, you get an on-screen confirmation, and the certificate number is retrievable from the site within three business days.¹

By Paper

Download Form DR-1 from the Department of Revenue’s website, complete it, and either bring it to your nearest taxpayer service center or mail it to Account Management, MS 1-5730, Florida Department of Revenue, 5050 W Tennessee St, Tallahassee FL 32399-0160.⁶ Paper applications take several weeks to process compared with a few business days online. Either way, there is no application fee.

What You Receive After Approval

Two documents arrive by mail once the Department processes your application:

Certificate of Registration (Form DR-11), which authorizes you to conduct business at the specific address shown and to collect the applicable taxes there. It carries your tax account number, which you’ll use to file returns.⁸
Annual Resale Certificate for Sales Tax (Form DR-13), which lets you buy or rent property and services tax-free when you intend to resell or re-rent them. You give suppliers a copy of the DR-13 to document tax-exempt purchases for resale.⁹¹⁰

Florida law requires you to display the DR-11 conspicuously at the business location it was issued for and to keep it displayed at all times. The certificate is not transferable; it is valid only for the person, firm, partnership, or corporation named on it.¹¹ If someone buys the business, the new owner has to file a fresh DR-1 for their own certificate. Your DR-11 remains valid as long as you keep operating under the same ownership at the registered address, though the Department can cancel it for failure to comply with Chapter 212.

If You Have More Than One Location

Every place of business needs its own certificate of registration.² If you already have a registered location and open another, use the Application for Registered Businesses to Add a New Florida Location (Form DR-1A) rather than filing a full DR-1 again.¹²

To keep filing manageable, Florida offers two consolidation options. A county control reporting number (Form DR-1CCN) lets you file a single return covering all your locations within one county, and you can request a separate county control number for each county where you operate. A consolidated filing number (Form DR-1CON) lets you make one sales tax payment covering all locations across multiple counties.¹²

Vending machine and newspaper rack machine operators are an exception to the one-certificate-per-location rule: they need only one certificate per county where their machines are located.¹¹

When You Have to Reapply or Cancel

Some changes trigger a whole new registration rather than a simple update. File a new DR-1 if your legal entity type changes, if ownership changes, or if you move your business from one Florida county to another. Each of these produces a new DR-11.¹³

To close the account, cancel your registration through the Department of Revenue’s online account management system. Cancellation is permanent. Before the account closes, file a final return and pay all taxes due within 15 days of your closing date; the final return covers the period from your last regular filing through the closure date.¹³

Penalties for Operating Without a Certificate

Operating as a dealer without a certificate of registration is a first-degree misdemeanor under Florida law, punishable by up to one year in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. The Department can also seek an injunction to stop the activity and impose a $100 registration fee, which may be waived if the failure to register was due to reasonable cause rather than willful neglect or fraud.¹⁴

The exposure rises sharply if you ignore a direct notice. If the Department sends you written notice of your duty to register, either by personal service or by registered mail, and you willfully refuse, the offense becomes a third-degree felony.¹⁴ The straightforward way to avoid all of this is to file the DR-1 before you start making taxable sales.

1
Florida Department of Revenue. Instructions for Completing the Florida Business Tax Application
2
Florida Legislature. Florida Code 212.18 – Administration of Law; Registration of Dealers; Rules
3
The Florida Senate. Florida Code 212.05 – Sales, Storage, Use Tax
4
Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Prepaid Wireless Fee
5
Florida Legislature. Florida Code 212.0596 – Taxation of Remote Sales
6
Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Business Tax Application
7
Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Department of Revenue – Account Management and Registration
8
Florida Department of Revenue. Beginning Your Relationship with the Florida Department of Revenue
9
Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Annual Resale Certificate for Sales Tax
10
Florida Department of Revenue. Annual Resale Certificate for Sales Tax
11
Florida Senate. Florida Code 212.18 – Administration of Law; Registration of Dealers; Rules
12
Florida Department of Revenue. Registering Your Business
13
Florida Department of Revenue. Request a Change of Business Name, Address, and/or Account Status
14
Florida Senate. Florida Code 212.18 – Administration of Law; Registration of Dealers; Rules