Lee County Tourist Tax: Rentals, Registration, and Filing

The Lee County tourist tax is a 5% levy on short-term rentals of six months or less, charged on top of Florida’s 6.5% state and local sales tax for a combined 11.5% on the rental charge.¹ If you rent out a hotel room, condo, apartment, timeshare, RV space, mobile home space, or a single-family home in Lee County for stays of six months or less, you are responsible for the tax being collected from your guests and remitted to the county — either directly, or through a booking platform that handles it for you.

What Rentals Are Taxed

Florida law authorizes counties to tax anyone who rents living quarters for six months or less, and Lee County sets that rate at 5% of gross rent.² The tax covers hotels, motels, condominiums, apartments, timeshares, recreational vehicle parks, and mobile home parks.

Single-family homes rented through Airbnb, VRBO, or similar platforms are not exempt. The Lee County Clerk’s office puts them under the same rules that apply to hotels and condos.³

The 5% applies to the gross rent, which means the nightly rate plus any mandatory fees a guest can’t avoid: cleaning fees, pet fees, extra-person charges. Optional add-ons and refundable damage deposits are generally not part of the taxable amount.

When the Booking Platform Pays for You

This is where hosts either stop worrying too soon or worry unnecessarily. If your property is listed on Airbnb, VRBO, or HomeAway, those platforms collect the 5% tourist development tax from your guests and remit it directly to Lee County.¹⁴ If every one of your bookings comes through a platform that remits on your behalf, you may not need a county account at all.

Property management software is not the same as a booking platform. Tools like Evolve, Hostaway, Guesty, and Lodgify push your listing to booking sites, but the tax obligation stays with you. You must register, collect, and file. The same is true if you advertise on Craigslist, run your own website, or take direct bookings.¹

If a licensed property manager or rental agent handles your unit, that dealer keeps their own tourist development tax account and files a consolidated return covering all their clients. You don’t need a separate account for rentals routed through the dealer. But if you also rent the property yourself in some months, you need your own account for those periods.¹

Who Doesn’t Owe the Tax

A guest with a bona fide written lease for continuous residence of more than six months is not subject to the tax. The word “continuous” matters: stringing together short bookings that happen to total six months does not qualify. There has to be an actual long-term lease.²

Federal employees on official business are exempt only when the federal agency either pays the lodging provider directly or reimburses the employee for actual cost, the employee doesn’t use the room for personal purposes, and the property owner keeps a copy of the Federal Employee Exemption Certificate on file.¹

State, county, and city employees can qualify too, but the rules are tighter. The rental must be billed to and paid by the governmental unit itself with official funds. If the employee pays out of pocket and gets reimbursed later, the tax applies. You’ll need a copy of the government’s Consumer’s Certificate of Exemption (Form DR-14) from the Florida Department of Revenue, along with documentation of the purchasing card used.¹

Registering an Account

Before your first guest checks in, set up a tourist development tax account with the Lee County Clerk of Court. There are two application types: an owner application if you handle your own rentals, and a dealer application for licensed property managers or rental agents who represent other owners.¹

Use the owner application if you find your own tenants, sign the leases, grant access, and collect payment. Real estate professionals must run all short-term rental activity through their real estate company and qualifying broker. Once your application is processed, the Clerk assigns an account number and login credentials for the online payment portal.

Filing and Paying Each Month

Returns and payments are due on or before the 20th of the month after the rental period. Rent collected in June is due by July 20. You can file online through the Clerk’s portal or mail a paper return postmarked by the deadline.¹

File every month the account is active. If the property sat empty and you collected nothing, you still file a zero-dollar return. Skipping the month is not an option while the account is open.

File electronically and on time and you can keep a collection allowance of 2.5% of the tax collected, capped at $30 per month.⁵ On $1,000 in gross rent, the 5% tax comes to $50, the allowance is $1.25, and you remit $48.75. Small, but it adds up over a year of steady bookings.

Penalties for Late or Missed Returns

Miss the 20th and the penalty kicks in immediately: a minimum of $50 or up to 50% of the tax due, whichever is greater.¹ For a small host, that $50 floor can easily exceed the tax owed, and it applies even to a forgotten zero-dollar return.

Under Florida law, anyone who fails or refuses to collect the tax from guests is personally liable for the unpaid amount and can be charged with a first-degree misdemeanor. Advertising that you’ll absorb the tax, or offering a tax-free rate, is a criminal offense under the same statute.² Most enforcement in practice starts with audits and back-tax assessments, but the criminal authority sits in the statute.

1
Lee County Clerk of Court, FL. Tourist Development Tax
2
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 125.0104 – Tourist Development Tax
3
Lee County Clerk of Court, FL. Tourist Development Tax
4
Vrbo. US (F-M) Where Vrbo Collects and Remits Taxes and Lodging Taxes
5
Tax Collector. How Often Must Tourist Tax Returns and Payments Be Filed