Orange County Tourist Development Tax: Rate, Filing, and Exemptions

The Orange County Tourist Development Tax is a 6% tax on the total price of any lodging rented for six months or less in Orange County, Florida, and the property owner or operator is responsible for collecting it from guests and remitting it monthly to the Orange County Comptroller.¹ It sits on top of Florida’s 6% state transient rental tax and a 0.5% county discretionary surtax, so a guest’s total tax on a short stay comes to 12.5% of the rental charge.²

Which Rentals Are Taxable

The test is duration. Any rental of living quarters or sleeping accommodations for six months or less triggers the tax, whether the property is a resort suite, a condo, a timeshare, a mobile home, an RV park space, or a single-family house listed on Airbnb or VRBO.³ Property type does not matter.

The taxable amount is the total consideration paid, which includes the nightly rate plus mandatory charges such as cleaning fees or resort fees. Optional add-ons a guest can decline are generally excluded. Guests see the tax as a line item on their bill, but the legal obligation to collect and remit belongs to the owner or operator.¹

Once a continuous stay passes the six-months-and-one-day mark, the tax stops applying going forward. The first six months of that stay remain taxable.

How the 12.5% Breaks Down

Three separate taxes stack on a short-term rental in Orange County:

Orange County Tourist Development Tax: 6%, at that rate since September 1, 2006, remitted to the Orange County Comptroller.¹
Florida state transient rental tax: 6%, under Florida Statute 212.03, remitted to the Florida Department of Revenue.³
Orange County discretionary sales surtax: 0.5%, effective through December 31, 2035, also remitted to the Department of Revenue.⁴

On a $200 nightly rate, that comes out to $25 in taxes per night. Filing with the Comptroller does not satisfy the state, and filing with the state does not satisfy the county. Both accounts have to be current.

Registering Your Property

Before accepting a first guest, you register the property with the Orange County Comptroller and receive a TDT account number. The registration form asks for:⁵

Owner name or company name, mailing address, phone, email, Federal Employer Identification Number (or Social Security Number if you don’t have an FEIN), and Florida sales tax number.
Property street address (no P.O. boxes), parcel ID, number of units, rental type, and the date the property was first available to guests.
The name and contact details for whoever will file the monthly returns.

Registration can be submitted through the Comptroller’s online TDT portal. The same form is used later to update property details. Operating a short-term rental without registering is a first-degree misdemeanor under Florida law, on top of the back taxes and penalties the county assesses.⁶

Filing and Paying Every Month

Returns are monthly, and they are due whether or not you rented the property that month. The return is due on the first day of the month following the collection period and becomes delinquent if not postmarked or submitted online by the 20th.¹ Taxes collected on January rentals are due February 1 and delinquent after February 20.

Zero returns are mandatory in months with no rental activity. Skipping a filing because you had no guests does not pause the account; it triggers delinquency. The online portal gives immediate confirmation, and a mailed check is accepted as long as the postmark falls on or before the 20th.

Penalties for Late or Missed Returns

Miss the 20th and the penalty starts immediately. Late filing costs 10% of the tax due or $50, whichever is greater.¹ That $50 floor means a zero-revenue or low-revenue month still carries a real cost when filed late. Interest on delinquent balances accrues at a floating rate set by the state, currently 11% annually for the first half of 2026.⁷

Failing to collect the tax from guests makes the owner personally liable for the unpaid amount, and the offense is a first-degree misdemeanor.⁶ The statute also lets the county place a lien to recover what’s owed.

If You List on Airbnb or VRBO

Using a booking platform does not shift the tax obligation off the owner. Major platforms have arrangements with various Florida counties to collect and remit certain transient rental taxes, but the coverage differs by county and can change. A platform may collect the state tax but not the local TDT, or handle one piece of the stack and not another.

Log into your host dashboard and check exactly which of the three taxes the platform collects and remits for Orange County listings. Whatever the platform does or doesn’t do, the Comptroller holds the owner responsible for making sure every required tax is paid; if a manager or platform fails to remit, the penalties fall on you.¹ Verifying your own account is the only way to catch a problem before it grows.

Exemptions

Some stays don’t trigger the tax. A timeshare owner using their own unit, or hosting a guest without charging them, has no taxable transaction; no monetary consideration, no tax.⁶ Membership or exchange fees a timeshare owner pays for the ability to swap units are treated as service charges rather than rental consideration and are likewise exempt.

Florida Statute 125.0104 also incorporates exemptions from Chapter 212, which can cover certain government and diplomatic stays. If a guest presents tax-exemption documentation, verify the credentials and keep a copy in your records. The Comptroller’s office can confirm whether a specific exemption applies to the TDT when the situation is unclear.

Records to Keep

The county can audit your TDT account, and the local administrator has the same audit authority the Department of Revenue uses for state sales tax. Keep whatever you would need to reconstruct every rental transaction: booking confirmations, guest payment receipts, platform payout statements, and copies of filed returns. Three years after each filing is a reasonable minimum retention window.

Download platform transaction history on your own schedule rather than trusting the platform to keep it accessible. For any stay claimed as exempt, keep the supporting document, whether that’s a government tax-exemption card or a written lease showing a continuous stay past six months.

1
Orange County Florida Comptroller. Frequently Asked Questions – Finance – Tourist Development Tax
2
Florida Department of Revenue. Local Option Transient Rental Tax Rates
3
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 212.03 – Transient Rentals Tax; Rate, Procedure, Enforcement, Exemptions
4
Florida Department of Revenue. Discretionary Sales Surtax Information for Calendar Year 2026
5
Orange County Comptroller, FL. Tourist Development Tax Registration Form
6
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 125.0104 – Tourist Development Tax; Procedure for Levying; Authorized Uses; Referendum; Enforcement
7
Florida Department of Revenue. Florida Tax and Interest Rates