Sales Tax in Florida: Rates, Surtax, Exemptions, and Filing

The Florida sales tax is 6% at the state level, and most counties add a discretionary surtax on top, bringing the combined rate to somewhere between 6% and 8% depending on where the sale is delivered.¹ Groceries and prescription drugs are exempt, prepared food is not, and buyers who purchase from out-of-state sellers without paying tax owe a matching 6% use tax to Florida.

The State Rate and County Surtax

Florida’s base rate is 6% on most taxable goods and services. A few categories carry their own rates: new mobile homes at 3%, amusement machine receipts at 4%, and electricity at 6.95%.¹

Counties add a discretionary sales surtax, sometimes called a local option tax. For 2026, county surtaxes range from 0% in counties like Citrus and Collier up to 2% in Hamilton County, so the maximum combined rate anywhere in the state is 8%.² The surtax applied to any sale is tied to where the item is delivered, not where the seller sits.

One rule matters for big-ticket purchases. The county surtax applies only to the first $5,000 of a single item’s price. A $20,000 piece of equipment sold in a 1% surtax county carries $50 in surtax (1% of $5,000), not $200. The 6% state tax still applies to the full price.¹

What Florida Taxes

Sales tax applies to the sale, rental, or use of tangible personal property, defined broadly as anything you can see, weigh, measure, or touch, along with electric power and energy.³ That covers retail categories like clothing, furniture, electronics, motor vehicles, and boats, and it also reaches machinery, tools, and equipment used in business.

Prepared food sold for immediate consumption is taxable: a restaurant meal, a deli sandwich, a hot coffee from a café. Pure services like legal advice, accounting, or management consulting are generally outside the sales tax base. The tax does apply when a service involves repairing, altering, or improving tangible personal property, especially when the provider installs taxable parts or materials in the process.

Downloaded software and ebooks are not explicitly taxed. Florida has not enacted a broad digital goods tax, so purely digital products that aren’t a streaming or communications service generally remain outside the sales tax base.

Streaming, Phone, and Cable Fall Under a Different Tax

Video and music streaming, cable television, and telephone service (including VoIP and mobile) are taxed under Florida’s Communications Services Tax rather than the regular sales tax.⁴ The charges show up on monthly bills like sales tax would, but the rates and rules are set separately.

Commercial Rent Tax Repealed

Until recently, Florida taxed rent paid on commercial real property like offices, retail storefronts, and warehouses. That tax was repealed effective October 1, 2025. No state sales tax or county surtax applies to rent or license fees for rental periods beginning on or after that date.⁵ Old leases that reference a 2% state tax on commercial rent are quoting a rule that no longer exists.

Groceries, Medicine, and Other Exemptions

The everyday exemption most people rely on is for grocery food purchased for home preparation and consumption. Bread, produce, meat, dairy, and canned goods are exempt. The line is drawn at prepared food: if a store heats it, serves it ready to eat, or sells it with utensils, it becomes taxable.⁶

Prescription drugs dispensed by a pharmacist are fully exempt. The exemption also reaches over-the-counter medications and certain medical devices such as prosthetics and durable medical equipment.⁶

Businesses that buy goods for resale don’t owe sales tax on those purchases if they present a Florida Annual Resale Certificate to the seller. Every registered dealer receives this certificate automatically. Using it to buy items for personal use or for use in your own business triggers use tax at 6% plus any county surtax, and Florida imposes both criminal and civil penalties for fraudulent use of the certificate.⁷

Sales Tax Holidays

Florida suspends sales tax on specific categories during designated periods. For 2026, two holidays matter:

Back-to-School (August 1–31, 2026): clothing and footwear up to $100 per item, school supplies up to $50, learning aids and puzzles up to $30, and computers and accessories up to $1,500.
Disaster Preparedness (year-round beginning August 1, 2025): batteries, portable generators, fire extinguishers, waterproof tarps up to 1,000 square feet, portable fuel cans of five gallons or less, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, sunscreen, and insect repellent.

The disaster preparedness exemption is now ongoing rather than limited to a short window as in past years. The legislature can add or modify holidays each session, so check the Department of Revenue before a large purchase timed around one.

Use Tax on Out-of-State Purchases

Florida imposes a 6% use tax on items bought outside the state when no sales tax was collected at the time of sale. This most often applies to online purchases from out-of-state retailers, mail-order purchases, or items brought back from travel in another state or country.⁸

If you already paid sales tax to another state, you get a credit for that amount. Paid 4% elsewhere? You owe Florida the remaining 2%. Paid 6% or more? Nothing further is due. Items purchased and used in another U.S. state for six months or longer before entering Florida are not subject to use tax, but that six-month rule doesn’t apply to purchases made in a foreign country.⁸

Individuals who are not registered dealers report use tax on Form DR-15MO, filed quarterly. The return is due on the first day of the month after the quarter and is late after the 20th. If the tax owed for a quarter is less than $1, no filing is required.

If You Sell Into Florida

Any business selling taxable goods or services in Florida must register with the Department of Revenue before making its first taxable sale. Registration is free and completed online, and the state issues a Certificate of Registration, an Annual Resale Certificate, and a new-dealer welcome package.⁹ Once registered, you charge the combined state and county rate based on the delivery location and remit what you collect on periodic returns.

Out-of-state sellers cross into Florida’s tax net once their taxable sales delivered into the state exceed $100,000 in the previous calendar year. Since July 1, 2021, sellers over that threshold must register and collect Florida sales tax even without a physical presence in the state.¹⁰ The threshold looks at the sum of sales prices, not the number of transactions.

Marketplace platforms like Amazon, Etsy, and eBay have their own duty. A marketplace provider that qualifies as a dealer must collect and remit tax on all taxable sales made through its platform on behalf of third-party sellers. Once the platform certifies it is handling the tax, the individual seller excludes those sales from its own return.¹¹ Sales made entirely through a marketplace that collects on your behalf don’t count toward your own $100,000 nexus threshold.

Filing Schedule

How often you file depends on how much tax you collect annually:

More than $1,000 per year: monthly
$501 to $1,000: quarterly
$101 to $500: semiannual
$100 or less: annual

Returns and payments are due on the 1st of the month following each reporting period and become late after the 20th.¹

Penalties, Interest, and the Collection Allowance

Filing or paying late triggers a 10% penalty on the tax owed, with a $50 minimum that applies even when no tax is due for the period. Filing late and paying late together produces one 10% penalty, not two.¹²

Underreporting is more expensive. When a return fails to disclose the full tax owed, an additional 10% penalty accrues for every 30 days the underpayment continues, capped at 50% of the unpaid tax. Interest runs at 1% per month on delinquent amounts starting on the 21st day of the month after the tax was due.¹²

Filing on time earns a small credit. Florida lets dealers keep 2.5% of the first $1,200 of tax due as a collection allowance, capped at $30 per reporting location. A late return forfeits the allowance for that period.¹

1
Florida Dept. of Revenue. Florida Sales and Use Tax
2
Florida Department of Revenue. Discretionary Sales Surtax Information for Calendar Year 2026
3
Florida Legislature. Florida Code 192.001 – Definitions
4
Florida Dept. of Revenue. Florida Communications Services Tax
5
Florida Department of Revenue. Sales Tax on Commercial Rentals Repealed Effective October 1, 2025
6
Cornell Law Institute. Florida Administrative Code Rule 12A-1.011
7
Florida Dept. of Revenue. Annual Resale Certificate for Sales Tax
8
Florida Department of Revenue. Out-of-State Purchase Return
9
Florida Dept. of Revenue. Account Management and Registration
10
Florida Legislature. Florida Code 212.0596 – Taxation of Remote Sales
11
Florida Legislature. Florida Code 212.05965 – Marketplace Providers and Marketplace Sellers
12
Florida Senate. Florida Code 212.12 – Dealer’s Credit, Penalties, Interest