[GUIDE] Florida Sales Tax Tutorial

[Karen1]

To ALL Florida Hosts,

If anyone in the Tax Collector's Offices says that YOU are responsible for your state tax on Airbnb reservations, they are misinformed and giving you old information. Airbnb entered into an agreement with the State of Florida on December 1, 2015, which states that they will collect and remit Florida Transient Tax on all Florida reservations. This tax will be paid in a lump sum by filing one tax return per jurisdiction, with the total combined reservation revenue. Airbnb will not be filing individual forms (such as the DR-1C form) on behalf of hosts. Just know that there are still many people who do not know what Airbnb is, including staff in the local tax offices.  Even after two years, many are not aware of this agreement between the Department of Revenue and Airbnb.

Since there is a lot of confusion over the topic, I wrote a Florida Tax Tutorial.  This is accurate as of September 2017:

Basic Florida Tax Info:

The State of Florida taxes short-term rentals (housing rented for 182 days or less) with a Transient Tax. This amount varies per county and consists of the Florida base Sales Tax of 6% plus the county's Discretionary Surtax. Each county may or may not have a Discretionary Surtax. This tax ranges from .5 to 1.5%. The 2017 Discretionary Surtax by county is found here: 2017-Descretionary-Sales-Surtax-Rates-DR-15DSS.pdf

Additionally, each county may tax short-term rentals with Tourist Development Tax. As of June 2017, the Tourist Development Tax amounts were:

ALACHUA 5.0%, BAKER 3.0%, BAY 5.0%, BRADFORD 4.0%, BREVARD 5.0%, BROWARD 5.0%, CALHOUN none, CHARLOTTE 5.0%, CITRUS 5.0%, CLAY 3.0%, COLLIER 4.0%, COLUMBIA 5.0%, DESOTO 3.0%, DIXIE 2.0%, DUVAL 6.0%, ESCAMBIA 4.0%, FLAGLER 5.0%, FRANKLIN 2.0%, GADSDEN 2.0%, GILCHRIST 2.0%, GLADES 2.0%, GULF 5.0% Rate will return to 4% on 1/01/20, HAMILTON 3.0%, HENDRY 3.0%, HARDEE 2.0%, HERNANDO 5.0%, HIGHLANDS 2.0%, HILLSBOROUGH 5.0%, HOLMES 2.0%, INDIAN RIVER 4.0%, JACKSON 4.0%, JEFFERSON 2.0%, LAFAYETTE none, LAKE 4.0%, LEE 5.0%, LEON 5.0%, LEVY 2.0%, LIBERTY none, MADISON 3.0%, MANATEE 5.0%, MARION 4.0%, MARTIN 5.0%, MIAMI-DADE 6.0%, MONROE 5.0%, NASSAU 4.0%, OKALOOSA 5.0%, OKEECHOBE 3.0%, ORANGE 6.0%, OSCEOLA 6.0%, PALM BEACH 6.0%, PASCO 2.0%, PINELLAS 6.0%, POLK 5.0%, PUTNAM 4.0%, ST JOHNS 4.0%, ST LUCIE 5.0% Rate will return to 3% on 1/01/43, SANTA ROSA 5.0%, SARASOTA 5.0%, SEMINOLE 5.0%, SUMTER 2.0%, SUWANNEE 3.0% Rate will return to 2% on 7/01/21, TAYLOR 5.0%, UNION none, VOLUSIA 6.0%, WAKULLA 4.0%, WALTON 4.0%, WASHINGTON 3.0%

What tax does Airbnb collect and pay?

Tax is based on your nightly rate plus your cleaning fee. Each Airbnb confirmation email you receive will have the amount of tax collected for that reservation. To find a summary of the collected taxes, go to Hosting / Stats/ Earnings/ View Transaction History/ Gross Earnings and choose a date range.

For all Florida properties, Airbnb collects and remits the Transient Tax (the 6% plus your county's Discretionary Surtax).

Additionally, Airbnb collects the Tourist Development Tax in SOME counties because that tax is administered by the state for those counties. Currently the 24 counties are: Bradford, Citrus, Columbia, Desoto, Dixie, Flagler, Franklin, Gadsden, Gilchrist, Glades, Hamilton, Hardee, Hendry, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Levy, Madison, Okaloosa, Okeechobee, Pasco, Sumter, Wakulla, and Washington.

Recently, other counties entered into their own agreements with Airbnb. Tourist Development Tax is now also collected and remited for Brevard, Broward, Hernando, Hillsborough, Indian River, Lee, Leon, Miami-Dade*, Orange, Pinellas, Polk, Putnam, Santa Rosa, Sarasota, Taylor, and the city of Surfside.  *Note, there are exceptions to Miami-Dade county. See source below.

What tax do you have to collect and submit?

At minimum, nothing (depending on your county) and at maximum, your county's Tourist Development Tax.

If you rent your Florida property by using only Airbnb, you must delete your account with the Florida Department of Revenue. You only need the FL DOR account if you offer your property on other platforms where taxes are not paid for you.  If you keep an account, DOR will expect payment. Do not pay double taxes!

If your county is not listed as one where Airbnb accepts and pays Tourist Development Tax, then you need to visit your county's Tax Collector's Office. They may require you to apply for an Occupational License and they will instruct you on how to pay the Tourist Development Tax.

Also, just recently, Airbnb stopped rounding to the nearest dollar and is not calculating payments, taxes and fees to the dollar and cents.  Please let me know if you find any errors in this information.

Sources: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/653/in-what-areas-is-occupancy-tax-collection-and-remittance-by-...

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/481/how-do-taxes-work-for-hosts

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/654/what-is-occupancy-tax--do-i-need-to-collect-or-pay-it

[Karen1]

@Juan81, great that you are in an approved area! 

If you use Airbnb only and no other platform, you do not need an account with the Florida Dept of Revenue. Airbnb will collect and pay your state sales tax. If you do use other platforms, you will need an account and submit the sales tax from only non-Airbnb stays. But, if you use other platforms and have no stays from them during a particular month, you will have to submit a zero return. As long as you have a DOR account, you must submit a return every month.

To get my business licence in my county, under the section "Sales Tax Number" I was told to enter "Exempt. (Airbnb pays sales tax for me.)".  Don't worry about not having an account with the DOR; that is perfectly legal.

Airbnb is not collecting your local tax, but it does look like they are collecting the 3% Convention Development tax. (That, plus the 7% sales tax adds up to 10%.) You will need to calculate the local bed tax and either ask for payment upon arrival, or send an "altered reservation" to your guests to include the local tax. (You could absorb the tax in your nightly rate, but this means you're paying state tax on the local tax, and a higher Airbnb fee amount.)

Here is the link for Florida Occupancy tax that Airbnb collects: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2301/occupancy-tax-collection-and-remittance-by-airbnb-in-florid...

Hope this helps. Karen

[Ashley438]

Thank you for starting this thread. This has been more helpful to me than any other person I have reached out to. I want to clairify something and any response will be SOO appreciated! 
I recieved a letter from the Osceola County Tax Collectors office asking for several things. I have an Airbnb in Kissimmee. I only rent on Airbnb site. 

Here are my questions...

1. Do I need to apply for a Local Business Tax receipt?

2. The 6% tax that they are trying to ask me to pay, I ignore this section completely because Airbnb remits this for me. Correct?

3. The 7.5% Tourist Development Tax that I will start paying now, do I need to backpay this or just start from now?

4. Do I need the State Hotel License?

5. Do I need the City Business Tax Receipt from Kissimmee?

I seriously appreciate anyone that takes time to help me out. It's been such a headache since I recieved this letter and any number I call from the sheet, everyone has been so unhelpful. 

[Karen1]

Ashley, it looks like your short-term rental is in a city that requires both a city and a county business licence. See the links below.

You have the tax amounts backwards. Airbnb collects the State Transient Sales tax of 6% PLUS the Osceola County Discretionary Sales Surtax of 1.5%, for a total of 7.5%. This is the tax that you do not have to report to the State Dept of Revenue. Airbnb will do that for you.

The 6% amount is for the county's Tourist Development Tax. You need to collect this and remit it to the county each month. The Osceola County Tax collector's office can help you get the business license and then will send you the forms needed to remit your tax.

And, yes, they will most likely want you to pay your back taxes of 6%,  but just ask them. If you say you are trying to get legal, they will probably waive any late fees.

Here are some links that may be helpful:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/904/kissimmee--fl?ibbe=0

https://osceolataxcollector.org/tourist-tax.html

Good luck. - Karen

[Ashley438]

Super helpful info Karen! I really appreciate your time answering my questions. I do have one more.

The letter states that I also need a State Hotel License. Will I truly need that as well?

Thank you so much! 

Total lifesaver for me. 

[Karen1]

Ashley,

To be compliant with Florida State Law, yes, you need a Vacation Rental Dwelling License, under the Hotel Division.  And, you are to renew each year.

Here is the link with info that you will need:  https://www.myfloridalicense.com/CheckListDetail.asp?SID=&xactCode=1030&clientCode=2007&XACT_DEFN_ID...

Ocseola County is in District 4, so the annual renewal is on April 1. Use the License calculator at this link to determine your "Lodging license fee" amount. Under "Lodging License Type", use Single/Group Vacation Rental or Timeshare.  

Happy Airbnbing.  - Karen

[Karen1]

Ashley,

When you apply for this Lodging license, you can use your social security number instead of a Federal ID number, and when it asks for your State Tax Number, leave it blank (since you do not need an account with the Dept of Revenue).

- Karen

[Phillip119]

Hi, I've seen you say to only one person so far (Ashley) that they need a hotel license in Florida.

Is this true for all counties in Florida? Why wouldn't Airbnb make this information explicitly available?

Also Pasco seems to have separated their tourist development taxes from the state starting Oct 1, 2019 and would like to collect them directly.

http://www.pascotaxes.com/tdt/

Have you heard of this yet?

[Phillip119]

Hi, I've seen you say to only one person so far (Ashley) that they need a hotel license in Florida.

Is this true for all counties in Florida? Why wouldn't Airbnb make this information explicitly available?

Also Pasco seems to have separated their tourist development taxes from the state starting Oct 1, 2019 and would like to collect them directly.

http://www.pascotaxes.com/tdt/

Have you heard of this yet?

[Karen1]

@Phillip119

@Phillip119, the answer to the state license is yes, to be a legal short-term rental business you need a hotel license. And, Airbnb does give this info in their help section, see the link above. I'm sorry but I personally only keep up with my county. Thanks for sharing your link.

[Phillip119]

Thanks, which link above are you referring to? I’d like to see where in the process of signing up and creating a listing that I missed the part about registering with the hotel board. I really do not think I missed it, I think Airbnb did not properly inform me of this requirement 

[Karen1]

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2371/state-of-florida

Sorry about the link. I'll try again.

[Boba0]

Thank you for full description of the tax collection.  Although Airbnb takes Florida Tax, we are still in obligation to take County tax, which for Collier County is 5% at the moment, 2018.  And it is what mase additional confusion to the situation.  I would rather have Airbnb takes all taxis or nothing.  The way it is makes me very difficult to explain to my clients why I am asking for tourist tax if they already paid through Airbnb.

I think that Airbnb should look into this matter

[Karen1]

Yes, Boba, many people have said. The reason Airbnb isn't collecting all taxes for all hosts is that it is not possible. Each government has the authority to allow Airbnb to collect and submit their required tax, or not. The state of Florida sees the advantage of allowing Airbnb to collect/submit the state sales tax. It's automatic and they receive tax from EVERY Florida stay. But, some FL county tax collectors (like mine) have not "seen the light" and refuse to let them collect for hosts. I think their reasoning is that the county would get more tax money by going after illegal hosts and make them pay back taxes. But, my personal belief is that these counties are losing a lot of tax money every year that they refuse to cooperate with Airbnb.

[Ellen341]

FYI Florida hosts 

Legislation is under consideration in the Florida Statehouse SB 824 is a bill that protects private property rights of homeowners in Florida to rent their property as they decide is best for them – including using that property as a vacation rental.

The bill is up for a hearing Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 26th in the Senate Innovation, Industry & Technology Committee. There will be an amendment making changes to the original version, but still strengthening preemption of vacation rental regulations to the state.

Please take a minute to send a message  ( https://p2a.co/0FDULVj    <-----copy and paste this address) to Florida Senators to support vacation rentals by accepting amendment barcode #586172 to SB 824.

[Shelley181]

Ellen,

I do not rent my entire place on Airbnb, only certain rooms. Currently live in the home. 

Manatee county has has sent me letters and visited my new Airbnb dwelling to collect the county taxes. But only asked if I currently reside in my home year-round. 

Wondering what came of the hearing in March. Currently not collecting the county taxes since January 2019. 

[Beryl23]

Thanks so much for this info...it's very good of you to go to the trouble of posting this.

Have a wonderful day 🙂