Florida Sales Tax Tutorial, Revised April 2024

[Karen1]

Airbnb Tax Tutorial – State of Florida, Revised April 9, 2024

To ALL Florida Hosts,

There seems to be a lot of confusion over the topic of tax, so I wrote a Florida Tax Tutorial.  This information is accurate as of April 2024.

Where Do I Find My Airbnb Earnings and Taxes Collected?

This link will take you to an article that will help you find your taxable earnings: Where do I find my Airbnb earnings for tax purposes? - Airbnb Help Center. 

Each Airbnb confirmation email you receive will have the amount of tax collected for that reservation. To find a summary of the collected taxes, open Airbnb, Switch to Hosting / Menu/ Earnings/. You can filter for a custom date range by clicking on “Show All Paid”/ “All Dates”/ Custom Dates. Enter your date range and “Apply”.   You can create a spreadsheet report of transaction details within this date range by clicking on “Get Report”.

Basic Florida Tax Info:

Sales Tax in the State of Florida for short-term rentals (housing rented for 182 days or less) is called Transient Rental Tax. This amount varies per county and consists of the Florida-based Sales Tax of 6% plus your county's Discretionary Surtax. Each county may or may not have a Discretionary Surtax. This tax ranges from .5 to 1.5%. The 2024 Discretionary Surtax by county can be found here:  2024-Discretionary-Sales-Surtax-Rates

Additionally, each county may tax your short-term rental with a Tourist Development Tax by county can be found here:  2024 - Local Tourist Development Tax.

What tax does Airbnb collect and pay?

Transient Rental Tax is based on your nightly rate plus your cleaning fee. Airbnb collects and remits the Transient Rental Tax (the 6% plus your county's Discretionary Surtax) for all Florida Airbnb properties. This tax is 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. 

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

Other counties have entered into their own agreements with Airbnb. Tourist Development Tax is now also collected and remitted by Airbnb for Brevard, Broward, Charlotte, Clay, Collier, Hernando, Hillsborough, Indian River, Lake, Lee, Leon, Miami-Dade, Orange, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Putnam, Sarasota, Taylor, Volusia, and the city of Surfside.  Please check the source below for more details.

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 as a Short-Term Rental, you need a Florida Business License from Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR). Apply online here: Florida Vacation Rental Buisness Licence

You also need an account with the Florida Department of Revenue (FL DOR). Create your account online here: Florida Business Tax Application  However, if you rent through Airbnb only, call the Florida Department of Revenue (850-488-6800) and ask that your account be changed to “Active, but not required to file. If you offer your property on other platforms where taxes are not paid for you, you will need to file and submit taxes every month with the FL DOR account. 

If your county is not listed as one where Airbnb collects and submits Tourist Development Tax, then call or 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.

You can add a tax to be collected on your listing(s) by using Airbnb’s Professional Tools. (See “How to add tax” source below.)  If you do not use the Professional Tools, you will need to either ask your guests for this tax, or you can absorb the cost in your rental amount. You will need to submit a form on a monthly basis to your county (even if you have zero rent for a month) along with your payment.

Sources:

Occupancy tax collection and remittance by Airbnb in Florida - Airbnb Help Center

How to add taxes to listings - Airbnb Help Center

Florida Sales and Use Tax

[Paula]

Hi @Karen1 😊

Thank you once again for creating this guide that will be a great help to many Hosts from Florida who come to our community seeking guidance 🌟

[Denise-M-V0]

@Karen1 Thank you bunches for posting this information - very helpful.  I did not get much satisfaction in my phone conversation with the help center regarding this matter.  And my friends and neighbors who also rent in my area did not know all of this either.  Great job!

[Karen1]

Thank you, @Denise-M-V0 . I appreciate your feedback.

[Carrie632]

HI Karen, I do have my property listed elsewhere than Airbnb and have and account with Florida DOR.  What do I report to the DOR on my DR-15 when I have an airbnb booking that tax has already been collected on?  I can't put zero that is not true, I don't get anything from Airbnb saying tax was paid.  Not sure how to handle the filing requirement which is required and penalized if not timely filed.  Any ideas?  You're right about the staff they don't know, they tell me I have to pay the tax.  Which can't be right because it is already paid but I have no way to prove that.

Thanks for any insight.

[Karen1]

@Carrie632,

You don't report anything to FL DOR, whether you had 0 or 30 days rented through Airbnb. Just report the non-Airbnb stays. I don't use other platforms but in my 10 years of Airbnb hosting, I have never reported our  Airbnb earnings to the DOR.

At the end of the year, you can print an Earnings Report for your Federal taxes from your Airbnb hosting site. It will show your total Airbnb earnings, and the total amount of state taxes that Airbnb collected and remitted on your behalf.

Hope this info helps. 

Karen

[Carrie632]

Thank you, Karen.  I appreciate the information.