[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]

Welcome to Airbnb @Katherine948. You will have plenty of things to learn and worry about but this is not one of them. You will not get paid in advance of a reservation. Airbnb pays the host on the second day of the start of the reservation. This gives the guest time to complain to Airbnb if the place is not as advertised. So, when you do get paid, you pay the county once a month.  Counties typically give you until the 20th of the month to submit taxes for the previous month. Good luck and have fun! - Karen 

[Katherine948]

Karen, Thank you so much for the clarification and the time you took to reply in this old threat. God Bless you for helping the community with your knowledge. 🙂🙏

[Eugenia478]

If anyone needs to keep an active tax account with the state to comply with their county requirements (St Johns County for me), call the Florida DOR and request that they change your account to "active, not required to file." I learned this when I received a delinquent tax letter from the state. This only works if you're using AirBNB/VRBO to host, since they are remitting the state tax portion. 

[Sandra320]

Unfortunately, as of June 2022, the City of Bradenton is requiring a multitude of documents, for  ALL Short-Term Rentals, including a DOR license, even if you only use the AirBnb Platform. They said to fill out the paperwork as ZERO.  I explained to them that would mean I would be signing something that wasn't true and they said that's the only way to keep from having to pay double. I went round and round with them until I gave up and signed up with DOR. I know this is going to come back on all the owners and bite us.

They don't care. 

[Karen1]

@Sandra320 , 

I think the Department of Revenue now allows Hosts to set up accounts as "Active; not required to file."  When Airbnb began to collect and remit State Tax for Florida hosts in 2015, the DOR cancelled my account. When I filed my county application in St Johns, I was told just to put "not required to file" under the State Account number, but Manatee may require something differently. 

As of December, 2023, Airbnb still collects the FL State Sales tax of 6% and the Discretionary Sales Surtax (which varies by county) for all bookings in Florida. According to the Airbnb website, they do not collect the Tourist Tax (aka Bed Tax) for  Manatee County.

Double taxation means you will get fewer booking. So, I  suggest you create an online account with the Dept of Revenue allowing you to have an State account number for your county tax collector's office. Then, call the FL DOR and ask to change your account to "Active; not required to file", letting them know that Airbnb files for you.  

[Sandra320]

thank you!! 
I do pay for Manatee tourist tax and have been since I’ve started. I can’t thank you enough for responding. 

[Leigh702]

Thank you for posting this - its very helpful.  I will make one small correction though, you do NOT need to delete your account with the Florida Department of Revenue and in some cases, your local county will require that you have the account.  Simply contact them at 850-488-6800 and let them know that you have a short term rental business and that Airbnb (and also VRBO) pays the taxes directly to the state.  They are well versed with this now and will just change your account (even backdate it as I had to) to permit you to not have to file the monthly returns.  This keeps the account active but no returns are required.  Should you do any direct bookings, you can file the return on your own under your account as needed. 

[Karen1]

Thank you for this current information!  I plan to update this "Florida Tax Tutorial" very soon, so I appreciate getting this update.

[Paula · Accepted solution]

Hello everyone,

Considering how helpful this guide has been for many Hosts in the community. Our amazing Host, @Karen1, has kindly created a new guide regarding Florida Sales Tax with updated information (April 2024).

You can find it here 👉 Florida Sales Tax Tutorial, Revised April 2024

Thank you so much @Karen1 🙏

[Santiago91]

Hello Karen, I recently got a letter from pasco county saying that I have 7 days to remove my listing because airbnb is prohibited in pasco county, but I se3 on your article that pasco is included in the florida agreement for airbnb taxes. You seem like you have a lot of knowledge, do you mind helping me out with information on what to do? I do not want to remove my house from airbnb. Thank you so much!

[Karen1]

I am sorry, @Santiago91, but I cannot find information about short-term rentals being illegal in Pasco County.  Laws are changing all the time and there is tremendous pressure from the hotel lobby to regulate and/or prohit Airbnb in local communities throughout Florida. 

The best I can tell you is to call your county tax collector and ask them if short-term rentals are illegal in Pasco County?  Ask for details, when did they become illegal and why?  Maybe you have not followed though with some county requirement like getting a business license?? If that is the case, they can help you get legal.

On January 16, 2018, several hosts are traveling to Tallahassee to support Airbnb and take a stand for keeping short term rentals legal. If you want more information about the trip to Tallahassee, email floridaactionday@airbnb.com.  Good luck!

[SouthFloridaBNB0]

So what if I have a property in Palm Beach County I have to also pay the tourism development tax? 

[Arthur-And-Suji0]

So I am getting audited bc airbnb told me on the phone on multiple occasions did all this and now i find out that i haven't paid or filed since we started hosting last march! auditor is super cool but we have so many fines and interest! Isn't this tax paid by the GUEST and not the host? How are you billing the guest automatically when they book? thanks

[Karen740]

@Santiago91, have you been able to determine what you need to do for Pasco county? I am new to this and have my first booking. I would hate to unlist and cancel my first reservation.

[Alexander434]

Did you continue listing your home? Or Pasco stopped you? I’m on pasco too and just wondering if they are preventing everyone using Airbnb