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.  

[Rob7820]

This is wonderful information. Several hours of reading and researching online, including scouring Florida's gov websites, and it was still not as clear as this post. Thanks!

[Karen1]

Thank you, Rob. This information took hours of research, but as a host in Florida, I needed this info myself and felt the need to share. Glad you found it useful.

Karen

[Mike3499]

Thank you so much for this information!  I was getting overwhelmed trying to navigate this issue where Florida was sending me notices of final assessment etc... with this writeup I have resolved my issue with a single phone call. 

[Dawn1010]

@Karen1 Does anyone have current state documentation on how to handle the taxes with non-refundable cancellations? My understanding after some research has been that if they did not occupy the rental, they don't pay the taxes. This is the main thing I've found from a lawyer from a pdf on floridarevenue.com from 2001.

"ANSWER 1 - Based on Facts Below: Subsection 212.03(1),
F.S., imposes sales tax at the rate of six percent on the
total rental charged for living quarters or sleeping or
housekeeping accommodations, by the person charging or
collecting the rental. Rule 12A-1.061(5)(a), F.A.C.,
states, in part, that deposits or prepayments that do not
guarantee the use or possession of transient accommodations
are not rental charges. The taxability of a deposit or
prepayment is contingent on whether the taxpayer merely
holds a reservation for a guest's arrival by a certain
time, or instead guarantees that an accommodation will be
held available to the guest, during the length of the
guest's planned stay. The attrition and cancellation fees
imposed by the Hotels, pursuant to the sample contract, are
in the nature of a penalty, and not in the form of a
prepayment or deposit. These attrition and cancellation
fees do not guarantee the use or possession of the hotel
rooms for the planned length of the guest's stay.
Therefore, these charges are not subject to sales tax."

I want to give a partial refund to my guest because I was able to re-book, therefore it is clear that I wasn't holding the rental available during her entire length of stay so it seems she shouldn't have to pay taxes on any portion of the withheld funds either as they are more of a cancellation fee. 

Your thoughts/experience?

[Karen1]

Dawn,

Is your rental in Florida? (I see you are from Oklahoma and I know nothing about its tax laws.) In Florida, the FLDOR collects and submits taxes for the host. If you had a cancellation, I believe the taxes would not have been collected because there were no days rented. In any case, you do not receive the tax money to be able to give it back.

I personally would give the guest most or all of their money back for the daily rate and cleaning fee since you were able to re-book it. I  would not worry about the taxes. Fyi, Airbnb fees that they paid will not be reimbursed. But, if you want a more official answer, call the FL Department of Revenue and see if they can answer your question. 

Best always, Karen