The Florida discretionary sales surtax is a county-level tax added on top of the state’s 6% sales tax, with combined county rates currently ranging from 0.5% to 2% depending on where the purchase is delivered.1Florida Department of Revenue. Discretionary Sales Surtax Rate Table The rate is set by each county’s voters, revenue stays in the county that collects it, and for most tangible items the surtax applies only to the first $5,000 of the sales price.2Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Chapter 212 – Section 212.054 Discretionary Sales Surtax Some counties (Citrus and Collier among them) impose no surtax at all.
How Rates Vary by County
Each county sets its own rate, and the rate depends on which specific surtaxes local voters have approved. Categories authorized under state law include transportation, local infrastructure, school capital outlay, indigent care, public hospitals, emergency fire rescue, and pension liability, each with its own statutory cap.3Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Chapter 212 – Section 212.055 Discretionary Sales Surtaxes
Most counties that levy the surtax fall between 0.5% and 1.5%. Hamilton County currently sits at 2%. Rate changes always take effect January 1 and any surtax scheduled to end does so on December 31 of its final year. The Florida Department of Revenue publishes a current rate table you can check before a purchase or a large transaction.4Florida Department of Revenue. Discretionary Sales Surtax Brochure GT-800019
Which County’s Rate Applies
The surtax is based on where the buyer receives the goods or services, not where the seller is located. Ship a product from a no-surtax county into a 1% county, and 1% applies. Ship the other way, and no surtax is due. For admissions like event tickets and theme parks, the county where the event happens controls.4Florida Department of Revenue. Discretionary Sales Surtax Brochure GT-800019
For businesses that sell across county lines, this delivery rule is the single most important thing to get right. Charging the wrong county’s rate means either overcharging customers or paying the shortfall yourself at audit.
The $5,000 Single-Item Cap
For tangible personal property, the surtax applies only to the first $5,000 of any single item’s sales price. The state’s 6% still applies to the full price. A $7,000 piece of furniture delivered to a 1% surtax county produces $420 in state tax (6% of $7,000) and $50 in surtax (1% of $5,000), for $470 total.4Florida Department of Revenue. Discretionary Sales Surtax Brochure GT-800019
The cap does not apply to every taxable transaction. Surtax hits the full amount on:
- Admissions such as event tickets and theme park entries
- Taxable services, including service warranties and prepaid calling arrangements
- Transient rentals like hotels and short-term vacation lodging
- Commercial real property rentals, including office, retail, and warehouse leases
- Motor vehicle parking, boat docking, and aircraft storage charges
If you run a hotel or lease commercial space, every dollar of the rental is subject to surtax with no ceiling. Property managers who assume the $5,000 cap applies universally get caught by this.
Calculating the Combined Tax
The surtax is added to the 6% state sales tax to produce a combined rate. Florida requires the calculation to be carried to three decimal places; if the third decimal is greater than 4, the result rounds up to the next cent.5Florida Dept. of Revenue. Florida Sales and Use Tax A $5.75 item at a combined 7% works out to $0.4025, which rounds down to $0.40 because the third decimal (2) is not greater than 4.
Rounding applies to the total tax on each transaction, not separately to the state and surtax portions. Point-of-sale systems set up the wrong way generate small errors on every sale, and those errors surface during an audit.
Exemptions
Anything exempt from Florida sales tax is also exempt from the surtax, because the surtax rides on the state tax. Most grocery food purchased for home consumption is not taxed. Prescription drugs and medicinal drugs required by federal or state law to be dispensed by prescription are exempt, along with medical gases and certain drugs used in medical treatment.2Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Chapter 212 – Section 212.054 Discretionary Sales Surtax When Florida enacts temporary sales tax holidays for back-to-school supplies, disaster preparedness, or recreational gear, the surtax is suspended for those windows too.
Buying Online: Marketplaces and Remote Sellers
If you sell through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, or Walmart Marketplace, the platform typically collects both the state sales tax and the applicable county surtax on your behalf. Florida’s marketplace facilitator law, effective July 2021, requires platforms with more than $100,000 in third-party sales delivered into Florida in the prior calendar year to collect and remit.6Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Chapter 212 – Section 212.05965 Taxation of Marketplace Sales
Remote sellers who sell directly to Florida customers face the same $100,000 threshold. Once your taxable sales delivered into Florida cross that line in a calendar year, you must register with the Department of Revenue and start collecting both the state tax and the correct county surtax on every delivery. Having no physical presence in Florida makes no difference.
Use Tax When Nobody Charged You
When you buy something taxable and no sales tax or surtax gets collected, Florida expects you to self-report and pay use tax. This comes up with out-of-state sellers who aren’t registered here, items bought tax-free on a resale certificate and then used in your own business, and private-party sales. The use tax rate matches the sales tax rate that would have applied, including the surtax for the county where you use or store the item.5Florida Dept. of Revenue. Florida Sales and Use Tax
Businesses report use tax on the same DR-15 they use for sales tax. Individuals without a seller’s permit report and pay it directly to the Department of Revenue. Florida has no state income tax return to tuck it into.
Registration and Filing for Businesses
Any business making taxable sales in Florida must register with the Department of Revenue and get a Certificate of Registration before starting operations. Registration is free and online.7Florida Department of Revenue. Account Registration You collect the 6% state tax plus any county surtax, then remit everything to the state, which sends each county its share.8Florida Dept. of Revenue. Discretionary Sales Surtax
You report everything on Form DR-15, which has a dedicated section on the back for the surtax. Your filing frequency depends on annual collections:5Florida Dept. of Revenue. Florida Sales and Use Tax
- More than $1,000 per year: monthly
- $501 to $1,000 per year: quarterly
- $101 to $500 per year: semiannual
- $100 or less per year: annual
If your business paid $5,000 or more in sales and use tax during the state’s prior fiscal year (July 1 through June 30), you must file and pay electronically for the entire following calendar year.
Dealers who file and pay electronically on time earn a collection allowance of 2.5% of the first $1,200 of tax due, capped at $30 per reporting location. Filing late forfeits the allowance for that period.
Penalties
Filing late or failing to remit collected tax triggers a 10% penalty on the amount owed, with a $50 minimum even if no tax is due. Floating interest accrues from the original due date until paid, at a rate the Department of Revenue posts and adjusts periodically. Persistent noncompliance can cost you your Certificate of Registration, and collecting tax from customers without remitting it is treated as theft of state funds under Florida law.
Federal Deduction for Sales Tax Paid
Because Florida has no state income tax, the surtax carries extra weight at federal tax time. On Schedule A of Form 1040, itemizers can choose between deducting state and local income taxes or state and local general sales taxes. For Florida residents, sales tax is almost always the better choice. You elect it by checking box 5a and base the number on either actual receipts or the IRS optional sales tax tables.9Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 503, Deductible Taxes
The county surtax you pay counts as part of your deductible general sales tax. For 2026, the state and local tax (SALT) deduction is capped at $40,400 for most filing statuses and $20,200 for married filing separately, under changes made by the One, Big, Beautiful Bill.10Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026 If you made large purchases during the year, saving receipts that show the surtax separately can put your actual total above what the IRS tables would give you.