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Florida Sales Tax and Reemployment Tax

Florida does not have a personal income tax. A new business can still have two filings that have nothing to do with an income tax return: sales and use tax, if it sells taxable goods or services, and reemployment tax, if it has employees. Both are administered by the Florida Department of Revenue. Both start with a registration. Neither is optional once the business crosses the line that makes it liable.

Blackpoint CPA is Central Florida-based, serving clients statewide and remotely. We prepare the Florida sales tax and reemployment tax filings that apply to a business. A sale delivered into another state can create a filing there. That filing is a separate question, and we will tell you if it is outside the work we are describing here. We do not promise a filing in every state. The scope of a small business engagement is on our small business page.

Register before you collect sales tax

Florida's general state sales tax rate is 6 percent. The Department's sales and use tax page lists exceptions: new mobile homes at 3 percent, amusement machine receipts at 4 percent, and electricity at 6.95 percent. Counties can add a discretionary sales surtax based on where the item or service is delivered. On some transactions only the first $5,000 is subject to that surtax. County rates are on Form DR-15DSS for the year in question. A shop in Ocoee and a shop in another county can collect different totals on the same item.

Each sale, admission, storage, or rental in Florida is taxable unless an exemption applies. The tax is collected from the purchaser at the time of sale. Use tax is due when you use a taxable item in Florida and sales tax was not paid, such as an item bought outside Florida or an item bought for resale and then used in the business.

Register before you collect tax if the activity is taxable. The Department's partial list includes retail sales of taxable goods, repairs, rentals of living accommodations for six months or less, rentals of equipment, admissions, manufacturing for retail sale, service warranties, vending and amusement machines, and some services such as nonresidential cleaning and pest control. Out-of-state sellers can also have to register. The page, not this summary, is the list to check.

Registration is the Florida Business Tax Application, Form DR-1, filed through the Department's online system or on paper. Register each location. After you are registered, the Department sends a Certificate of Registration, Form DR-11. Display it in a clearly visible place at the business. You also receive a Florida Annual Resale Certificate, Form DR-13, unless you are registered to pay use tax only. Resale certificates expire on December 31. Dealers who file electronically print their own renewal. Dealers who file on paper are mailed a new certificate.

Returns are due on the 1st and late after the 20th

Sales and use tax is reported on Form DR-15. Returns and payments are due on the 1st and late after the 20th day of the month following each reporting period. A January sale on a monthly account is due February 1 and late after February 20. A quarterly filer reports January through March on a return due April 1 and late after April 20. A return is required for every reporting period, even when no tax is due.

If the 20th is a Saturday, Sunday, or state or federal holiday, a paper return is timely when postmarked or hand-delivered on the next business day. An electronic payment must be started, with a confirmation number, by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the business day before the 20th. Those 2026 dates are on Form DR-659. A timely electronic filing and payment may take a collection allowance of 2.5 percent of the first $1,200 of tax due, not to exceed $30. A late return can draw a penalty of 10 percent of the tax owed, but not less than $50, even when no tax is due. We do not promise that a penalty will be removed.

The Department assigns the filing frequency. New businesses are set up to file quarterly unless another frequency applies or is requested, and the Department checks the account once a year. Its table, based on annual sales tax collections, is:

• More than $1,000: monthly.
• $501 to $1,000: quarterly.
• $101 to $500: semiannual.
• $100 or less: annual.

If you qualify for a different frequency, the Department says to call Taxpayer Assistance at 850-488-6800. Do not change the frequency on your own. File the return for the period you were assigned, including a return that shows zero.

Reemployment tax is the employer's cost

Florida's unemployment insurance tax is the reemployment tax. Employers pay it. Workers do not, and an employer must not deduct it from pay. The money goes to the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund, which pays reemployment assistance benefits. The Department of Revenue registers employers, collects the tax, and assigns rates. The rules are on the Department's reemployment tax page.

A private employer is liable with a quarterly payroll of $1,500 or more in a calendar year, or with one or more employees during any part of a day in 20 different weeks. Agricultural employers, household employers, certain nonprofits, and a buyer of an existing business have other tests on that page. The Department's example: start in January, pay more than $1,500 by the end of March, and register by the end of April. Registration is Form DR-1, online or on paper.

The initial rate is 2.7 percent (0.0270) on the first $7,000 of wages paid to each employee in the calendar year. Wages above $7,000 are not taxed. That rate stays until the employer has reported for 10 quarters, then the Department calculates an experience rate. For wages paid in 2026, the rate cannot go below 0.1 percent ($7 per employee) or, in general, above 5.4 percent ($378 per employee). An employer that takes over a business and adopts the prior rate is an exception. The detail is on the reemployment tax rate page. We use the rate on your notice.

Form RT-6 is quarterly

Every liable employer files an Employer's Quarterly Report, Form RT-6, even when no tax is due and even when no wages were paid. The report lists gross wages, excess wages, taxable wages, tax due, and each employee's name, Social Security number, and wages. The Department's return and payment page says the report is due the 1st day of the month after the quarter ends and is late if it is not postmarked by the last day of that month:

• January through March: April 30.
• April through June: July 31.
• July through September: October 31.
• October through December: January 31.

If that last day is a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the timely period runs through the next business day. October 31, 2026 is a Saturday, so the report for July through September 2026 is timely on the next business day, Monday, November 2, 2026. If you pay electronically, the RT-6 instructions say you must start the payment and receive a confirmation number by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the business day before the due date.

An employer with 10 or more employees in any quarter of the state's prior fiscal year, July 1 through June 30, must file and pay electronically. Corrections to an older quarter go on Form RT-8A, not on the current RT-6. Corporate officers who perform services are employees, and a sole proprietor's or partner's own services are not covered wages. We ask how someone is directed and paid before we put them on the report. Sales tax, reemployment tax, and the income tax return are separate filings. We prepare the Florida ones that apply.

The Blackpoint CPA Team — Winter Garden, FL.