Florida Business Taxes: What You Owe Even With No State Income Tax

"No state income tax" is true in Florida, and it is why many owners assume the state never sends them a bill. It does. Florida funds itself through a stack of other taxes collected by three levels of government, and the ones that catch new owners are the county equipment tax nobody mentioned, the business tax receipt that went delinquent in October, and the corporate income tax that does exist for one kind of company.

Here is the full list, who pays each one by entity type, and two worked examples. Figures were checked against Florida Department of Revenue, Sunbiz, and Hillsborough County sources in September 2026.

The one income tax Florida does have

Profit that flows to your Form 1040 from a sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, or S-corporation is not taxed by the state. Florida does tax corporations. Under section 220.11 of the Florida Statutes the corporate income tax is 5.5% of Florida net income, which starts from federal taxable income, is adjusted and apportioned, and then reduced by an exemption of up to $50,000. It applies to C-corporations and to LLCs that elected to be taxed as C-corporations.

S-corporations file a Florida return only if they owe federal tax at the entity level, which is rare; partnerships and disregarded single-member LLCs do not file one at all. For a calendar-year C-corp the return (Form F-1120) is due May 1, and once expected liability tops $2,500 the state wants estimated payments during the year.

So the "should I be a C-corp" question has a Florida cost the federal analysis misses: 5.5% of every dollar of profit above $50,000, on top of the federal 21%. And a C-corp that has never filed an F-1120 is late, not exempt.

Sales and use tax

The state rate is 6% and every county can add a discretionary surtax. For 2026 the surtax is 1.5% in Hillsborough and Duval, 1% in Pinellas, Pasco, and Miami-Dade, and 0.5% in Orange, so a Tampa retailer charges 7.5% while a Clearwater retailer charges 7%. The surtax follows the delivery county, so a seller shipping around the state needs a rate table.

Goods are taxable unless an exemption applies; services are not taxable unless the statute lists them, and the list is short. Register with the Department of Revenue (Form DR-1) before your first taxable sale. Returns are due on the first of the month and late after the 20th, with a late penalty of 10% of the tax and a $50 minimum. Use tax is the half people forget: equipment bought from an out-of-state vendor that charged no sales tax owes Florida use tax at the same rate, on the same return.

One line item dropped off the list last fall. Florida's sales tax on commercial rent was repealed effective October 1, 2025. The old 2% state rate plus surtax no longer applies to rent for occupancy periods from October 2025 forward, regardless of when it is paid; if your landlord is still adding tax, ask for a corrected invoice. Parking, boat and aircraft storage, and short-term lodging remain taxable. Registration, filing frequency, and resale certificates are covered in Florida sales tax basics for business owners.

Taxes that arrive with your first employee

Florida's unemployment tax is called reemployment tax. You become liable once you pay $1,500 of wages in a calendar quarter or have at least one employee in any 20 weeks of a calendar year. New employers pay 2.7% on the first $7,000 of each employee's wages, reported quarterly on Form RT-6; later the rate follows your claims history within a 2026 range of 0.1% to 5.4%. At most $378 per employee per year, it is the entire state payroll tax, since there is no state withholding.

The federal side applies in full: the employer half of Social Security and Medicare, income tax withholding, and federal unemployment tax at 6.0% on the first $7,000, which drops to 0.6% ($42 per employee) when the Florida tax is paid on time. Florida also requires you to report each new hire, and each contractor paid $600 or more, within 20 days. More in payroll taxes explained.

The county and city bills owners forget

Tangible personal property tax. Counties tax business furniture, equipment, computers, signs, and leasehold improvements as of January 1 each year. You file a return with the county property appraiser by April 1 (Form DR-405, or HC-405 in Hillsborough County) listing what you own and what it cost. The first $25,000 of assessed value is exempt, but only if you file that initial return; if your value stays under $25,000 the appraiser waives the filing in later years. Late returns are penalized 5% per month up to 25%.

Local business tax receipts. Both Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa require one if you operate inside city limits; many county categories are $30 a year. Under section 205.053 of the Florida Statutes receipts are due September 30 and delinquent October 1, with a 10% penalty for October plus 5% for each later month, capped at 25%.

The Sunbiz Annual Report. Not a tax, but the state's yearly invoice for existing: $138.75 for an LLC and $150 for a corporation, due January 1 to May 1, with a $400 late fee after that.

Documentary stamp tax. Florida taxes the paper when you borrow or buy property. Promissory notes and mortgages carry tax of 35 cents per $100 of debt, capped at $2,450 for unsecured notes, and deeds carry 70 cents per $100 of the price. On a $150,000 equipment loan that is $525, usually netted out of the proceeds.

Florida taxes by entity type

Worked example one: an S-corp taco shop in Tampa

Seminole Heights Tacos, Inc. is an S-corporation with 28 seats, twelve employees, $1.2 million of sales, and $180,000 of net profit after the owner's salary. Its equipment and build-out have an assessed value of $85,000, financed with a $150,000 bank loan. Here is what Florida and Hillsborough County collect in a year.

Total Florida and county cost in year one, leaving out the sales tax it collects on the state's behalf: about $4,200 plus the city receipt. The $90,000 of sales tax is the number that hurts when mismanaged, because it is customer money held in trust; spend it in a slow month and the penalty is 10% before interest. The $180,000 of profit reaches the owner's federal return with no Florida tax at all. The reemployment bill falls in later years if claims stay low; the 2026 minimum is 0.1%, or $7 per employee.

Worked example two: a C-corp distributor

Gandy Bridge Supply, Inc. is a family-owned wholesale distributor, a C-corporation since the 1990s, with $600,000 of taxable income before state income tax and all of its sales in Florida. Its retail customers provide resale certificates, so it collects little sales tax, but it pays use tax on forklifts and racking bought from out-of-state vendors.

Its Florida corporate income tax is 5.5% of ($600,000 minus the $50,000 exemption), or $30,250, paid through four estimated installments because the liability is well over $2,500. Florida adds that tax back in computing its own base, but it is deductible federally, so the federal bill is 21% of $569,750, or about $119,650. Combined, the corporation pays about $149,900 before a dollar reaches the family as dividends. The same $600,000 earned through an S-corporation would owe Florida nothing and be taxed once, on the owners' returns. That $30,250 gap is why we ask every Florida C-corp client whether the structure still serves them; the trade-offs are in LLC vs. S-corp: how the taxes actually differ.

What usually goes wrong

The pattern we see most is a new owner who assumed the Sunbiz filing told the state everything it needed. The sales tax account is opened after the first month of sales, so the first return is already late. The April 1 tangible property return is never filed, so the $25,000 exemption is lost and the appraiser estimates the value. The business tax receipt is bought once and never renewed. Landlords keep charging the repealed rent tax on 2026 invoices, and tenants keep paying it. And nobody thinks about use tax on out-of-state equipment until a Department of Revenue audit letter asks for three years of purchase invoices.

When to get help

None of these taxes is hard on its own. The problem is that they come from the Department of Revenue, the property appraiser, two tax collectors, and Sunbiz on five different calendars, and nobody sends a consolidated bill. Our business tax planning and preparation service builds that calendar, files the Florida returns alongside the federal ones, and reruns the C-corp versus S-corp math every year. If sales and use tax is the piece keeping you up at night, our sales tax compliance service handles registration through monthly filing.

If you are opening in Florida this year, or you have been open a while and just realized one of the items above never got filed, request a 20-minute fit call. Bring your Sunbiz confirmation and last sales tax return and we will tell you what is missing.

Jenny Gao, CPA, EA

Founder of Balance Partners. Florida-licensed CPA and IRS Enrolled Agent with more than a decade of accounting and tax experience. Jenny writes and reviews every guide on this site. About Jenny

This article is general educational information for U.S. business owners and is not accounting, tax, legal, payroll or financial advice for your situation. Rules change and vary by entity, state and facts. Balance Partners, LLC does not provide audit, review or other attest services. Last reviewed September 14, 2026.