Florida Commercial Triple-Net (NNN) Lease Calculator

How this calculator works

A Florida commercial triple-net (NNN) lease decomposes the tenant's monthly occupancy cost into four distinct pieces — and then layers a fifth Florida-specific tax on top of the sum:

1. Base rent — the headline number quoted in dollars per square foot per year. This is what a Florida commercial landlord lists in a market flyer, and it is what most tenants anchor on when they shop space.
2. CAM (Common Area Maintenance) pass-through — the tenant's pro rata share of parking-lot maintenance, landscaping, exterior lighting, security, common-area utilities, and property management. Typically $3–$10 per sqft per year in Florida, depending on building class.
3. Property tax pass-through — the tenant's pro rata share of the landlord's annual property tax bill on the building. Typically $1–$5 per sqft per year on Florida commercial space.
4. Insurance pass-through — the tenant's pro rata share of the landlord's commercial property and general-liability insurance. Typically $0.50–$2 per sqft per year, with coastal properties materially higher because of windstorm insurance.
5. Florida sales tax on commercial rent (F.S. § 212.031) — the Florida-unique tax that this calculator surfaces. Florida is the only U.S. state that imposes its general sales tax on the rental of commercial real property. The state rate has been stepped down by the legislature from 5.5% historically to 2.0% as of 2025, with the county discretionary sales surtax (0–1.5%) layered on top. The tax applies to the gross rent including all pass-throughs, not just the base rent — a frequent surprise for out-of-state landlords and tenants alike.

The calculator computes year-one all-in monthly and annual cost. For full-term cash flows that layer in rent escalators, free-rent periods, or tenant-improvement amortization, treat the year-one all-in as the starting run rate and model the escalator separately.

The Florida § 212.031 commercial-rent tax

Florida is the only state in the country that taxes commercial rent. The statute (F.S. § 212.031) has been a fixture of the Florida sales-and-use-tax code since 1969 and applies to office, retail, warehouse, industrial, and any other rental of commercial real property. Residential rent is exempt; short-term residential rent under six months is taxed under a different regime (F.S. § 212.03 plus county tourist-development taxes).

The rate has been politically controversial for decades — the Florida real-estate lobby has steadily pushed for repeal, and the legislature has been stepping the rate down session by session:

• 5.5% — historical rate, in place for most of the 2010s and early 2020s
• 4.5% — effective for 2024 calendar year
• 2.0% — effective June 1, 2024 through 2025 (current rate as of last review)
• Further reductions — actively debated in each legislative session; the rate may trend lower

The county discretionary sales surtax under F.S. § 212.054 also applies on top of the state rate on commercial rent. As of the latest review, Florida county surtax rates range from 0% (a small minority of counties) to 1.5% (Hillsborough / Tampa, Duval / Jacksonville), with most major commercial markets at 1.0%. The combined state-plus-surtax rate on commercial rent therefore runs from roughly 2.0% to 3.5%, depending on county.

Critically, the $5,000 single-item surtax cap under F.S. § 212.054(2)(b)1 — the cap that applies to tangible-goods sales — does NOT apply to commercial rent. Every dollar of rent is in the surtax base. On a $50,000 monthly office lease in Hillsborough (1.5% surtax), the surtax alone is $750 per month, plus $1,000 of state tax — a combined $1,750 of monthly Florida sales tax on rent that simply does not exist on a comparable lease in any other state.

The tax applies to the gross rent, not just base rent

This is the most common Florida commercial-tenant mistake: backing into a lease pro-forma on the base-rent number alone and missing the tax on the additional $5–$15 per sqft of pass-throughs.

The Florida DOR's longstanding interpretation of § 212.031 is that the taxable base is "total rent or license fee charged" — which includes base rent plus any CAM, property-tax pass-through, insurance pass-through, or other additional-rent item the lease characterizes as part of the rent payment. A $30/sqft base rent with $10/sqft of pass-throughs in a 1% surtax county incurs Florida sales tax on the full $40/sqft, not just the $30 base.

Mechanically: the landlord bills the tenant monthly for base rent plus pass-throughs plus the 3% (or 2.5%, or 3.5%, depending on county) Florida sales tax on the combined total. The landlord remits the tax to the Florida DOR on Form DR-15 (monthly for most filers; quarterly for very small filers). Tenants who pay the tax to a landlord that doesn't remit are NOT generally on the hook for the unpaid tax — the landlord is the statutory taxpayer — but tenant lease language often requires indemnification for tenant-specific tax assessments.

Worked example: 3,000-sqft Class B office in Miami-Dade

Assume a 3,000-sqft Class B office in Miami-Dade County (1% surtax). The landlord quotes $25/sqft base rent on a 5-year NNN with the following pass-throughs:

• CAM: $6/sqft/year
• Property tax: $2.50/sqft/year
• Insurance: $1.25/sqft/year

The annual component breakdown:

• Base rent: $25 × 3,000 = $75,000
• CAM: $6 × 3,000 = $18,000
• Property tax pass-through: $2.50 × 3,000 = $7,500
• Insurance pass-through: $1.25 × 3,000 = $3,750
• Pre-tax annual rent: $104,250

The Florida § 212.031 tax then applies to the full $104,250:

• State 2.0%: $104,250 × 0.02 = $2,085
• Miami-Dade surtax 1.0%: $104,250 × 0.01 = $1,042.50
• Total Florida sales tax: $3,127.50/year (about $260/month)

All-in annual rent: $104,250 + $3,127.50 = $107,377.50 — about $8,948/month. Effective cost per sqft: $35.79/sqft/year. Over a 5-year term: $536,887.50.

The base-rent number alone ($25/sqft) understates the tenant's actual cash burden by 43%. Florida tenant pro-formas that quote on base rent only consistently misstate the deal economics — both directionally and on absolute dollars.

Worked example: 10,000-sqft industrial in Hillsborough

Industrial / warehouse space carries lower CAM and lower base rent but the same Florida § 212.031 tax. A 10,000-sqft warehouse in Hillsborough County (1.5% surtax) at $10/sqft base, $1.50/sqft CAM, $1.50/sqft property tax, $0.75/sqft insurance:

• Pre-tax annual rent: ($10 + $1.50 + $1.50 + $0.75) × 10,000 = $137,500
• State 2.0% tax: $2,750
• Hillsborough surtax 1.5%: $2,062.50
• Total Florida tax: $4,812.50/year
• All-in annual rent: $142,312.50 (about $11,859/month)
• Effective cost per sqft: $14.23/sqft/year

The combined 3.5% Florida tax adds about $0.49/sqft/year on this industrial deal — material on a long-term lease and on a thin-margin tenant's pro-forma.

NNN vs. gross lease: how to compare apples to apples

A gross (or "full-service" gross) lease bundles all of the operating expenses into a single all-in number that the landlord absorbs. A NNN lease lets the landlord pass cost variance through to the tenant. The economic comparison is not "$30 NNN vs. $40 gross" — that comparison ignores the pass-throughs that make $30 NNN actually cost the tenant $40+ once pass-throughs and the Florida tax are added.

The right way to compare:

1. Compute the all-in NNN cost per sqft per year, including the Florida § 212.031 tax (this calculator's effective-cost-per-sqft output).
2. Gross up the gross-lease quote by the same Florida § 212.031 rate (the tax applies to gross-lease rent the same way it applies to NNN rent — the landlord still owes it).
3. Compare on a total-dollar-per-sqft basis.

A $35/sqft gross-lease quote in Miami-Dade (3% combined Florida tax) costs the tenant $35 × 1.03 = $36.05/sqft/year on an all-in basis. A $25/sqft NNN with $10/sqft of pass-throughs in the same county costs about $36.05/sqft/year all-in. Same number, different cost-variance allocation.

In a NNN structure, the tenant bears variance on CAM (controllable), property tax (reassessments after a sale flow straight through — a common surprise), and insurance (Florida windstorm premium spikes). In a gross lease the landlord absorbs all three. Negotiation lever: CAM caps in a NNN lease blunt the controllable-CAM variance without changing the headline base rent. Pursue them, exclude property tax and insurance from the cap (the landlord cannot control those), and confirm in writing that CAM caps are non-cumulative.

Florida-specific lease negotiation watchpoints

A few items that bite Florida commercial tenants more than out-of-state tenants:

• Property-tax reassessment after a sale. Florida property tax tracks the most-recent sale price under the Save Our Homes "just value" framework for non-homestead property. When the landlord sells the building mid-lease, the new owner's property tax bill resets to the new sale price — and on a NNN lease, that increase flows straight through to the tenant. Negotiate a cap on tenant exposure for property-tax increases attributable to a change-of-ownership reassessment.
• Windstorm and flood insurance. Florida commercial insurance is materially more expensive than the national average. Insurance pass-throughs run higher than out-of-state benchmarks, and post-hurricane premium spikes can be 30–50% in a single renewal cycle. Confirm the lease's insurance-pass-through language carves out tenant-improvement insurance the tenant carries separately to avoid double-paying.
• Tax-base inclusiveness. Confirm in writing which line items the landlord characterizes as additional rent for § 212.031 purposes. Parking fees, signage fees, and certain utility reimbursements may be structured as separate licenses outside the rent base — saving the tenant 2–3% on those line items. The DOR has TIPs and a thicket of letter rulings on what counts; structure matters.
• Hurricane / casualty rent abatement. Florida commercial leases almost always include a casualty-and-condemnation section that addresses rent abatement during repair / restoration. Confirm the abatement applies to both base rent AND pass-throughs (some leases abate base rent only, leaving CAM and pass-throughs payable during the period the tenant cannot occupy). Confirm the Florida § 212.031 tax also abates when rent abates — when rent is zero, the tax base is zero.

What this calculator does NOT do

This calculator handles year-one all-in cost on a current-rate basis. It does not:

• Model rent escalators. Florida commercial leases typically escalate base rent 2–3% annually or by CPI. For a full-term cash flow, layer the escalator on top of the year-one figure.
• Net out free-rent or TI amortization. Tenant-improvement allowances and free-rent concessions are deal-specific and require a separate effective-rent computation.
• Handle tenant-collected sales tax on subleased or licensed sub-spaces. If the tenant subleases part of the demised premises, the tenant becomes a § 212.031 landlord to the subtenant and owes its own DR-15 filing. That mechanic is outside this calculator's scope.
• Track the legislatively stepped-down state rate over future years. The state rate has been on a downward trajectory; the calculator uses the current 2.0% rate. If the legislature reduces the rate mid-term, the tenant's all-in cost will fall proportionally — refresh the computation after each session.
• Compute Florida property tax independently. The tax pass-through is an input here. For an independent property-tax estimate, use our Property Tax Calculator.

How this page is maintained

The Florida § 212.031 state rate has been on a stepped-down trajectory. We refresh this calculator after each Florida legislative session in case of statewide-rate changes, and after each Florida DOR DR-15DSS update (typically published in December for January-1 effective rates) for county surtax changes. Counties hold referenda, surtaxes expire or are extended, and new transportation or infrastructure surtaxes can be adopted by vote.

Last reviewed: 2026-05-15 against F.S. § 212.031, § 212.054, § 212.05 and the current Florida DOR Form DR-15DSS county-rate table.