Florida Commercial Rent Sales Tax Calculator

How this calculator works

Florida is the only U.S. state that imposes its general sales tax on the rental of commercial real property. The tax (F.S. § 212.031) has been a fixture of the Florida code since 1969 and applies to office, retail, warehouse, industrial, and any other rental of commercial real property. The county discretionary sales surtax (F.S. § 212.055) layers on top.

This calculator computes the monthly and annual tax on a single Florida commercial lease, decomposing the result into four lines:

1. State sales tax (F.S. § 212.031) — 2.0% on the taxable rent base (current effective rate)
2. County discretionary surtax (F.S. § 212.055) — 0% to 1.5% depending on county
3. Combined effective rate — typically 2.0% to 3.5%
4. Annual roll-up — monthly figures × 12

The taxable base is base rent plus CAM, mandatory parking, and property-tax pass-through. The calculator intentionally excludes utilities-at-cost from the inputs — those are carved out of the § 212.031 base and including them is the single most common Florida tenant pro-forma mistake.

Rate history — how we got from 5.5% to 2.0%

The Florida commercial-rent tax 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:

• Pre-2018: 6.0% state rate
• 2018–2020: 5.7% (first incremental reduction)
• 2020–2023: 5.5% (held flat through the pandemic)
• January 2024 – May 2024: 4.5% (HB 7063 reduction effective January 1, 2024)
• June 1, 2024 – July 31, 2024: 2.0% (Florida DOR TIP 24A01-02 transition window; partial-month proration rules applied to leases that crossed the cut-over date)
• August 1, 2024 onward: 2.0% (current effective rate)

HB 7063 (2023) authorized the further reduction below 4.5% tied to the Florida Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund (UCS Trust Fund) reaching its statutory cap. That cap-trigger fired in mid-2024 and produced the current 2.0% rate via DOR TIP 24A01-02. Statutory full repeal remains under discussion in each session — the rate has consistently been stepped down rather than eliminated outright, because § 212.031 generates roughly $1.5–$2 billion of annual general-fund revenue at the 2.0% level. The Florida DOR retains authority to reduce the rate further; verify against the live commercial-rent guidance before relying on this calculator for a year far into the future.

The county discretionary surtax — 0% to 1.5% on top

The county discretionary sales surtax under F.S. § 212.055 (administered alongside § 212.054) applies on top of the 2.0% state rate on commercial rent. As of the latest DR-15DSS review:

• Hillsborough (Tampa), Osceola, Leon (Tallahassee), Monroe (Florida Keys): 1.5%
• Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Duval (Jacksonville), Pinellas, Sarasota, Collier (Naples), Manatee, Brevard, Pasco, Polk, Seminole: 1.0%
• Orange (Orlando), Lee (Fort Myers), Volusia (Daytona), St. Johns: 0.5%
• A small minority of low-population rural counties: 0% (no surtax)

The surtax is keyed to the LOCATION OF THE LEASED PREMISES — not the landlord's address, not the tenant's headquarters. A Miami-based landlord with a warehouse leased in Tampa charges Hillsborough's 1.5% surtax, not Miami-Dade's 1.0%.

Critically, the $5,000 single-item surtax cap under F.S. § 212.054(2)(b)1 — the cap that applies to tangible-goods sales (the cap that makes a $10,000 boat pay $50 of surtax, not $100) — does NOT apply to commercial rent. Every dollar of rent is in the surtax base. On a $50,000/month lease in Hillsborough, the surtax alone is $750/month.

What's in the taxable base

The Florida DOR's longstanding interpretation of F.S. § 212.031 is that the taxable base is "total rent or license fee charged" — which sweeps in every line item the lease characterizes as additional rent:

• Base rent — the headline number on the rent schedule
• CAM (Common Area Maintenance) — pro rata pass-through of parking-lot maintenance, landscaping, exterior lighting, security, common-area utilities, property management
• Mandatory parking — taxable when the tenant is required to use parking as a condition of the lease; optional parking on a separate license is NOT in the base
• Property-tax pass-through — tenant's pro rata share of the landlord's property tax bill

What is NOT in the taxable base

A common Florida-tenant overpayment pattern is taxing items that are not legally in the § 212.031 base:

• Utilities passed through at cost — § 212.031 carves out separately metered utilities billed at the landlord's actual cost. The carve-out applies only to utilities-at-cost; utilities bundled into a flat rate exceeding actual cost may be back in the rent base.
• Optional parking on a separate license — if the tenant can decline the parking, it's a separate transaction outside § 212.031
• Signage fees on a separate license
• Late fees and interest on past-due rent — those are penalties, not rent
• Security deposits — not rent until applied to a default

The calculator excludes utilities entirely from the inputs to prevent the most common mistake. If the lease language is ambiguous on which line items are characterized as additional rent versus separate licenses, consult a Florida-licensed CPA before structuring the monthly invoice.

Worked example: 3,500-sqft office in Miami-Dade

Assume a 3,500-sqft Class B office in Miami-Dade County (1.0% surtax). The lease:

• Base rent: $15,000/month
• CAM: $2,000/month
• Mandatory parking: $0 (parking is on a separate optional license, not in the rent base)
• Property-tax pass-through: $0 (gross-lease structure absorbs property tax)

Taxable monthly rent = $15,000 + $2,000 = $17,000

• State 2.0% on $17,000: $340/month
• Miami-Dade 1.0% surtax on $17,000: $170/month
• Total Florida tax on rent: $510/month

Annual: $6,120/year at a 3.0% combined effective rate. Over a 5-year term: $30,600 of Florida commercial-rent tax — a material line item that out-of-state tenants frequently miss in initial pro-formas.

Worked example: 12,000-sqft retail in Orange County

A 12,000-sqft anchor-pad retail space in Orange County (Orlando, 0.5% surtax) on a NNN lease:

• Base rent: $50,000/month
• CAM: $8,000/month
• Mandatory parking: $0
• Property-tax pass-through: $4,000/month (NNN structure passes property tax through to tenant)

Taxable monthly rent = $50,000 + $8,000 + $4,000 = $62,000

• State 2.0% on $62,000: $1,240/month
• Orange 0.5% surtax on $62,000: $310/month
• Total Florida tax: $1,550/month

Annual: $18,600/year at a 2.5% combined effective rate. On a 10-year retail anchor lease, that's $186,000 of cumulative Florida commercial-rent tax at the current rate — and historically would have been substantially higher at the pre-2024 5.5% rate.

Worked example: Federal government tenant — $0 tax

A 5,000-sqft GSA lease to a federal-government agency in Broward County:

• Base rent: $30,000/month
• CAM: $4,000/month
• Tenant exemption: government (F.S. § 212.08(6))

Florida sales tax owed: $0/month. Federal, state, and local governmental entities are exempt from Florida sales tax under § 212.08(6). The lease must be directly in the name of the governmental entity; leases through a private intermediary (a contractor sub-leasing to the government, for example) may forfeit the exemption and convert an assumed-exempt deal into a back-tax assessment on audit.

Worked example: 501(c)(3) nonprofit with Form DR-14 — $0 tax

A 2,500-sqft community-services lease to a Florida 501(c)(3) nonprofit holding a current Form DR-14 (Consumer's Certificate of Exemption):

• Base rent: $8,000/month
• CAM: $1,500/month
• Tenant exemption: 501(c)(3) nonprofit with Form DR-14 (F.S. § 212.08(7))

Florida sales tax owed: $0/month. The nonprofit must hold a current DR-14 issued by the Florida DOR; the landlord must retain a copy in the lease file. The DR-14 is on a five-year renewal cycle, and an expired certificate forfeits the exemption — landlord-side certificate-tracking is the audit-protection mechanic.

Filing mechanics: who remits the tax

The landlord is the statutory taxpayer. F.S. § 212.031 designates the landlord as:

• Required to register as a Florida sales-tax dealer (Form DR-1) before collecting any rent
• Required to collect the § 212.031 tax from the tenant as part of the monthly rent payment
• Required to remit the tax to the Florida DOR on Form DR-15 (monthly for most filers; quarterly for very small filers under the DOR's electronic-filing thresholds)
• Required to file by the 20th of the month following the rent receipt; late filing produces a 10% penalty plus interest from the due date

Tenants who pay the tax to a landlord that does not remit are NOT generally on the hook for the unpaid tax — the landlord is the statutory taxpayer — but tenant lease language often requires the tenant to indemnify the landlord against tax assessments arising from the tenant's specific use of the premises (a common landlord-favorable lease provision).

When (and how) the tax will be fully eliminated

There is no firm date for full repeal. The HB 7063 (2023) framework tied the further rate reduction to the UCS Trust Fund reaching its statutory cap, which triggered in mid-2024. The Florida DOR retains statutory authority under § 212.031 to reduce the rate further as the UCS Trust Fund maintains its capped balance and as the legislature reauthorizes specific reductions. Full statutory repeal has been proposed in multiple sessions but has not passed.

For pro-forma purposes, model the current 2.0% rate. Track each Florida legislative session and each Florida DOR commercial-rent TIP for further reductions. We refresh this calculator after each session and after each DR-15DSS update.

Common errors to avoid

• Taxing utilities-at-cost. Utilities passed through at the landlord's actual cost are carved out of the § 212.031 base. Including them in the taxable base is the single most common landlord-side overcollection error.
• Missing CAM from the taxable base. Tenants who back into pro-formas on base rent alone consistently understate the actual tax exposure. CAM is squarely in the § 212.031 base under the long-standing DOR interpretation.
• Ignoring the county surtax. On a $50,000/month Hillsborough lease, missing the 1.5% surtax understates the monthly tax by $750. The surtax is not optional and is not absorbed by the state portion.
• Treating optional parking as mandatory. If the tenant can decline parking on a separate license, those parking dollars are outside the § 212.031 base. Confirm the structure in the lease language before adding parking to the taxable base.
• Accepting an expired DR-14. Nonprofit and religious-organization exemptions require a CURRENT Form DR-14. A landlord who accepted an expired certificate at lease execution and never re-verified is exposed to back-tax assessment on audit.

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 further 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, § 212.055, § 212.03, § 212.08, HB 7063 (2023), and Florida DOR TIP 24A01-02 (June 2024 rate-reduction transition guidance).