Sales and Use Tax on Rental of Living or Sleeping Accommodations

What landlords and innkeepers need to know.

What is Taxable?

Sales tax is due at the rate of 6 percent on charges or room rates paid in exchange for the right to use or occupy living or sleeping accommodations. Florida law refers to these living or sleeping accommodations as "transient accommodations."

Persons who rent or lease any of the following types of transient accommodations must collect sales tax and remit it to the Department of Revenue:

• Hotel or motel
• Apartment house or any other multiple unit structure (for example: duplex, triplex, quadraplex, condominium)
• Rooming house
• Tourist or mobile home court (for example: trailer court, motor court, recreational vehicle camp, fish camp)
• Single-family dwelling
• Garage apartment
• Beach house or cottage
• Cooperatively owned apartment
• Condominium parcel
• Timeshare resort
• Any other house
• Vehicle or other structure, place, or location held out to the public to be a place where living quarters or sleeping or housekeeping accommodations are provided to transient guests in exchange for payment.

Some counties impose a discretionary sales surtax, local option tax, tourist development tax, convention development tax or tourist impact tax on taxable rentals of transient accommodations. For more information, ask the Department for the Discretionary Sales Surtax brochure (Form GT-800019) and a list of surtax counties and rates (Form DR-15DSS). To obtain these and other forms, see "For Information and Forms" below. For information on other taxes, please see Sales & Use Tax Rate Charts.

What is Exempt?

Certain leases and rentals are exempt from sales tax. The owner or owner's representative is required to keep documentation to support the exempt transaction. The following are exempt:

• Rental charges or room rates paid by a person who has a signed, bona fide written lease for a period of continuous residence longer than 6 months. In the absence of a written lease, if a person has continuously paid the applicable tax on the rental charges or room rates due at that location, for the first six months subsequent charges are tax-exempt.
• Rental charges or room rates paid by a full-time student enrolled in an institution offering postsecondary education. A written declaration of an appropriate official of the student's institution, documenting that the student attends the institution full time, is proof of the student's full-time enrollment.
• Rental charges or room rates paid by military personnel who are currently on active duty and present in the community under official orders. The military personnel must provide the following documents to support the exemption:
  • A written declaration stating that he or she is currently serving on active duty in the U.S. armed services.
  • A copy of the official orders supporting the active duty status of the military personnel and making it necessary to occupy the accommodation.
• Rental of accommodations in a migrant labor camp.

Trailer Camps, Recreational Vehicle Parks, and Mobile Home Parks

Rental charges at trailer camps, recreational vehicle parks, and mobile home parks (except mobile home lots regulated by Chapter 723) are subject to tax unless more than 50 percent of the total rental units are occupied by tenants who have continuously resided there for more than three months. When more than 50 percent of the total rental units available are occupied by tenants who have continuously resided there for more than three months, the owner or owner's representative of the camp or park is required to file Form DR-72-2 with the Department. Form DR-72-2, Declaration of Taxable Status - Trailer Camps, Mobile Home Parks, and Recreational Parks, is used to report that the rental of transient accommodations is no longer subject to tax.

All rental charges for accommodations at a camp or park are presumed taxable until the owner or owner's representative informs the Department that the charges for accommodations at the park qualify for exemption.

This exemption only applies to the rental units. Any retail sales or rentals of tangible personal property (for example, non-grocery items sold in a gift shop or camp store and recreational equipment rentals), rentals of commercial rental property, or other commercial rentals are taxable unless specifically exempt.

Who Must Register to Collect Tax?

The owner of living or sleeping accommodations is required to register each taxable accommodation separately. You can register to collect and/or report tax via the Department's Internet site. Go to www.myflorida.com/dor and click on e-Services. If you do not have Internet access, you can complete a paper Application to Collect and/or Report Tax in Florida (Form DR-1). Obtain Form DR-1 from your local DOR service Center or one of the contacts listed in "For Information and Forms."

If the property owner uses a real estate brokerage firm, other entity, or other person (not an employee) to collect or receive rent or license fees on behalf of the owners (lessors), then such firm, entity, or person must also register. Agents who are registering multiple properties for management and rental should complete an Application for Collective Registration for Rental of Living or Sleeping Accommodations (Form DR-1C). A separate application is required for each county where property is located.

About Subleases

Any person who leases a taxable accommodation and then subleases it to a third party, must register as a dealer and collect the applicable tax due on the subrents, subleases, sublets, or licenses. The dealer may choose to issue an Annual Resale Certificate to the property owner or property owner's representative to purchase accommodations tax-exempt or take a credit for the tax that was paid to the owner or owner's representative on the original lease.

Any person who cannot prove that sales tax has been paid to the landlord is directly liable to the state for any applicable tax, interest, or penalty due on the subleased property.

Reference Material

Tax Law

Call Taxpayer Services to request a copy of Rule 12A-1.061, Florida Administrative Code, Rental of Transient Living Accommodations. Tax rules are also available on the Department's Internet site. Tax laws are also available in the Florida Tax Law Library.

Brochures

The following brochures are available from your local DOR service center, the DOR Distribution Center, or Taxpayer Services:

• Commercial Real Property Rentals
• Tangible Personal Property Rentals
• Taxation of Mobile Homes in Florida

For Information and Forms

Persons with hearing or speech impairments may call the TDD at 800-367-8331 or 850-922-1115.

• Order multiple copies of forms from our Internet site, or
• Mail form requests to:
  Distribution Center
  Florida Department of Revenue
  168A Blountstown Hwy
  Tallahassee FL 32304-3761