Florida sales tax for online stores

The short version

• Florida's general state sales tax rate is 6%.
• Many counties add a discretionary sales surtax, which you collect based on the county where you deliver.
• Out-of-state sellers have to register and collect once their taxable remote sales into Florida exceed $100,000 in the previous calendar year.
• Since July 1, 2021, marketplace providers collect on the sales they facilitate.

Who has to collect

The Department lists the activities that require registration, including selling taxable items in Florida. Businesses located in Florida that sell taxable goods register as dealers.

For sellers outside Florida, the test is a 'substantial number of remote sales': any number of taxable remote sales in the previous calendar year whose total exceeds $100,000. A remote sale is a retail sale of tangible personal property ordered by mail, phone, the internet or another channel, from a seller who receives the order outside Florida and ships it into the state.

Note the difference from some other states: Florida's test is based on taxable remote sales in the previous calendar year, with no separate transaction count.

State rate and county surtax

Remote sellers and marketplace providers collect the surtax when they deliver tangible personal property to a county that imposes one. The Department publishes the surtax rate, effective date and expiration date for each of Florida's 67 counties every year on Form DR-15DSS.

What is generally taxable

In Florida, sales, admissions, storage and rental transactions are generally taxable unless an exemption applies. For an online store shipping physical products into Florida, assume your items are taxable until you have checked whether a specific exemption covers them.

Registration and filing

• Register online with the Florida Business Tax Application (Form DR-1).
• Remote sellers and marketplace providers must register electronically, and file and pay electronically.
• How often you file depends on how much tax you collect in a year, as shown below.

Selling through marketplaces

Since July 1, 2021, marketplace providers with a physical presence in Florida, or that make or facilitate more than $100,000 in taxable remote sales into Florida, must register and collect Florida sales tax and surtax on the sales they facilitate. They must certify to their sellers that they will do so.

Once a marketplace has certified that, you may not collect the tax on those sales yourself, and you leave them off your own return. If you have a physical presence in Florida, or make more than $100,000 in remote sales to Florida outside the marketplace, you still register and collect on those sales.

How Stripe Tax handles it on your store

Stores we build on our engine can take payments through Stripe, and on Stripe checkout Stripe Tax calculates the tax automatically from the product type and where the buyer is, adds it at checkout and shows it on the receipt.

Stripe Tax only collects where you have told it you are registered. You register with Florida first (or ask Stripe to register for you), then add the registration in the Locations tab of your own Stripe account. Stripe also tracks your sales against state thresholds and alerts you when you may need to register.

You stay responsible for filing and paying the tax you collect. Stripe offers automated US filing through partners at an extra cost, but the obligation is yours. Stripe Tax works only on Stripe checkout, not on Wompi or Bold.