When it comes to beach and sunsets you can’t go wrong walking along the shore of Gulf Islands National Seashore as the sun set’s in the West. This is warm sand, beautiful water, and spectacular sunset that everyone should enjoy at least once in their lifetime.
I guess by now you realize that this week we are back to our around-the-country RV trip for Sales Tax Tuesday 2018, and we are in Florida. As John Masefield wrote, “I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied.”
About now you may be saying, “Wait a minute Murph, I thought Gulf Islands National Seashore was in Mississippi?” Well, you would be right, it just happens that this National Seashore is actually two facilities of the National Park Service, one located in Gulf Breeze, Florida and the other in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, making it twice as easy to reach. I suggest visiting both, just think of them as both sides of the same penny, and yes you will pay that penny in sales tax at either location.
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But today we are in Florida, so we will focus on Florida Sales Tax in this feature, and this is where I must stop to remind you that Insightful Accountant has teamed up with Avalara, the Sales Tax People, to bring you Sales Tax Tuesday 2018. In this series we will cover each and every state tax jurisdiction in the United States to give you update information about each state's sales and use tax requirements as we travel our way from state to state paying sales taxes all along the way. We will also do our best to give you some tips on where to head, what to see, what to do, where to eat, and how to just enjoy ‘being alive’ in these beautiful United States.
Another great adventure in Florida is to take the longest drive you can anywhere across water by taking the overseas highway from Miami to Key West. This 161-mile drive features the Gulf of Mexico on one side of the highway, and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. As far as the eye can see the drive will amaze you with a view like nothing else.
While in Key West, or any of the Florida Keys, or almost any place else in Florida, be sure to make plenty of ‘pie stops’ for that most delightful of delicacies, ‘Florida Key Lime Pie.’ Some of the very best can be found at the ‘Blonde Giraffe’ in Key West.
And just what goes well with Key Lime Pie while you are in the Keys, Florida Spiny Lobster? There are so may places you will find this delicacy that I am not even going to try to name my favorite, so perhaps you will want to ‘try them all.’
But I must admit that there is another ‘scrumptious’ dining option that tends to be a little less expensive than lobsters if paying the sales tax is burdening your pocket book. I’m talking about a ‘fried grouper sandwich’. I have eaten more than my share of ‘Grouper’ down one side and up the other side of Florida and have always found that it “crunchilicious” no matter where you find it. (Yep, that’s another Murphism.) PS – it really doesn’t matter what type of roll, bun or bread it is served on either.
I'm also sorry that I must disagree with all those 'foodies' who thing that the 'Cubano' (aka: Cuban sandwich) is the most iconic sandwich in Florida. I would much rather have my grouper sandwich. Trust me, 'go fro the Grouper' if given the choice.
Let me just interject here that food which is served, prepared, or sold by restaurants, lunch counters, cafeterias, hotels, taverns, and amusement parks (or almost anywhere else similar) in Florida is subject to state and applicable local (discretionary surtax) sales taxes. So, you will be paying sales taxes on your “crunchilicious grouper sandwiches.” A noted exception is ‘bottled water’ (just so long as it contains no flavoring or carbonation.)
When you reach the middle of Florida, either on your way down, or on your way back up, you ultimately get to two things. Orange Groves and Disney World both of which deserve a layover. There are numerous places you can stop to enjoy pick-them-yourself, or squeeze-them-yourself, fresh Florida oranges and the beautiful nectar they produce. Just get out of that car and walk among the groves, just as long as you have permission from one of the major orange growers offering self-paced walking tours.
And what would a trip to Florida be without taking in ‘Disney World’ as a statue of Walt (Disney) and Mickey (Mouse) greet you in the Magic Kingdom. Of course, Disney World is a lot more than just the Magic Kingdom. From its initial conceptualization that began in 1957, just two years after the opening of Disneyland in California, it took nearly 9 years before the idea became official with the announcement in 1965 that Disney had acquired the land for “the greatest attraction in the history of Florida” (Walt's Press Conference words).
Even though Walt Disney died just 13-months following the announcement, his brother Roy, oversaw the construction of the first phase of the entertainment complex and its opening on October 1, 1971. While Walt’s original vision for an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow would be scaled back substantially, Epcot opened in 1982.
Along with Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom, theme parks, these parks have not only been the greatest attractions in Florida, but anywhere in the world in terms of the number of persons visiting them to date.
Yes, you will pay sales taxes on your various admissions and other charges paid while you are visiting any attractions in Florida. In fact, Florida has one of the more complicated sales and use tax set of regulations, including the number of ‘brackets’ for their ‘Discretionary Sales Surtax’ categories which are the 56 various sales tax jurisdictions that levy taxes in addition to their state taxes. So, let’s look at Florida’s Sales Tax Facts.
Florida Sales Tax Facts:
- Each sale, admission, storage, or rental in Florida is taxable, unless the transaction is exempt. Sales tax is added to the price of taxable goods or services and collected from the purchaser at the time of sale. Florida's general state sales tax rate is 6% with the following exceptions: 4% on amusement machine receipts, 5.8% on the lease or license of commercial real property, and 6.95% on electricity.
- Sales and Use tax managed by the Florida Department of Revenue (FDOR).
- Florida is not a member of the Streamlined Sales Tax (SST).
- Florida has 67 different sales tax jurisdictions. The state rate is 6% and the total rate can range as high as 8% when including local jurisdictions. The average is 6.62% making it the 29th highest average sales tax rate.
- Local taxes can be imposed at the county level. This Discretionary Sales Surtax ranges between .5% and 1.5%. This tax has a limit or threshold of $5,000 for all tangible personal property (nor does it apply to rental of real property, transient rentals, or services). The state tax of 6% must be taxed for the full amount.
- Sales tax is sourced at the destination address.
- Some common nexus creating activities are: place of business, employees, sales solicitation (by an employee or contract sales force) delivery, inventory, and systematic advertisement.
- Florida exempts most software related products and digital goods but will tax maintenance services on such products and services.
- Florida taxes repair services on tangible property, most types of rentals, admission charges, gym memberships and service warranty contracts.
- Resale certificates must be renewed annually. Exemption certificates issued by the FDOR for other reasons (i.e. government or non-profits) expire after five years.
- How frequently businesses must remit sales and use tax to the state is based on the total tax collected during the State fiscal year. It may be annual, semiannual, quarterly, or monthly, but businesses collecting more than $1,000 in tax must file monthly.
- In addition to state sales and use tax and discretionary sales surtax, Florida law allows counties to impose local option transient rental taxes on rentals or leases of accommodations in hotels, motels, apartments, rooming houses, mobile home parks, RV parks, condominiums, or timeshare resorts for a term of six months or less.
- Florida exempts a long list of items and general groceries (which are rather difficult to find listed) but we found those items listed in this official FDOR PDF (which was valid at the time of initial publication of this article).
Sales tax for many states is one of the largest, if not the largest, source of tax revenue, especially in states where tourism is so prominent. Similarly, for many local jurisdictions, like counties, cities and town, sales tax may only be secondary to property taxes in revenues support local public services, schools, and community services.
In Florida, the state Department of Revenue is responsible for collection of all of the taxes, state and local, they then divvy those taxes back to the respective governmental entities which assessed them. But that means the FDOR is responsible for making certain every cent of sales tax is collected properly, and with the wide variety of taxing brackets, the specificity of taxability vs. exemption of items, and the impact of NEXUS, it's hard for a local business to insure that they are totally compliant.
In addition, manual sales and use taxes are prone to error and can consume hours of your time in collection, accounting and reporting for what is pass-through paperwork rather than revenue-generating activities. Are you sure you are up-to-date on the sales and use taxes impacting your business?
That's where Avalara can help. provides solutions for sales tax automation, including tax calculation, exemption certificate management, returns processing and 1099 filing and reporting. Automation via Avalara allows businesses to be fully sales tax compliant without sacrificing productivity so you won't spend time digging yourself out from under sales tax burdens or audits. With Avalara you can rest assured that your 'sales tax is done right.'