Florida Sales Tax on Short-Term Rentals

What Florida's transient rental tax actually covers

Florida taxes short-term lodging the way it taxes a hotel stay, and a Canadian who rents out a Florida condo for part of the year steps directly into that regime. Under Florida Statutes section 212.03, the state imposes a 6 percent sales tax on the total rent charged for transient accommodations, meaning any residential unit, apartment, beach house, cottage, cabin, or condominium rented to a guest for a period of six months or less. The phrase that matters is "six months or less," because it is the line that separates a taxable short-term rental from an exempt long-term lease, and it is the line a snowbird needs to watch.

The tax applies to the full amount the guest must pay to occupy the unit, not just the headline nightly rate. Cleaning fees charged as a separate line item, pet fees collected per stay, and any other mandatory charge are part of the taxable base. A refundable security deposit is not taxed if it is actually refunded, and a genuinely optional service can fall outside the base if it is separately itemized and truly optional rather than bundled into the required price. Rentals of more than six consecutive months to the same tenant are exempt, but only when an actual written lease establishes a term longer than six months. This exemption is the one that matters most to snowbird owners, who sometimes rent in seven-month or longer blocks precisely to step outside the transient regime.

Short-term rental tax: Canada compared to Florida

A Canadian landlord already knows one consumption tax on short-term rentals: the federal GST/HST, and in some provinces a provincial sales tax, charged on nightly accommodation. Florida looks similar at first glance but is built differently, because the Florida burden is assembled from three layers that sit at two jurisdictional levels, the state and the county. Reading the two systems side by side prevents the most common planning error, which is assuming the Florida tax works like the Canadian one.

The three components of the rate, by county

The total tax on a Florida short-term reservation is the sum of three separate components, and only the first is uniform across the state. The 6 percent state sales tax applies everywhere. On top of it, each county may add a discretionary sales surtax, and a separate tourist development tax, both set locally, which is why two condos an hour apart can carry different total rates.

Combined, these put most popular counties between roughly 11 and 13 percent. The table below shows representative totals; always confirm the current figure with the specific county before you price a stay.

What the platforms collect, and what they do not

This is the section where Canadian owners most often get a costly impression of safety. Since July 1, 2021, Florida has treated the major short-term rental platforms as marketplace facilitators under Florida Statutes section 212.0596, which obliges a qualifying platform to collect and remit the state sales tax and surtax on reservations processed through it, whether or not the host is registered. For Airbnb, VRBO, and Booking.com bookings, the state-level taxes are therefore handled automatically.

The trap is the county tourist development tax. Whether a platform collects and remits the TDT depends on a separate arrangement between that platform and each individual county, and in many Florida counties no such arrangement exists. In those counties the host must register with the county and remit the tourist development tax directly, even when the platform is already handling the state portion. The result is that a Canadian owner can be fully compliant on the 6 percent state tax and entirely delinquent on a 5 or 6 percent county tax at the same time, without realizing it.

Direct bookings remove all doubt in the wrong direction: if a guest contacts you and pays outside the platform, you are responsible for collecting and remitting every layer of tax yourself, which first requires registering with the Florida Department of Revenue on Form DR-1. The same caution applies to a Florida property manager who takes bookings, where the management agreement should state explicitly who registers, collects, and remits.

Registering and filing with the Florida Department of Revenue

A Canadian owner who has any tax to collect directly, whether because of direct bookings or because the county tourist development tax is not handled by the platform, must register with the Florida Department of Revenue. Registration is done on Form DR-1, the application for a business tax account, which produces a sales tax certificate of registration. Once registered, the owner reports and remits the collected tax on Form DR-15, the sales and use tax return, on the schedule the Department assigns, typically monthly or quarterly depending on volume. County tourist development tax is filed separately with the county tax collector unless the county has delegated its collection to the state.

The filing obligation does not disappear in months with no rental income. A registered account generally must file a return even for a zero period, and missing those filings is a common way for an otherwise compliant owner to accumulate penalties. If your only bookings flow through a platform that remits every applicable tax, you may not need to register at all, but that is a conclusion to confirm, not to assume.

Worked example: a condo on Airbnb at USD 3,000 a month

Consider a Canadian who owns a condo in Pinellas County and rents it on Airbnb for USD 3,000 a month during a four-month winter absence. Pinellas carries a 6 percent state tax, a 1 percent county surtax, and a 6 percent tourist development tax, for a combined 13 percent. On USD 3,000 of monthly rent, the total tax is USD 390 per month, or USD 1,560 across the four months.

Airbnb, as a marketplace facilitator, collects and remits the 6 percent state tax and the 1 percent surtax, which is USD 210 a month. The 6 percent tourist development tax, USD 180 a month, is the piece that depends on whether Airbnb has an agreement with Pinellas County. Where it does not, the owner must be registered with the county and remit that USD 180 monthly directly. The lesson in the numbers is blunt: nearly half of the monthly tax on this booking is the county layer that the platform may not be handling, so an owner who assumes "Airbnb takes care of it" can be short USD 720 over the season.

What this means specifically for a Canadian owner

Two threads come together for a Canadian. The first is administrative identity: to register with Florida and, separately, to handle US federal income tax on the rental, a Canadian owner generally needs a US taxpayer identification number, typically an ITIN, and should not assume a Canadian SIN or a passport substitutes for it. The second is the division of responsibility between platform and host, which a Canadian managing the property from a distance must pin down before the first guest, not after the first tax notice.

The snowbird timing angle is worth stating plainly. An owner who rents in blocks longer than six months under a written lease steps outside the transient rental tax entirely, while an owner who strings together short stays remains fully inside it, platform or not. Neither choice is wrong, but they carry different tax machinery, and choosing deliberately is better than discovering the difference from the county. Remember that the transient rental tax discussed here is a consumption tax on the guest; it is separate from the income tax a Canadian owes on the rental profit, which is its own subject.

Common mistakes

The errors here are almost all variations on one theme, trusting that the platform has handled everything.

The first is believing the platform collects all taxes. It collects the state tax and surtax, but the county tourist development tax often remains the host's responsibility, and that is precisely the layer owners forget. The second is failing to register for direct bookings: the moment a guest pays you outside the platform, you owe registration on Form DR-1 and direct remittance of every layer. The third is misreading the six-month rule, assuming that a series of short stays to the same guest, or a casual understanding, creates the long-term exemption; only a written lease for a term over six months does. The fourth is neglecting the DR-15 return, including the zero-dollar returns a registered account must still file, which is how penalties quietly accumulate.

Checklist: staying compliant on a Florida short-term rental

1. Confirm whether your rental is transient (six months or less) or exempt (written lease over six months).
2. Identify your county and its three-part rate: 6 percent state, plus surtax, plus tourist development tax.
3. Verify, for your county, whether your platform remits the tourist development tax or only the state tax and surtax.
4. Register with the county tax collector and remit the tourist development tax directly wherever the platform does not.
5. For any direct bookings, register with the Florida Department of Revenue on Form DR-1 and remit on Form DR-15.
6. File every required return, including zero-dollar periods.
7. Obtain a US ITIN for tax administration and keep your rental income tax obligations separate from this lodging tax.
8. Confirm the current rates with the county before pricing, since local rates change.

FAQ

Does Airbnb handle all my Florida taxes?

Not necessarily. Since July 1, 2021, platforms collect and remit the 6 percent state tax and the county surtax as marketplace facilitators. The county tourist development tax is a separate matter that depends on an agreement between the platform and each county, and in many counties the host must register and remit it directly.

What is the difference between the surtax and the tourist development tax?

The discretionary surtax is a county add-on to the state sales tax, collected with it through the Department of Revenue. The tourist development tax, sometimes called the bed tax, is a separate county lodging tax remitted to the county tax collector. They are different taxes with different collection paths, which is why one can be handled by the platform while the other is not.

How do I qualify for the over-six-months exemption?

You need an actual written lease stipulating a term longer than six months. A pattern of short stays, or a returning guest, does not create the exemption. For snowbird owners, a single seven-month written lease takes the rental out of the transient tax entirely.

Do I need to register if I only use Airbnb?

Possibly not for the state tax, but possibly yes for the county tourist development tax. If the platform remits every applicable tax for your county, you may not need to register; if the platform does not remit the tourist development tax, you must register with the county. Confirm rather than assume.

Is this the same as the income tax on my rental?

No. The transient rental tax is a consumption tax charged to the guest on the rental price. The income tax on your rental profit is a separate US federal obligation, generally filed on a US non-resident return, and it is not addressed by collecting and remitting the lodging tax.