If you sell taxable goods in Broward County, you collect 7%: Florida's 6% state sales tax plus the county's 1% discretionary sales surtax. That is the easy part. What catches most new businesses is everything after the rate — when you have to register, how often you file, and what the state counts as late.
What you collect in Broward County
Florida's general state sales tax rate is 6%, with a handful of exceptions the Department of Revenue lists separately, such as commercial electricity at 6.95% and amusement machine receipts at 4%.
Most counties add a discretionary sales surtax on top — a local county tax that applies to most transactions already subject to sales tax. Broward's surtax is 1%, effective January 1, 2019 and scheduled to run through December 31, 2048, according to Form DR-15DSS for calendar year 2026. So most taxable sales delivered in Broward carry 7% in total.
Two rules about the surtax cause more errors than the rate itself:
- The surtax follows the delivery, not the customer. You charge the rate of the county where delivery is made — not where your shop sits and not where the buyer happens to live.
- The surtax stops at $5,000 on tangible goods. Only the first $5,000 of the sale, use, lease, rental or license of an item of tangible personal property is subject to surtax. The cap does not apply to admissions, transient rentals, prepaid calling arrangements or service charges.
Why the delivery rule matters right now: Palm Beach County's rate changed on January 1, 2026. Its 1% local government infrastructure surtax was repealed effective December 31, 2025, and a new 0.5% school capital outlay surtax began January 1, 2026. For 2026, the same item delivered to Coral Springs carries 1% surtax and delivered to Boca Raton carries 0.5%. County rates are republished every November in Form DR-15DSS, so a rate you memorized last year may already be wrong.
Who has to register
If you sell taxable goods or services in Florida, you register with the state before your first sale and collect from that point on. Two situations are less obvious:
- Remote sellers. Effective July 1, 2021, a business with no physical presence in Florida must register and remit electronically if its taxable remote sales into the state exceeded $100,000 in the previous calendar year.
- Marketplace sales. Marketplace providers register and collect on the sales they facilitate. If you also sell more than $100,000 to Florida customers outside the marketplace, you register and collect on those sales yourself.
The threshold looks at the previous calendar year, which means the obligation can arrive in January on the strength of sales you made months earlier. If you are still setting the company up, it is worth getting the registration sequence right the first time — that is part of what we handle when we incorporate a business in Florida.
How often you file
Florida assigns your filing frequency based on how much sales tax you collect in a year:
- More than $1,000 — monthly
- $501 to $1,000 — quarterly
- $101 to $500 — semiannual
- $100 or less — annual
Frequency is not something you pick, and it is not fixed for life. A business that grows past the next threshold gets moved up, and filing on your old schedule after that is a late filing even if you paid everything you owed. This is the single most common reason a compliant business ends up with penalties, and it is the reason our sales tax filing service starts by confirming which frequency the state currently has you on rather than which one you have been using.
When the return is due
Returns and payments are due on the 1st of the month following each reporting period and are late after the 20th. A monthly filer reporting January files in February, on time through February 20.
When the 20th falls on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, the rule splits by how you file:
- Electronic filers get until the next business day.
- Paper returns are timely if postmarked or hand-delivered on the first business day following the 20th.
Electronic filing is not always optional. A business that paid $5,000 or more in sales and use tax during Florida's prior fiscal year must file and pay electronically, beginning with the January return of the following calendar year.
Where this stops being simple
The rate and the calendar are the mechanical part, and most owners can run them once someone sets them up correctly. The judgment calls sit elsewhere: whether what you sell is taxable at all, whether a customer's resale or exemption certificate is valid, how to handle deliveries across county lines, and what to do about periods you already filed wrong.
That last one matters more than it sounds. Sales tax you collect is not your revenue — you are holding the state's money until you remit it. Errors there are treated differently from an honest mistake on an income tax return, so they are worth fixing deliberately rather than quietly.
All figures above are Florida Department of Revenue rules current as of July 2026 and are general information, not advice about your business.
Not sure which frequency you are on?
Bring us your last four returns and your gross sales broken out by county. We will tell you whether the state has you on the right filing frequency, whether you crossed the $100,000 remote-sales threshold last year, and what to do about any period already filed — before the next 20th comes around. Start with our Florida sales tax filing service, or call the office at +1 (954) 724-1114.