Sales Tax Filing

If you sell taxable goods or services in Florida, the state expects a return from you on a schedule it assigns — monthly, quarterly, twice a year or once a year — whether or not you collected a dollar that period. Our Florida sales tax filing service runs that calendar for you from our Coral Springs office: Form DR-15, the county surtax breakdown, and the electronic payment, in English or Spanish.

Most owners who come to us are not confused about the rate. They are confused about which schedule the Department of Revenue currently has them on — and that is the error that costs money.

Who has to register and file

The obligation starts before your first sale. The Florida Department of Revenue puts it plainly: "Before starting a business in Florida, you must first find out if your business activity or products will be subject to sales and use tax. If they are, you must register to collect sales tax or pay use tax" (Florida Department of Revenue, Florida Sales and Use Tax).

Registering and filing are two different obligations. Once you hold a certificate, the returns are due on schedule whether or not you had sales.

In Broward County you collect 7%: the 6% state rate plus the county's 1% discretionary sales surtax, effective January 1, 2019 through December 31, 2048 (Form DR-15DSS, Calendar Year 2026). The surtax follows the county where delivery is made, not where your office sits. A business delivering across Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade still files a single DR-15, but the form has no county-by-county boxes: everything taxed at a rate other than your own county's goes into one combined total on Line 15(c), and all the surtax due into one figure on Line 15(d) (Instructions for Form DR-15, R. 10/25). The county detail lives in your own records, where it has to be right for those two totals to be right.

Your filing frequency is assigned, and it moves

This is what turns a compliant business into a late filer. You do not pick your schedule. The state sets it from what you collect in a year:

• More than $1,000 — monthly
• $501 to $1,000 — quarterly
• $101 to $500 — semiannual
• $100 or less — annual

And the Department is explicit that where you start is not where you stay: "Most new businesses are set up to file and pay sales and use tax quarterly. Depending on the amount of tax you collect, you may qualify for a different filing frequency."

Grow past a threshold and you get moved up. Keep filing quarterly after the state has put you on monthly and every one of those months is a late return — even though you never kept a dollar of the state's money and paid everything you owed. That is why the first thing we do on a new account is confirm the frequency the Department has on file, not the one you have been using.

The due date is the 1st, not the 20th

"Returns and payments are due on the 1st and late after the 20th day of the month following each reporting period, whether you are filing monthly, quarterly, twice a year, or yearly" (Florida Department of Revenue, Form GT-800013). The 20th is the last day a return is still timely, not the deadline itself.

The weekend rule is narrower than it sounds, and it does not cover the way most of our clients pay. If the 20th falls on a Saturday, Sunday or a state or federal holiday, returns are timely on the first business day after the 20th when they are "filed electronically (without payment), postmarked, or delivered in person", and payments only when "postmarked or delivered in person" (Form GT-800013). Electronic payment is not on that list. It runs by the opposite and stricter rule: "you must initiate your electronic payment and receive a confirmation number no later than 5 p.m. ET on the business day prior to the 20th" (Form GT-800013; Instructions for Form DR-15, R. 10/25), with the dates published in the Florida eServices Calendar of Electronic Payment Deadlines (Form DR-659). If you file and pay electronically, a weekend gives you less time, not more, and missing that cutoff is a late payment carrying penalty and interest.

And one rule that catches quiet months: "Florida law requires you to file a tax return even when NO sales and use tax is due." A month with no sales is still a return.

The 2.5% you forfeit by filing on paper

Florida pays dealers a small allowance for doing the state's collecting, but only one way. Per the Instructions for Form DR-15 (R. 10/25): "When you file and pay electronically and on time, you are entitled to deduct a collection allowance of 2.5% (.025) of the first $1,200 of the Amount Due... not to exceed $30" — and "You are not entitled to a collection allowance if you file your return or make your payment by a method other than electronic means."

For many businesses electronic filing is not a choice: one that paid $5,000 or more in sales and use tax during Florida's prior fiscal year (July 1 – June 30) is required by law to file and pay electronically.

What a late return costs

"If you file your return or pay tax late, a late penalty of 10% of the amount of tax owed, but not less than $50, may be charged. The $50 minimum penalty applies even if no tax is due" (Form GT-800013). Interest runs on top at a floating rate the Department resets every January 1 and July 1. That $50 floor is why a zero-sales period you forgot about is not free.

What a Florida sales tax filing service actually does

Each period we confirm your assigned frequency, split taxable sales by delivery county, apply the surtax rules, file the DR-15 electronically and claim the collection allowance you are entitled to. To do that we need:

• Your Florida sales and use tax certificate number.
• Gross sales for the period, with exempt and taxable sales separated.
• Sales broken out by the county where delivery was made.
• Resale and exemption certificates for anything you did not tax.
• Your last few filed returns, if you are joining us mid-year.

If your books are current, the return is quick. If they are not, that is the real work — which is why sales tax rarely belongs on its own and usually rides with monthly bookkeeping. New companies typically set both up alongside their Florida incorporation, since the sales tax registration is part of the same launch.

Why file with an EA and CPA firm

Sales tax you collect is not your revenue. You are holding the state's money until you remit it, and the state treats errors there differently from an honest mistake on an income tax return.

Accounting Max Services was founded in 2009 and brings over 17 years of combined professional experience, with Enrolled Agents licensed by the IRS and CPAs in the same office, working in English and Spanish. The practical benefit here is that the same numbers land twice: the gross sales you report to Florida have to agree with the revenue on your federal return, so we reconcile the two before either goes out — the reason most of our filing clients also use us for corporate tax preparation.

All rates and thresholds above are Florida Department of Revenue rules current as of July 2026, and are general information rather than advice about your business.

Get your Florida filings back on schedule

Bring your last four returns and your gross sales broken out by county. We will confirm which frequency the state has you on, tell you whether any period was filed on the wrong schedule, and what to do about it — before the next 20th. We are at 1700 N University Dr STE 210, Coral Springs, and the first consultation is free.