On June 1, 2024, Florida’s business rent tax will be automatically slashed from a 4.5% rate to a 2.0% rate due to implementation of its 2021 Wayfair legislation. Florida’s passage of Chapter 2021-2, Laws of Florida adopted economic nexus concepts related to the retail sale of tangible personal property by remote sellers and marketplaces. Part of the legislation included a temporary freeze of Florida’s unemployment tax rates and a diversion of general revenue funds to refill the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund that was heavily depleted during the pandemic. Once the trust fund matched pre-pandemic levels, the Legislature created an automatic reduction of the state tax rate for the business rent tax to 2.0%.

Florida is the only state in the nation that levies a sales tax on the lease or license to use commercial real property. Beginning January 1, 2018, the Florida legislature started chipping away at the tax rate reducing it from 6.0% to 5.8%. In the following years, the tax was slightly reduced multiple times, yet the rate did not drop below 5.5% until December 1, 2023, due to actions of the 2023 legislature. Now, the rate will be slashed to 2.0% starting June 1, 2024.

This rate reduction only applies to the state sales tax. Any locally levied discretionary sales surtaxes would be in addition to the state tax rate of 2.0%