Hillsborough County Sales Tax Rate
7.5%
Combined sales tax rate · Hillsborough County, FloridaThe county surtax applies to the first $5,000 of a single item of tangible personal property. State sales tax applies to the full amount.
Cap calculator · one item of tangible personal property
Charging the combined 7.5% on the full amount would collect $900.00, which is $105.00 more than is due. The surtax stops at $5,000.
The cap is per item of tangible personal property. It does not apply to services, admissions, warranties, transient rentals or parking and storage space — see the exclusions.
What the cap changes on a real invoice
On a $12,000 machine delivered into Hillsborough County: state sales tax $720.00 on the full amount, plus Hillsborough surtax of $75.00 on the first $5,000. Total $795.00, not $900.00.
The difference is $105.00 on this one line. Overcollecting is the more common direction, but undercollecting leaves the seller liable for the shortfall either way. The cap is per item, not per invoice, and it does not apply to services, admissions, warranties, transient rentals or parking and storage space.
How the $5,000 cap works, including what counts as a single item.
Hillsborough County facts
| County seat | Tampa |
|---|---|
| Region | Tampa Bay |
| Cities and communities | Tampa, Brandon, Riverview, Plant City, Sun City Center, Wimauma, Ruskin and Apollo Beach |
| Discretionary sales surtax | 1.5% |
| Combined rate | 7.5% |
| $5,000 cap applies | Yes, per item of tangible personal property |
| Surtax expiration (CY2025 form) | No expiration listed |
| Effective date | 1 January 2026 |
Is this the right county?
The surtax follows the transaction, not your business address. You charge Hillsborough County's rate when the sale is sourced here — for tangible personal property that means delivery into Hillsborough County, for services where the service is performed or delivered, and for motor vehicles and mobile homes the purchaser's registered address rather than where the vehicle was handed over. A seller in Tampa shipping to another county charges that county's rate instead.
The full sourcing rules cover transient rentals, aircraft and boats.
Source and verification
- Rate source
- FL DOR Form DR-15DSS, Calendar Year 2026
- Effective
- 1 January 2026
- Last verified
- Verification
- cross-verified against two independent published transcriptions of the CY2026 DR-15DSS; direct confirmation against the DOR PDF outstanding
- Method
- How these figures are verified, including what is still outstanding
Getting help with Hillsborough County sales tax
Hillsborough carries one of the higher combined rates in the state at 7.5%, and the surtax sunset now runs to 2041, so it is worth getting the treatment right rather than waiting for it to lapse. Places to get help locally:
- Florida Department of Revenue, Tampa Service Center — the Department's own taxpayer service centre, for registration, filing questions and account issues. Free.
- Florida SBDC at USF — no-cost business consulting for Hillsborough and the surrounding counties, including help understanding filing obligations.
- SCORE Tampa Bay — free mentoring, often the fastest route to a person who has filed a DR-15 before.
- Hillsborough County Tax Collector — for the local business tax receipt, which is a separate obligation from state sales tax and frequently confused with it.
- adsbookkeepingplus.com/bookkeeping-florida/ — a Brandon-based bookkeeping practice working across Hillsborough, for businesses that would rather hand the monthly DR-15 to somebody else.
Nearby counties in the Tampa Bay region
Working across a county line? Compare all 67 counties in one table.