How Florida's discretionary sales surtax works
The $5,000 cap, which transactions it does not apply to, and how to source a sale to the right county.
Last updated . Rates on this site come from Florida Department of Revenue, Form DR-15DSS, Discretionary Sales Surtax Information.
Florida charges 6% state sales tax everywhere. On top of that, 65 of the 67 counties add a discretionary sales surtax, set locally and collected by the seller. Two counties, Citrus and Collier, add nothing, so the rate there is a flat 6%.
Getting the rate right is the easy half. The two things that actually cause filing errors are the $5,000 cap and which county a transaction belongs to.
The $5,000 cap
Discretionary sales surtax applies to the first $5,000 of the sales amount on the sale, use, lease, rental, or license to use any item of tangible personal property.
State sales tax at 6% applies to the whole amount. The surtax stops at $5,000.
So on a $12,000 machine delivered into Hillsborough County:
| Component | Base | Rate | Tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| State sales tax | $12,000 | 6% | $720.00 |
| Hillsborough surtax | $5,000 | 1.5% | $75.00 |
| Total | $795.00 |
Charging 7.5% on the full $12,000 would collect $900, which is $105 more than is due. That difference is the single most common surtax error, and it goes both ways: undercollecting leaves the seller liable for the shortfall.
What counts as one item
The cap is per item, not per invoice. Multiple items can share a single $5,000 cap when they are genuinely one sale, which the Department of Revenue defines as items that are:
- normally sold together as a set
- component parts that require assembly into a single unit
- multiple quantities of one item that is customarily sold that way
A single invoice listing twenty separate $400 chairs is twenty items, each under the cap, so the surtax applies to the full $8,000. A twenty-piece conference set sold as one unit is one item, and the surtax stops at $5,000. The distinction is how the sale is genuinely structured, not how the invoice is laid out.
What the cap does not apply to
On these, the surtax applies to the entire amount with no cap:
- Sales of admissions
- Sales and uses of services
- Sales of service warranties
- Prepaid calling arrangement charges
- Rentals, leases and licenses of transient accommodations
- Rentals of motor vehicle or aircraft parking or storage space
- Boat dock and marina storage space
- Aircraft tie-down or storage space
A $9,000 annual service contract in a 1.5% county carries surtax on all $9,000, not on the first $5,000.
Which county a transaction belongs to
The surtax follows the destination, not the seller’s address. A Tampa business shipping to Orlando charges Orange County’s rate, not Hillsborough’s.
| Transaction type | County is determined by |
|---|---|
| Tangible personal property | Where delivery is made |
| Services | Where the service is performed or delivered |
| Transient rentals | Where the accommodation is located |
| Motor vehicles and mobile homes | The purchaser’s residence address on the title or registration |
| Aircraft and boats | Where delivery is made |
The motor vehicle rule is the one that catches dealers out: it follows the buyer’s registered address, not where the vehicle was handed over.
Rates change on 1 January
County surtaxes are voted in with expiry dates, and they expire, get extended, or get replaced. The Department of Revenue republishes Form DR-15DSS each November for the year ahead, and any change takes effect on 1 January.
Four counties had something happen for 2026. Two of them changed rate. See what changed for 2026.
Sources
Every rule on this page comes from the Florida Department of Revenue:
- Discretionary Sales Surtax (GT-800019), the DOR’s taxpayer brochure, for the cap, the exclusions and the sourcing rules
- Form DR-15DSS, the annual county rate table
- Discretionary Sales Surtax overview, the DOR’s landing page
This site is a reference, not tax advice. Where a transaction is unusual, check with the Department of Revenue or a tax professional.