The general
Florida sales tax rate is 6%. According to the Florida law the sale, rent or storage of any tangible property is taxable in the state. The counties and cities of Florida are authorized to levy supplementary sale tax.
Unless a particular transaction is exempted from the taxation, all kinds of sale or transaction are taxable under the law of Florida. The Florida sales tax is assessed and collected by the Florida Department of Revenue. There exists an established bracket system for collecting the sales tax in the state and in order to compute the rate of sales tax in Florida for each county, the discretionary sales surtax rate imposed by the county in addition to the general sales and use tax rate should also be added.
The discretionary sales surtax by the counties in Florida makes the dealer, who deals with the taxable goods or services, to collect the additional surtax at that very rate, which is imposed in the county. In case of purchasing the motor vehicle or mobile homes in Florida, the surtax rate of the county where the vehicle or mobile home is registered is considered rather than the county where the actual transaction occurred.
According to the sale tax rule given by the state legislature, only the first $5,000 of the sale of tangible personal property comes under the discretionary sales surtax in Florida only if the property is sold as a single bulk item. However, in case of the commercial rentals, services or the transient rentals this margin is not applicable in Florida.
Before starting any business in Florida, the individual or firm has to apply for the sales tax license from the Department of Revenue. But before that the entrepreneurs has to check whether the sale of his product or service comes under taxation in Florida.
The sales tax calculated at the time of transaction has to be accounted on the total sale amount. On each invoice of the sale transaction, the state sale tax rate and the discretionary sales surtax of the county should be mentioned separately. Now Florida department of Revenue offers online services through their website to file and pay the sales tax. This has made the sales tax filing easier in the state of Florida.