Florida Bookkeeping Services

Florida gives you no personal income tax — and no free pass. We have kept Florida books remotely since 2005, and we know where the state actually collects: a May 1 Sunbiz annual report with a flat $400 late penalty that carries no waiver, an April 1 tangible personal property return most new owners have never heard of, county surtaxes that change your sales-tax rate from one county line to the next, and a reemployment tax that arrives with your first hire. Dedicated bookkeepers from $75/month keep every one of them tax-ready.

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On This Page

• Florida’s small-business tax landscape
• The no-income-tax truth (and its fine print)
• The May 1 filing with a $400 penalty
• The commercial rent tax is gone — check your lease anyway
• Tangible personal property: April 1, every year
• Reemployment tax: the first-hire obligation
• Florida cities we serve
• Florida FAQs

Florida’s Small-Business Tax Landscape

Figures from Florida Department of State (Sunbiz), Florida Department of Revenue, and county official sources (July 2026). This is general information, not tax advice — confirm current-year specifics with the Florida DOR and your CPA before filing.

The No-Income-Tax Truth (and Its Fine Print)

Florida’s constitution bans a personal income tax outright — Article VII, Section 5 — and no Florida city or county levies a local income tax either. That is a real, durable advantage for owners of LLCs, S-corporations, and sole proprietorships whose profits pass through to personal returns. The fine print: C-corporations still pay Florida’s 5.5% corporate income tax (the first $50,000 of net income is exempt, and the filing follows your federal return), and every entity still faces the state’s compliance calendar — sales tax, the Sunbiz report, the TPP return, and reemployment tax. Florida doesn’t tax your income; it taxes your inattention. Clean monthly books are how you keep the advantage you moved here for.

The May 1 Filing With a $400 Penalty

Every Florida LLC and corporation files a Sunbiz annual report between January 1 and May 1 — $138.75 for an LLC, $150 for a corporation. Miss May 1 and the state adds a flat $400 late fee with no waiver provision: a $138.75 obligation becomes $538.75 overnight, whether you run a one-person consultancy or a fifty-employee contractor. Keep ignoring it and administrative dissolution follows around the fourth Friday of September — the failure mode owners usually discover when a bank, a buyer, or a licensing board runs a status check. We put the deadline on every Florida client’s compliance calendar so it never gets close.

The Commercial Rent Tax Is Gone — Check Your Lease Anyway

For years Florida was the only state that charged sales tax on commercial rent — 5.5%, then 4.5% from December 2023, then 2% from June 2024. That tax is now repealed for occupancy periods on or after October 1, 2025. The good news is real money back into every tenant’s budget; the bookkeeping catch is the transition. Rent paid in advance, security-deposit applications, and CAM true-ups that straddle the repeal date need the tax handled correctly on each side of October 1 — and parking and vehicle-storage charges remain taxable. If your ledger still accrues rent tax out of habit, or your landlord still bills it, that is worth catching now. Also note: a 2026 special session (HB 7031E) reshuffled sales-tax holidays and exemptions — the corporate rate, county surtaxes, and reemployment tax were left unchanged — one more reason your books should track what you actually collected, not what last year’s rules said.

Tangible Personal Property: April 1, Every Year

Own equipment, furniture, or fixtures in Florida on January 1? Form DR-405 — the tangible personal property return — is due to your county property appraiser by April 1. The first $25,000 of assessed value is exempt, and if you file an initial return and stay under that threshold, your county may waive future filings. But skip the return while exceeding the threshold and penalties run up to 25%. The defense is unglamorous and effective: a maintained, correctly depreciated asset schedule, so you report what you actually own at what it is actually worth. That is standard housekeeping in our monthly virtual bookkeeping service.

Reemployment Tax: The First-Hire Obligation

Hire your first Florida employee and the state’s reemployment tax (Florida’s name for unemployment insurance) begins: new employers pay 2.7% on the first $7,000 of each employee’s wages, with quarterly Form RT-6 filings. After the initial period your rate is experience-based — the 2026 range runs from 0.10% to 5.4% — so accurate, on-time payroll records directly influence what you pay. Wages, liabilities, and quarterly remittances all need a proper home in the books from the first payroll run, not retrofitted at year-end.

Florida Cities We Serve

Dedicated local guide: Miami — with Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, Fort Lauderdale, and every corner of the state served by the same remote team. Years behind on the books? Catch-up bookkeeping gets Florida businesses current fast, and CPA firms can hand us their clients’ books at wholesale rates.

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Florida Bookkeeping FAQs

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