Florida Chamber Celebrates Business Rent Tax Repeal – Now in Effect Statewide

A more than decade-long push by business groups will pay off next week with the end of a state sales tax on commercial leases.

The tax, widely known as the business rent tax, will go away Oct. 1 after 57 years as part of a wide-ranging tax package that lawmakers passed in June. The change will come as nearly 30 new laws hit the books Oct. 1.

“By Florida eliminating the business rent tax, it’s going to lower the cost of doing business in Florida, which will help lower the cost of living here,” Florida Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Mark Wilson said.

The business rent tax began in 1968, when the state sales-tax rate stood at 4 percent. The rent tax rate increased as the overall sales-tax rate went up in 1984 and 1988, reaching 6 percent.
Over the past decade, with business groups clamoring against the tax, legislators slowly chipped away at the rent tax rate. It has been 2 percent since June 2024, according to a House staff analysis.

The elimination is projected to collectively save businesses nearly $1.15 billion during the current fiscal year, which will run through June 30. That amount is projected to increase to $1.53 billion next fiscal year.

The Chamber of Commerce highlighted the tax as part of its Florida 2030 Blueprint report released nearly a decade ago. The business group said the tax made Florida less competitive with other states, as it generated about $3 billion a year in tax revenue at the time.

​“Now $3 billion a year goes back into local businesses that they can pour back into their people, back into equipment, back into innovation, back into helping their customers,” Wilson said.

Source: Florida Chamber of Commerce
Contact: Carolyn Johnson, Vice President, Government Affairs  |  [email protected] | 850.521.1235