Florida Vacation Rental Licenses & Taxes: Owner Checklist

Rent out a Florida home for stays under 30 days more than three times a year and, in the state's eyes, you're running a lodging business. That comes with a specific stack of paperwork: a state vacation rental license, a state sales tax account, and a county tourist tax account — plus whatever your city or county layers on top. None of it is hard, but skipping a step can mean back taxes, penalties, or a listing pulled at the worst possible time. Here's the checklist we walk new owners through, in the order we'd do it.

Step 1: Get Your DBPR Vacation Rental License

Florida's Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) licenses vacation rentals statewide. You need one if your property is rented to guests more than three times in a calendar year for periods of less than 30 days. Rent three or fewer times a year, stick to 30-plus-day stays, or rent a single bedroom in the home you live in, and you're generally exempt.

Most individual owners need a Vacation Rental Dwelling license (single-family homes, townhouses, duplexes) or a Vacation Rental Condo license, in the "single" tier for one property. A single-unit license currently runs about $230 for a full year, and applications are filed through myfloridalicense.com. There's no pre-opening inspection for vacation rentals — processing is usually quick — but DBPR can inspect after the fact, so smoke detectors, balcony railings, and pool safety items need to actually be in order.

One more reason not to skip this: Airbnb and Vrbo increasingly ask for your license number right on the listing, and a missing number is an easy flag for enforcement.

Step 2: Register for Florida Sales Tax

Stays of six months or less in Florida are subject to state sales tax on the full rental charge. That means registering with the Florida Department of Revenue and collecting roughly 7% in most of our markets — the 6% state rate plus a local discretionary surtax (1% in Pinellas, Manatee, and Sarasota counties, for example). Returns are filed monthly or quarterly depending on your volume.

Important detail: the taxable base isn't just the nightly rate. Cleaning fees, pet fees, and other mandatory, non-refundable charges guests must pay are generally taxable too. If you're pricing with a big cleaning fee, budget for tax on it.

Step 3: Open a County Tourist Development Tax Account

This is the step owners most often miss. On top of sales tax, Florida counties levy their own tourist development tax — the "bed tax" — on stays of six months or less, and it's registered and filed separately with the county, not the state.

In the markets Stay Occupied serves, the current rates are 6% in Pinellas County (St. Petersburg, Clearwater, the Gulf beaches), 6% in Manatee County (Bradenton, Anna Maria Island, Holmes Beach), 6% in Sarasota County (Sarasota, Siesta Key), and 5% in Lee County (Cape Coral, Fort Myers). Stack it up and a Pinellas beach rental collects about 13% in combined taxes on every short stay.

Each county runs its own registration and filing portal — Pinellas uses TouristExpress through the county tax collector, Manatee and Sarasota register through their tax collectors, and Lee County's tax is administered by the Clerk of Court. As with sales tax, mandatory guest fees are typically part of the taxable base, and most counties require you to file even for months with zero revenue once you're registered.

What the Platforms Collect for You — and What They Don't

Airbnb and Vrbo collect and remit some Florida taxes automatically, and in certain counties they also handle the tourist development tax for bookings made on their platform. That's genuinely helpful — but it doesn't cover direct bookings, and platform collection agreements vary county by county and can change. The owner of record stays responsible for anything that goes uncollected. Our advice: register your accounts anyway, confirm in writing what each platform remits in your county, and file for whatever falls outside that.

Don't Forget City and Zoning Rules

State licensing and taxes are only half the compliance picture. Many cities add their own registration, business tax receipt, or zoning restrictions — and these have real teeth. Clearwater, for example, generally doesn't allow rentals of less than 31 days on residentially zoned property; short stays there are concentrated in tourist and commercial districts, mostly on Clearwater Beach. Other cities in Pinellas, Manatee, and Sarasota counties each have their own approach. Before you buy — and before you list — verify what your specific parcel's zoning allows and whether the city requires a local registration.

The Owner's Checklist

Pulling it together, a compliant Florida short-term rental has: a current DBPR vacation rental license displayed on its listings; a Florida Department of Revenue sales tax account collecting state tax plus local surtax; a county tourist development tax account filing on schedule; any required city registration or business tax receipt; and written confirmation of exactly which taxes each booking platform remits on its behalf. Set it up once, put renewals on the calendar, and it fades into the background — miss a piece and it tends to surface as a penalty letter.

Want Help Getting It Right?

Licensing and tax setup is part of what we handle for owners across Tampa Bay, Sarasota, Bradenton, Cape Coral, and Gulf Shores. If you'd like a second set of eyes on your compliance — or you're deciding whether short-term rental makes sense for your property at all — Stay Occupied offers a free rental property analysis. Email info@stay-occupied.com or call 815-325-9295 and we'll show you what your home could earn, with the paperwork done right.