Overpaying Sales Tax

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The Florida Sales Tax Code is lined with tax breaks for certain businesses. The State of Florida grants tax exemptions to influence certain behaviors and investments within the State of Florida.

For Manufacturers
If you are a new manufacturing business and your business purchases equipment, then you pay zero sales tax on that equipment.
If you are a manufacturer and you increase output by 5%, then your sales tax is zero.
Manufacturers don’t pay sales tax on electricity.
Manufacturers don’t pay sales tax on repairs and maintenance.

For Contractors
As long as you write your contracts as a ‘lump sum” contract you do not have to charge sales tax on the whole job as long as you pay sales tax on the materials used in the job at the time of purchase.

Aircraft Dealers
For sales to residents within the State of Florida, the aircraft is taxable. If the sale is to a non-resident of Florida and he/she flies the plane out of the State within ten (10) days, then the transaction is exempt or zero sales tax is due.

Commercial Cleaners
Cleaning residential houses and hotels are not subject to sales tax, but cleaning office buildings are subject to sales tax, however, if only the carpets are cleaned within the office building, then there is no sales tax due on carpet cleaning. Other services that are not subject to sales tax are restaurant ventilation hood cleaning services and construction cleanup services (to clean up before and after construction) as both of these have their own non-taxable industry standard code.

Most people think that all Service businesses are exempt from sales tax, but the primary list of services that are NOT exempt are:

  • Nonresidential Cleaning Services
  • Commercial Pest Control Services
  • Commercial/Residential Burglary and Security Services
  • Detective Services

Florida Sales Tax rules are fraught with complexity and ambiguity. Each manufacturer, wholesaler, retailer, and contractor have different rules in regards to sales tax. There is no consistency or general rules that you can rely on. In the Solutions tab, we go more in depth within the manufacturing industry so you can gain more insight into the code. But if you are facing a Florida Sales Tax Audit, please come in for a free consultation to see what strategy you need to take.