Tourist Tax Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. In addition to the Tourist Development Tax, there is a state sales tax requirement (currently 6%) as well as a local sales tax (currently 1%) that goes to the FL Dept. of Revenue (DOR). While some rental platforms may collect & remit this 7% sales tax on your behalf, you may still need to inquire with FL DOR as to your responsibility with their office.  You can find a phone # to their Panama City satellite office here. 

The Florida Local Option Tourist Development Tax, Florida Statute 125.0104 permits the Board of County Commissioners of Walton County, Florida to levy a tourist development tax. Florida Statutes Chapter 212 Tax on Sales, Use, and Other Transactions authorize how the local option tax is to be administered, enforced, and audited by Walton County, Florida. Per Walton County Ordinance 91-12 & 2021-01, the Clerk of Courts & County Comptroller is required to collect & enforce the Tourist Development Tax in both Walton County tax districts.

Yes. Taxability is based upon the location of the rental property, not the location of the financial transaction.

While there are certain platforms that have agreements in place with the FL Dept. of Revenue to receive the state & local sales tax directly from the platform for you, Walton County has no such agreements. In other words, the Walton Co. Clerk of Court & Co. Comptroller is NOT contracted with ANY platform to receive taxes on your behalf. Therefore, it is your responsibility to collect & remit any Walton Co. TDT to our department regardless of booking method or platform used to secure the rental & obtain the rental revenue.

If your property management company is collecting and remitting tax for ALL of your property’s rentals under their Tourist Development Tax ID management registration with our office, you are not required to file your own returns (although you may still need to register with the FL Dept. of Revenue). However, please be aware that, under Florida law, property owners are ultimately responsible for sales taxes if a property manager defaults or fails to collect or remit the tax. If you ever personally collect rental revenue or any other form of compensation (just the cleaning fee from friends/family, gifts or services as rental consideration, etc.), you must collect and remit the taxes for those stays which will require your own registration with our office. We allow multiple registrations for the same parcel/property for this reason.

If you collect rent from them, or accept any other compensation in lieu of rent (even if no rent is charged, but they pay you the fee to have the unit cleaned upon checkout), you are required to collect and remit Tourist Development Tax based upon the rent plus fee(s) paid or upon the fair market value of the consideration received. If compensation (including cleaning fees or any other required, non-refundable fees) is not received nor expected from your friends or relatives at all, you should be sure to document that in your records in case of audit.

Any non-refundable amount that the guest is required to pay as a condition of occupying the property is subject to the Tourist Development Tax. Common examples include (but are not limited to) cleaning fees, reservation/processing fees, amenities fees, resort fees, and pet fees. In addition, if you provide extra furnishings upon request for an additional fee (for example: cribs, rollaways, etc.), that charge is also subject to the Tourist Development Tax.

If renting online, we typically do not recommend trying to calculate your taxable revenue amount using the amount that the platform deposited into your bank account as this usually takes into account several platform-specific fees, the actual tax amounts collected from the renter, etc. that complicate the figuring of your taxable rental revenue total upon which your tax due will be calculated. This taxable revenue will equal gross rental revenue on your tax return unless some or all of your rentals qualify for tax exemption.

Depending on the circumstances, there are several ways we may be able to lessen the burden of the balance due to help an owner or manager reach compliance. One such recourse is through waiver of penalty charges based on voluntary disclosure of a tax liability . To qualify for this, the owner/manager must have come forward voluntarily meaning that our office had not already located a rental ad for the property & contacted the owner/manager.

If you come forward first before we have reached out about a non-compliant property, then you are eligible for waiver of all past due return penalty charges. This voluntary disclosure penalty waiver option applies to the sales & use tax remitted to the FL Dept. of Revenue as well. If we have already contacted you about a non-compliant property(ies), the voluntary disclosure option will not be possible; however, our goal is to help your property become compliant so be assured that we will work with you as best we can.

Most Florida counties do impose a Tourist Development Tax on transient rentals. The following list of FL counties distinguishes those that self-administer the tax locally (like Walton County) vs. those counties for which the FL Dept. of Revenue collects the Tourist Development Tax on behalf of the county: https://floridarevenue.com/Forms_library/current/dr15tdt.pdf

We do not require that you pro-rate (i.e. split) that stay’s revenue. Technically, as long as the revenue is in either month, that is acceptable. However, we typically recommend going by the checkout date as your rule of thumb for revenue reporting so that would mean including the overlapping stay in the 2nd month unless logic dictates otherwise. For example, if a renter checks in June 28th & checks out July 3rd, then you would include that stay in your July return. Conversely, if a renter checks in June 24th & checks out July 1st, then it may make more sense to include that in your June return despite the July checkout date. Again, as long as the full revenue is reported in either month, that is considered acceptable.