Drew Dixon
The move by the Legislature to eliminate the state business rent tax is drawing high praise from business advocacy groups.
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is thrilled with legislation (HB 7031) that ends taxes that businesses pay on a rental space or building. It’s a move that the NFIB, along with small-business owners in Florida, have been arguing to get done for about a decade.
“Eliminating the business rent tax once and for all is a major win for Florida’s small businesses,” said Bill Herrle, Executive Director of the NFIB.
“Small businesses thank members of the Florida Legislature for getting the job done and are encouraged by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ support of the elimination. The business rent tax elimination provides permanent relief for small employers and also includes no longer collecting the local option sales tax on commercial rent. Overall, this elimination helps make Florida the friendliest small business state in the nation.”
The measure is a significant one that will reduce Florida’s tax revenue. The elimination of the business rent tax will cut about $905 million in general revenue for the state. But the tax was an assessment that no other states charged.
Before entirely killing that tax, lawmakers had been chipping away at the levy for years. In recent years, the Legislature steadily rolled back that rate of that tax and last year had set the rate at 2% before wiping it out in this year’s Session that just concluded.
In order to make up for some of the lost revenue, state lawmakers suggested that local governments make up some of the missing revenue through local taxes. But that wasn’t popular with everyone.
Jeff Scala, a lobbyist with the Florida Association of Counties, took some issue with the Legislature killing the tax. He said county governments have supported eliminating the tax, but wanted to retain local sales taxes, most of which were approved by voter referendums, on business rents. The Legislature’s tax relief plan limits local governments’ ability to collect that.
___
Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics contributed to this report.
