Florida

Subscribe to Florida via RSS

In Gannon v. Airbnb, Inc., a Florida appellate court held that vacation rental platforms are not required to collect local lodging tax. The ruling reasons that the tax is imposed on the owner of the property, and vacation rental platforms are “conduits,” not owners. A dissenting opinion analogized rental platforms to property managers, which…

The Florida Department of Revenue issued a Technical Assistance Advisement concluding that an internet-based streaming video subscription service is subject to Florida’s communication services tax. The Taxpayer maintains a website where viewers can watch live or on-demand video of individuals (or, “Broadcasters”) playing video games, music or e-sports events. Among other things, the website provides…

Florida’s proposed tax on peer-to-peer car sharing companies, H.B. 377, cleared its first hurdle and passed the state House Ways and Means Committee on February 11. The bill would require car-sharing companies to collect a 6% sales tax on vehicle leases made through their platforms. Also, under the proposed bill, leases made through the…

The Florida District Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s certification of a class in a sales tax refund claim because the class was not “ascertainable.” Plaintiff filed suit against BJ’s Wholesale Club, Inc. (“BJ’s”) alleging that BJ’s thirty-one Florida stores improperly imposed sales tax on the full, undiscounted price of products purchased with a…

By Charles Capouet and Andrew Appleby

The Florida Department of Revenue determined that a reinsurer did not have nexus with Florida for corporate income tax purposes.  The Department first asserted that an insurer or reinsurer would have nexus with Florida if it was authorized to transact business in the state.  The Department also stated that…

By Hanish Patel and Marc Simonetti

The Florida Department of Revenue (DOR) determined that the sale of certain online membership benefits—early, exclusive access to products and deals and unlimited cloud data storage—were not subject to Florida sales tax or the Communications Service Tax (CST). However, the DOR added that the taxpayer’s purchase of reorder button…

By Jessica Eisenmenger and Amy Nogid

The Florida Department of Revenue determined that software upgrades that are delivered electronically are not subject to sales tax because the upgrade was a stand-alone version of the software and did not rely on the earlier, physically-delivered software to operate. The Department also determined that sales tax does not…

By Michael Penza and Amy Nogid 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit invalidated Florida’s rental tax imposed on the Seminole Tribe of Florida’s (the Tribe) leases of tribal land to non-Indian corporations, but upheld Florida’s utility tax collected from the Tribe. 

The Tribe operated casinos on two of its reservations; non-Indian corporations…