Sales tax on invoices in Florida

In Florida, a contractor on a lump-sum, cost-plus or fixed-fee, guaranteed-price or time-and-materials contract to improve real property is the final consumer of its materials, and no sales tax is collected from the property owner. The exceptions are a retail sale plus installation contract and installed items that stay tangible personal property.

Registration with the Florida Department of Revenue

Florida sales tax is added to the price of taxable goods or services and collected from the purchaser at the time of sale. If your business activity or products are taxable, register with the Florida Department of Revenue. A contractor registers if it sells tangible personal property, sells at retail alongside its real property contracts, or owes use tax on items it fabricates for those contracts. The Department issues a Certificate of Registration (Form DR-11) and a Florida Annual Resale Certificate for Sales Tax (Form DR-13).

Real property contracts: the pricing arrangement decides

Improving real property means building, erecting, constructing, altering, improving, repairing or maintaining it; the Department’s examples include roofing, electrical systems, carpentry, masonry and tile. On a lump-sum, cost-plus or fixed-fee, guaranteed-price or time-and-materials contract, you don’t sell tangible personal property to the owner. You’re the final consumer of the materials and supplies: you pay sales tax and any discretionary sales surtax to the dealers who sell them to you, you may not buy them tax-exempt, and you collect no sales tax from the real property owner.

Fixtures work the same way. A fixture keeps its separate identity but is permanently attached to the real property, such as built-in cabinets, central air-conditioning units, furnaces, kitchen and bathroom sinks and wired lighting. You pay sales tax and surtax when you buy the fixtures and installation materials, and collect no sales tax from your customer.

Working for a tax-exempt or governmental entity doesn’t change this: you pay tax on construction materials when you buy them, even when it’s for, or on behalf of, such an entity. The entity’s own direct purchase, under the Department’s conditions, can be tax-exempt. And from July 1, 2026, a state university or Florida College System institution can claim back, as a refund to itself, the tax paid on tangible personal property sold to its contractors that becomes part of public works it owns.

Retail sale plus installation: when a Florida contractor collects tax

In a retail sale plus installation contract, you agree to sell specifically described, itemized materials and supplies for an agreed price or at the regular retail price, and to complete the work for an additional agreed price or on the basis of time spent. It qualifies only if:

• every material to be incorporated into the work is itemized and priced in the contract before work begins, and
• the purchaser takes title to, and risk of loss of, the materials as they’re delivered, not just title to the completed work.

You then collect sales tax and surtax on the materials’ sales price, with surtax at the rate of the county where they’re delivered, and you may buy those materials tax-exempt with your Florida Annual Resale Certificate for Sales Tax. Goods bought for resale but later used, not resold, owe use tax and surtax.

Installed items that stay personal property

If what you install remains tangible personal property, collect sales tax and surtax on the total charge. The Department’s examples include rugs, household appliances that aren’t built in, portable ice machines and refrigerators, and window air-conditioning units, unlike central units, which are fixtures. The method of installation is a factor. To decide whether an item is a fixture, weigh the installation agreement, the method of attachment, the intent of the parties, and permits and licensing.

Services: a listed set

Florida taxes a listed set of services. Section 212.05(1)(i) of the Florida Statutes covers nonresidential cleaning, except the interiors of transportation equipment, nonresidential building pest control, and detective, burglar protection and other protection services.

Most repairs to tangible personal property (not real property) are taxable, unless an exemption or exclusion applies. Supplying any parts or materials makes the whole repair charge taxable, even if you don’t charge for them; a labor-only repair is exempt if your records show no parts or materials went into the item.

Tax line on your invoice: Florida tax stated separately

Anyone making taxable sales in Florida must separately state Florida sales tax on each invoice, receipt or other evidence of sale; the sales tax and county surtax may be one total or shown separately. Under section 212.07 of the Florida Statutes, a dealer that fails to collect the tax is liable for it, and may not advertise that it will pay the tax, relieve the purchaser of it, or not add it to the price. It may advertise that it will pay the tax on the purchaser’s behalf only if the invoice expressly says the dealer will pay the tax to the state, doesn’t imply the sale is exempt, and states the sale price and the tax separately.

So leave the tax line off the real property contract types above and off fixture installations. It belongs on a retail sale plus installation contract’s itemized materials, and on the total charge for installed items that stay tangible personal property.

County surtax: where the goods are delivered

Many Florida counties levy a discretionary sales surtax on most transactions subject to sales or use tax, at the rate of the county the taxable item or service is delivered into. On the contracts where you’re the final consumer, surtax on materials and supplies is due at the delivery county’s rate and applies to the first $5,000 of the sales amount on their sale or use. Materials bought outside Florida for those contracts owe use tax and surtax to the Department, but a contractor not required to register owes no surtax on them.

Lawn care, landscaping, cleaning and pressure washing

• Lawn care: mowing, blowing, weed eating, edging and related services by a lawn care business aren’t taxable. The business pays tax on what it buys to provide them, such as mowers and blades.
• Landscaping by a lawn care business, such as planting trees, bushes and flowers, is a real property contract: charge your customer no tax, and pay tax on those items when you buy them.
• Cleaning nonresidential building interiors, such as offices and restaurants, is taxable at the state rate on this page plus the surtax of the county where you provide it, including janitorial, maid and window cleaning. Cleaning residential facilities, including multi-unit buildings of private residences, isn’t taxable, and neither is carpet cleaning. Nonresidential cleaning for a governmental entity or nonprofit that gives you a current Form DR-14 and pays you directly is exempt.
• Pressure washing the exterior of a building, an exterior parking lot structure or a parking lot isn’t a taxable cleaning service.

Home-hardening refund for impact products

Qualifying home-hardening products, such as impact-resistant doors, garage doors and windows, bought at retail between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2029 and installed on a homesteaded site-built dwelling with a just value of $700,000 or less, are exempt only through a refund to the owner, up to $500 for one property. In the Department’s example, a contractor furnishing and installing impact windows for a lump sum charges no Florida sales tax, and the owner’s refund application includes the contractor’s purchase receipt showing the tax paid.