William C. Robinson, Jr., Esq., Florida Board Certified in Real Estate Law
On March 26, 2020, Governor DeSantis and the Florida Department of Revenue have issued two actions regarding property and sales tax deadlines.
1. Property Tax Payment Extension. The deadline for paying your 2019 property taxes has been moved from March 31st to April 15th. If you have any questions regarding this, please reach out to your county’s tax collector’s office.
2. Sales and Use Tax Payment Extension. The deadline for businesses that are adversely affected by COVID-19 to pay sales and use tax has been extended.
These are the extensions:
A. February 2020 Reporting Period – Department will waive the imposition of penalty and interest for those taxpayers who collected the February, 2020 taxes, if the taxes are reported and remitted by March 31, 2020 [basically an 11-day extension].
B. March 2020 Reporting Period [taxes collected in March and due on or before April 20, 2020]. Taxpayers who have not been adversely affected by COVID-19 continue to file and remit taxes no later than the normal due date of April 20th. Taxpayers of an “adversely affected business” who were unable to meet the April 20th due date will have penalty and interest waived for taxes reported and remitted by April 30, 2020 [or a 10-day extension].
These are the guidelines that explain what an “adversely affected business” means:
The business closed in compliance with a state or local government order and had no taxable sales transactions as a result; or
The business experienced sales tax collections in March 2020 that are less than 75% of March 2019 sales tax collections; or
The business was established after March 2019; or
The business is registered with the Department to file quarterly.
If you have any questions, please contact Blalock Walters at 941.748.0100 or email the Department at: COVID19TAXHELP@floridarevenue.com. You can also find further information at the Department’s website.
