Florida Sales Tax Nexus After Wayfair: What Solo CPAs Need to Know

Since July 1, 2021, Florida has required remote sellers with more than $100,000 in taxable remote sales delivered into Florida during the previous calendar year to register, collect, and remit Florida sales tax. This threshold comes from Florida Statute 212.0596, which the state enacted in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's 2018 decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. (585 U.S. 162). That decision overturned the physical presence requirement from Quill Corp. v. North Dakota (504 U.S. 298, 1992) and allowed states to impose sales tax collection obligations based on economic activity alone. For solo CPAs advising e-commerce clients or businesses with customers in Florida, the question is no longer whether the client has a warehouse or office in the state. The question is whether total taxable sales crossed $100,000.

Florida's Economic Nexus Threshold

Florida's threshold is $100,000 in taxable remote sales delivered into the state during the previous calendar year. Two details matter for practitioners:

Only taxable sales count. Exempt sales (such as most services, groceries, and prescription drugs) do not count toward the $100,000 threshold. This is a meaningful distinction because Florida exempts more categories than many other states. A client selling primarily exempt items into Florida might have $500,000 in total Florida sales but only $80,000 in taxable sales, which would keep them below the threshold.

No transaction count alternative. South Dakota's original Wayfair statute used a dual threshold: $100,000 in sales or 200 separate transactions. Florida adopted only the dollar threshold. A seller with 5,000 small transactions totaling $90,000 in taxable sales has no Florida collection obligation based on economic nexus alone.

Florida does not aggregate marketplace sales with direct sales for threshold purposes when those marketplace sales are facilitated by a registered marketplace provider. If Amazon collects and remits Florida sales tax on a seller's behalf under Florida Statute 212.05965, those marketplace sales generally do not count toward the seller's own $100,000 threshold for direct sales.

What Triggers Nexus Beyond the Dollar Threshold

Economic nexus under the $100,000 rule is not the only way to create a Florida sales tax collection obligation. Several other nexus types can apply independently:

Physical presence nexus still exists. An office, warehouse, inventory stored in Florida, employees working in the state, or trade show participation can each create nexus regardless of sales volume. The Wayfair decision did not eliminate physical presence nexus; it added economic nexus as an additional basis.

Affiliate nexus can apply when a related entity in Florida refers customers to the out-of-state seller. If a Florida-based affiliate uses a shared name, trademark, or domain to direct customers to the seller, the seller may have a collection obligation under Florida's dealer registration requirements. Note that Chapter 2021-2 (the legislation enacting economic nexus under Section 212.0596) consolidated and restructured several nexus provisions. Practitioners should review current DOR guidance on affiliate relationships rather than relying on pre-2021 statutory references.

Marketplace facilitator obligations under Florida Statute 212.05965 shift collection responsibility to the marketplace itself. Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and other qualifying marketplaces must collect and remit Florida sales tax on third-party sales facilitated through their platforms. This relieves the individual seller of the collection obligation on those marketplace transactions, but only if the marketplace is properly registered and collecting.

Registration and Compliance

Once a seller determines they have Florida nexus, registration with the Florida Department of Revenue is required before collecting tax. Florida allows online registration through its e-Services portal.

Filing frequency depends on estimated tax liability. Most new registrants start with quarterly filing. Sellers collecting more than $1,000 per month in Florida sales tax are required to file monthly. Sellers collecting less than $500 per quarter may qualify for semiannual filing.

Florida offers a dealer's collection allowance: a credit of 2.5% of the first $1,200 of sales tax due each reporting period, capped at $30 per period. The allowance is available only to dealers who file and pay on time. It partially offsets the compliance cost of collecting and remitting.

Florida's base sales tax rate is 6%, but most counties impose a discretionary sales surtax of 0.5% to 2.5%. The applicable surtax depends on the county where the goods are delivered. Remote sellers must collect the correct combined rate for each delivery address, which means maintaining a current rate table or using a certified tax calculation service.

Common Mistakes Solo CPAs Make

Mistake 1: Forgetting Florida Has No Income Tax but Does Have Sales Tax Nexus

Florida has no individual income tax and no corporate income tax for most entities (Florida does impose a corporate income/franchise tax on C corporations and certain financial institutions under Florida Statute 220, but S corporations, LLCs, and sole proprietorships are not subject to it). Practitioners focused on income tax conformity questions across states sometimes skip Florida entirely in their multi-state analysis, assuming "no income tax means no state filing." That assumption misses the sales tax obligation entirely.

An e-commerce client with $200,000 in Florida taxable sales has no Florida income tax return to file but does have a Florida sales tax registration and filing obligation. If the practitioner does not ask about sales activity in Florida, the client operates uncollected and unregistered until a DOR notice arrives.

Mistake 2: Counting Exempt Sales Toward the Threshold

A practitioner who sees "$150,000 in Florida sales" on a client's revenue report and concludes that nexus exists may be wrong. If $60,000 of that revenue is from exempt services and the remaining $90,000 is tangible personal property, the client is below the $100,000 taxable sales threshold. The practitioner needs to classify the sales by taxability before determining whether the threshold is met.

Florida exempts most services from sales tax, which is unusual compared to states that broadly tax services. Medical, legal, accounting, and most professional services are exempt. Some services are taxable, including commercial cleaning, pest control, and nonresidential building security. The classification matters for threshold calculations.

Mistake 3: Missing the Marketplace Facilitator Exception

Clients who sell primarily through Amazon, Etsy, or other registered marketplaces may not have a direct Florida collection obligation even if their total Florida sales (including marketplace sales) exceed $100,000. The marketplace collects and remits on those transactions. The seller's own threshold analysis should include only their direct-to-consumer sales, not the marketplace-facilitated sales where the marketplace is already collecting.

This exception does not apply if the marketplace is not registered as a Florida marketplace provider. Smaller or international platforms may not be registered, in which case the seller retains the collection obligation on those sales.

Mistake 4: Not Advising E-Commerce Clients Proactively

For solo practitioners whose client base includes any e-commerce businesses, Wayfair-era nexus should be part of the annual planning conversation. A client who was below Florida's threshold last year might cross it this year as sales grow. Waiting until the tax return is being prepared to check nexus status means the client may have been collecting too little (or nothing) for months.

Set up an annual nexus review during Q4 planning: pull year-to-date sales by state, classify taxable versus exempt, and identify states where the client is approaching or crossing economic nexus thresholds. Florida is one of several states where this review matters. Texas has its own sales tax nexus rules in addition to the franchise tax, and New York has both income tax and sales tax obligations for remote sellers.

The Bottom Line for Florida Nexus

Florida's economic nexus threshold is straightforward on the surface: $100,000 in taxable remote sales. The complexity is in the details, which is knowing which sales are taxable, knowing which sales are marketplace-facilitated, and knowing which surtax rate applies to each Florida county.

For practitioners building a multi-state research workflow, Florida sales tax nexus is a different research path than income tax conformity. It requires Florida-specific statutes, DOR guidance, and county surtax tables rather than IRC conformity analysis. Tax Orator indexes Florida's DOR publications, statutes, and administrative guidance alongside citation-backed sources from all 50 states. The Discovery plan gives you 10 queries to test, or the Solo Practitioner plan at $79 per month covers 200 queries for practices with regular multi-state sales tax research.