Florida sales tax help
Configure the bed tax and sales tax on short-term rentals in QuickBooks.
Sales tax helpFlorida · Real Estate Accounting
Florida real estate accounting that keeps every entity — and every rental — straight.
Florida brokers, investors, and vacation-rental owners run on multiple entities, deposit and escrow records, and a short-term-rental tax stack that changes at every county line. Multi-entity books, owner statements, the Tourist Development Tax on short-term rentals, property tax and 1031 documentation all stay clean — prepared by a senior bookkeeper who works in your software, or by a signed specialist practice when your books need one. Nobody on the engagement holds your client or escrow funds, and your CPA files.
If your file needs our paid diagnostic first, its fee is credited in full against the cleanup. Either way, you get a fixed fee in writing before any work starts.
State rule
Florida rule: a residential landlord holds security deposits and advance rent in a separate account at a Florida financial institution, or posts a surety bond, and may not commingle or use them until due; deposits are a liability by tenant, not income. Source: § 83.49, Fla. Stat.
§ The short version
Florida real estate accounting from TechBrot keeps every entity and rental straight: owner statements, trust records, 1031 documentation, and stays of six months or less taxed at 6% plus county surtax and tourist development tax. Security deposits sit as a liability by tenant under § 83.49; nobody on the engagement holds client or escrow funds.
They took something that felt overwhelming to me as a first-year business owner and made it simple.
What stood out the most was TechBrot Inc’s attention to detail.
Intuit QuickBooks Certification Level 2 and QuickBooks Workforce Certification,
§ 01 · Why Florida real estate books break
Three places Florida real estate businesses lose the numbers.
Entities, trust records, and the short-term-rental tax stack are where it goes wrong. Knowing which one you’re in tells us where to start.
01Entities
Commingled, tangled entities
Investors and brokers accumulate LLCs and properties fast — and without clean per-entity ledgers, the books commingle and no single entity’s numbers can be trusted or filed cleanly.02STR taxes
The short-term-rental tax stack missed
Vacation rentals owe the county bed tax plus sales tax on transient stays — a stack that varies by county and that generic bookkeeping skips entirely, creating exposure that compounds.03Trust records
Trust-account records that don’t reconcile
Broker and property-management trust accounting under FREC requires accurate, reconciled records and owner statements — sloppy records are a compliance risk, even though the funds stay in your hands, not ours.§ 02 · What TechBrot handles
How we keep Florida real estate entities straight.
Every engagement is scoped to your entities and portfolio, delivered in your own QuickBooks file by your TechBrot team, with every close reviewed by a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor.
01
Per-entity ledgers
Separate, clean books for each LLC, property, or fund, with inter-company transactions tracked so each entity stands on its own.
QuickBooks accountant02
Short-term-rental tax handled
The Tourist Development Tax and sales tax on transient rentals tracked by county so the returns tie.
Sales tax help03
Trust-record keeping
Trust-account records and owner statements kept accurate and reconciled to support your FREC obligations — we keep records, never hold the funds.
Bookkeeping services04
Property-tax & 1031
Florida property tax accrued per property and 1031 exchange documentation kept clean for your CPA and qualified intermediary.
Corporate & property tax05
Agent commissions
Commission income and splits tracked accurately for brokerages — clean for both the agents and the broker’s books.
Monthly bookkeeping06
Portfolio reporting
Reporting that shows which properties and entities actually perform — CPA-ready and decision-ready.
Financial statements§ 03 · Tools we work alongside
Connected to how you transact.
- AppFolio, Buildium, and property-management platforms
- QuickBooks Online or hosted Desktop — your file
- Airbnb, Vrbo, and vacation-rental channel managers
- Gusto, ADP, and payroll providers
- Bill.com for owner and vendor disbursements
- Brokerage commission and transaction systems
We reconcile alongside the property-management and channel-manager systems you already run — the books read from how you transact. We never take custody of trust or escrow funds.
§ 04 · How engagements work
From tangled entities to clean books.
Every Florida real estate engagement follows the same rhythm — books accurate first, portfolio visibility second, advisory third.
- Step 1
Free entity & records review
A QuickBooks ProAdvisor reviews your entity structure, trust records, and short-term-rental tax handling — at no cost. - Step 2
Written fixed-fee scope
A written scope and fixed fee within 3 business days — setup, cleanup, or monthly. - Step 3
Separate & reconcile
Per-entity ledgers separated, trust records reconciled, short-term-rental tax and property tax tracked. - Step 4
Monthly portfolio close
A monthly close per entity and a portfolio view, CPA-ready — with trust records reconciled.
§ 05 · Beyond the books
Clean entity books are the start. Portfolio returns are the point.
When entities are clean, trust records reconcile, and the short-term-rental tax is handled, the decisions get real: which properties carry the portfolio, which entity to acquire in, when a 1031 makes sense, whether to add vacation rentals — answered from numbers that tie.
That’s where fractional-CFO advisory picks up, on cleaned-up books, in coordination with your CPA and attorney.
§ 07 · Around this page
Around Florida.
Florida QuickBooks ProAdvisor & bookkeeping
The state page: services, industries, cities and the Florida tax terms in one place.Real Estate accounting, nationally
The national engagement this page is the Florida version of — same scope, same written fixed fee.Also in Florida
Other Florida industries
Florida cities
Not sure where your file stands? Start with the free QuickBooks file review · how Florida compares: state-by-state tax quirks.
§ 08 · FAQ
Florida real estate accounting questions.
What taxes do short-term and vacation rentals owe in Florida?
Short-term rentals (generally six months or less) owe the county Tourist Development Tax (bed tax) plus the 6% + county surtax sales tax on the rental, at rates that vary by county — and some counties collect the bed tax directly. We track all of it correctly so the returns tie; your county and CPA confirm the rates and handle the filings.
Do you hold or disburse my trust or escrow funds?
No — this is a firm boundary. The trust-account records and owner statements are kept accurate and reconciled so they support your FREC trust-accounting obligations, but nobody on the engagement takes custody of, holds, or disburses client or escrow funds. Those funds stay in your trust accounts, under your control and your bank. The books behind them stay clean; the custody and the compliance are yours.
How do you keep multiple entities straight?
We maintain separate, clean ledgers for each entity — each LLC, property, or fund — and track inter-company transactions so nothing commingles. That way each entity’s books stand on their own and your CPA can file each one correctly, and you get both per-entity and portfolio-level visibility.
Can you handle 1031 exchanges and Florida property tax?
We keep the 1031 documentation and basis tracking clean for your CPA and qualified intermediary, and we accrue Florida property tax per property across the portfolio. We don’t act as the qualified intermediary or give tax or legal advice on the exchange, and the property-tax valuation and any homestead/portability questions stay with your CPA or a property-tax consultant.
Do you work in my own QuickBooks file?
Yes — your file, your data, in QuickBooks Online or hosted Desktop, with a senior bookkeeper assigned to your file, and every close reviewed by a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor before it reaches you, connected to your property-management and channel-manager systems rather than proprietary software.
How does a Florida landlord have to hold security deposits?
Under § 83.49, Florida Statutes, a residential landlord holds security deposits and advance rent in a separate non-interest-bearing or interest-bearing account at a Florida financial institution, or posts a surety bond instead; may not commingle the money with its own funds or use it until it is actually due; gives the tenant written notice of how it is held, in the lease or within 30 days; and at the end of the tenancy returns it within 15 days or sends written notice of a claim within 30. In the books, deposits are a liability by tenant, never income, tied to the separate deposit account, with each move-out date tracked so the 15- and 30-day deadlines are visible. Whether a deduction is allowed is between you, the tenant and your attorney.
Do Florida commercial landlords still charge sales tax on rent?
Not for current periods. The state sales tax on commercial rent, and any county surtax with it, was repealed for rental periods beginning on or after October 1, 2025; rent for periods through September 2025 stays taxable even when it is paid later (Florida DOR, TIP 25A01-04). Short stays of six months or less, parking, and boat docking or storage remain taxable under § 212.03. So commercial rent invoices carry tax only for pre-October 2025 periods, late payments for those months still post the tax, and tenants who prepaid tax for later periods are refunded before the landlord asks the Department for its own refund.
Florida real estate businesses start here