Florida Rental Property Taxes: What Landlords Pay and Deduct

How are Florida rental properties taxed?

Florida rental properties are taxed two ways: an annual county property tax on the real estate, and federal income tax on the net rental profit. Florida has no state income tax, so there's no Florida tax bill on the rent itself. Property tax is the cost landlords feel every year, and it's higher on a rental than on an owner-occupied home.

You bought a rental in Orlando or Tampa, and now you're staring at your first tax season. What do you actually owe? What can you write off? Florida's tax picture for landlords is different from most states — and it's mostly good news. The no-state-income-tax part is real. The property tax part is where understanding the rules pays off, especially if you converted a home you used to live in.

What property taxes do Florida landlords pay?

Florida landlords pay county ad valorem property tax on a rental as non-homestead real estate. That means no homestead exemption and no 3% Save Our Homes cap — instead, the annual assessment increase is capped at 10%. On a typical Central Florida rental, the effective rate runs roughly 1.0% to 1.2% of assessed value once you account for the lost homestead break.

Rental properties don't get the homestead exemption (that's for your primary residence), and they don't get the 3% annual assessment cap homestead owners enjoy under Save Our Homes. Instead, a non-homestead property's assessment increase is capped at 10% a year under Florida Statute 193.1554 — and that cap doesn't apply to school district levies, so the school portion can rise faster.

Effective rates by county. Because a rental carries no homestead exemption, its effective tax rate is higher than the homestead-skewed county "median" you'll see quoted online. For Central Florida non-homestead rentals, plan on roughly 1.0% to 1.2% of assessed value. Orange County and Hillsborough County run at the higher end of that range; Osceola, Seminole, and Pinellas counties land a little lower. On a $300,000 rental, that's roughly $3,000 to $3,600 a year. For a deeper local breakdown, our Orlando property tax guide walks through county-specific numbers, and our Florida property tax appeals guide covers what to do if your assessment looks too high.

When the bill is due. County property tax bills go out in November and are due by March 31. Counties offer early-payment discounts — typically 4% in November, 3% in December, 2% in January, and 1% in February. Pay early and you trim the bill. The 10% cap also resets when ownership changes, so when you buy a rental it gets reassessed at just value the following January 1, and the cap kicks in from there.

Do renters pay property tax in Florida?

Renters in Florida don't pay property tax directly — the legal bill goes to the property owner, and the county sends it to the landlord, not the tenant. But renters pay it indirectly: landlords build property tax into the rent they set, so a tenant covers a share of it through their monthly payment. Florida has no separate renter tax credit or renter property tax refund.

This comes up a lot, so let's be clear. You, the landlord, are legally responsible for the property tax. You can't make a tenant pay the county directly, and a standard residential lease shouldn't try to bill property tax as a separate line item. What you can do — and what every landlord does — is price the rent so it covers your carrying costs, property tax included. And no, Florida doesn't offer a "renter tax credit" or a property tax refund to renters; some other states do, but Florida isn't one of them.

What is the TRIM notice, and how long do you have to challenge it?

Your TRIM notice — Truth in Millage — is the proposed-taxes notice your county property appraiser mails each August. It is not a bill. It shows the market and assessed values the county assigned your property and what the tax would be at the proposed rates, and it starts a clock. Under Florida Statute 194.011(3)(d), you have until the 25th day following the mailing to petition the Value Adjustment Board.

Before you file anything, you can call. Subsection (2) of the same statute lets you ask the property appraiser to confer with you informally, and it is expressly not a prerequisite to review — you can confer first and still petition inside the 25 days. It costs nothing, and some of the worst numbers turn out to be data errors: square footage that is wrong, a bathroom the county thinks you added, a permit credited to your parcel that belongs to the house next door. Those get corrected at the counter.

If you do petition, the filing fee is set by each county board and capped by Florida Statute 194.013(1) at $50 per parcel — and it is per parcel, so a six-property portfolio is six fees. Orange County published a September 18, 2026 deadline and charges $50; Hillsborough’s clerk lists $50 as well, raised effective the 2025 season, and posts each season’s deadlines and instructions on the same page. Don’t trust a date you found on a blog — several circulating right now disagree with each other, and the fee they all quote is out of date. The only deadline that governs you is the one counted from the mailing date printed on your own notice. Confirm it with your county: the Orange County Comptroller or the Hillsborough County Clerk. The filing itself — the DR-486, the evidence that moves a board, what the hearing is like — is a subject of its own, and our Florida property tax appeal guide walks it end to end.

That distinction bites if you own from out of state. The 25 days run from the day the county mails the notice, not the day it reaches you, so forwarded mail can eat a week of the window before you are holding the envelope. Set a mid-August reminder rather than waiting on the mail. And file early rather than exactly: the petition has to be received by the 25th day, not postmarked by it. Mailing on day 25 is a missed deadline. Hillsborough accepts petitions online through the Clerk’s portal. Orange lists an online portal as well, but as of early August 2026 its own VAB page still marked the 2026 portal under construction and pointed filers to mail, courier, or in person — so confirm which route is open before you count on it, and leave yourself days rather than hours.

How do you read a millage increase?

A Florida millage increase is reported against the rolled-back rate — the rate that would raise the same revenue as last year on this year’s values — not against the rate you actually paid. So the headline percentage and the change to your bill are two different numbers, and the gap between them is usually wide enough to matter.

The arithmetic is easier with round numbers. Say your city taxed at 4.4000 mills last year, values rose, and the rolled-back rate lands at 4.2000. A proposed 4.6200 is a 10% increase against the rolled-back rate, and that is the number the coverage reports. Against the 4.4000 you actually paid, it is 5%. The 10% is the legal framing; the 5% is what reaches your bill. Both are true, and only one of them is your money. (A live one, as of August 2026: Apopka’s commission voted on July 30 to send the property appraiser a proposed FY27 rate of 4.6761 mills — 10.0% over the rolled-back 4.2510, and 5.4% over its current 4.4376.)

And the summer number is not the last word. The proposed rate a city adopts in late July or early August is what prints on your TRIM notice; the binding ceiling is set later, when the commission adopts a tentative rate at its first September hearing — the final rate cannot exceed that one. A September rate above the July figure is legal if every taxpayer is re-noticed by first-class mail, which is why the hearing dates on your notice are worth keeping.

Millage is only half the calculation. The other half is your assessed value, and a non-homestead rental is capped at 10% a year under Florida Statute 193.1554. Read that one closely: the limitation is built on subsection (2), which sets the whole scheme up "for all levies other than school district levies." School millage sits outside it. That is how a tax bill can outrun an assessment that looks properly capped — and it is not something a petition fixes.

One exception matters more than the rest if you have just bought. The cap does not carry over to a new owner: subsection (5) resets the assessment to just value on January 1 of the year after a change of ownership, and the 10% limit only starts running again from there. The first bill after a purchase can lawfully jump far more than 10%, and a petition will not undo it.

One thing to watch before you model next year: that 10% cap is on the November ballot. The proposed constitutional amendment Florida voters decide on November 3, 2026 would cut the assessment cap on non-homestead property from 10% to 5% — the counties publishing FAQs about it describe it as "Proposed Property Tax Amendment 3," tied to CS/HJR 1F. Two caveats worth being precise about, because a lot of coverage is not. The amendment's headline is a bigger homestead exemption, and rental property is excluded from that part — a landlord gets nothing from the exemption increases. And while the January 1, 2027 dates you will see quoted attach to those exemption changes, no county source we checked states an effective date for the cap reduction itself. It needs 60% of the vote to pass at all. So: a real if modest benefit for rental owners, on a measure whose marquee feature skips them, and not something to underwrite until it passes.

Do you owe income tax on Florida rental income?

Florida charges no state income tax, so the only income tax on your rent is federal: you report net rental income on Schedule E and pay at your ordinary rate. That is the complete answer at this level. How depreciation shrinks that bill, whether you owe self-employment tax, what happens when the property runs a loss, and the 3.8% net investment income tax on higher earners are all a different subject — our guide to income tax on Florida rental income covers them properly. The rest of this page is about the other tax: the one the county sends you.

What can you deduct on your federal return?

Florida landlords can deduct, on federal Schedule E, every ordinary expense of running the rental: mortgage interest, property taxes, insurance, repairs, property management fees, travel, advertising, legal and professional fees, and depreciation. The deductions are where a Florida rental's tax picture is won or lost, since the state itself taxes nothing.

IRS Publication 527 spells out the rules. Here's the short version, and our Florida rental tax deductions checklist goes line by line.

Mortgage interest is usually the biggest deduction. You deduct only the interest portion of the payment — not principal — and your lender sends a Form 1098 with the number. On a $250,000 loan at 7%, that's roughly $17,500 in year-one interest.

Property taxes you pay on the rental are fully deductible, including county and municipal taxes. Rental property taxes go on Schedule E and aren't subject to the $10,000 SALT cap that limits property tax on your personal return.

Insurance for the rental — hazard, liability, and flood coverage if you carry it — is deductible. Landlord policies in Florida often run $1,200 to $2,000 a year, and every dollar counts.

Property management fees are deductible. If you pay 8–10% of rent to a manager, that's a direct expense. Our breakdown of property management costs in Orlando covers typical fee structures.

Repairs and maintenance that restore the property to its prior condition are deductible the year you pay them — fixing a broken AC, repainting between tenants, replacing a damaged screen. Improvements that add value, like a new roof, get depreciated instead.

Travel to manage the rental is deductible. The IRS standard mileage rate is 70 cents per mile for 2025, covering trips to collect rent, meet contractors, show the property, or handle maintenance. Keep a log: date, miles, purpose. If you're an out-of-state landlord, those Florida trips add up.

Depreciation is the big one. You deduct the cost of the building — not the land — over 27.5 years for residential rental property. It's a paper expense; no cash leaves your pocket, but it often turns taxable rental income into a paper loss.

Advertising for tenants — listing fees, photography, yard signs — is deductible. Legal and professional fees for evictions, lease review, or tax prep count too. Commissions paid to brokers for finding tenants are deductible the year you pay them. Keep every receipt. A $50 receipt doesn't feel like much, but over a decade it adds up — and the IRS expects documentation if they ask.

How do you file, and does the 20% pass-through deduction apply?

You file on federal Schedule E with your Form 1040, one column per property. The Section 199A qualified business income deduction can apply to a rental where your involvement is regular, continuous and considerable — a single hands-off property usually falls short, an actively managed portfolio often clears it; the IRS’s qualified business income guidance sets out the test. Both questions sit on the income-tax side of your return rather than the county’s bill. For how the rest of that return works — depreciation, passive losses, the 3.8% net investment income tax — our guide to income tax on Florida rental income covers it.

How are short-term rentals taxed in Florida?

Short-term rentals in Florida — stays under six months — owe Florida's 6% state sales tax plus any local tourist development tax, collected from guests and remitted to the state and county. Long-term rentals of six months or more owe no sales tax. Either way, the income is still free of Florida state income tax.

Most Orlando and Tampa landlords with standard 12-month leases never touch this — it matters mainly for vacation rentals and Airbnb-style setups. If that's your situation, register with the Florida Department of Revenue and your county before you take a booking.

What tax mistakes do Florida landlords make?

The most common Florida landlord tax mistakes are mixing personal and rental expenses, skipping depreciation, failing to keep a mileage log, treating security deposits as income too early, and deducting an improvement as a repair. Each one either overstates a deduction the IRS can disallow or understates one you were entitled to.

Mixing personal and rental expenses. That Home Depot run where you bought supplies for the rental and your own house? Split it. Only the rental portion is deductible.

Forgetting about depreciation. Even if you don't claim it, the IRS still reduces your basis when you sell, so you pay depreciation recapture either way. You might as well take the deduction while you own the property.

Skipping the mileage log. "I drove to the property a few times" won't hold up. Date, miles, purpose — every trip.

Treating security deposits as income. They're not income until you keep them for unpaid rent or damages. Then they become income that year.

Deducting improvements as repairs. Replacing a few broken tiles is a repair. Replacing the whole floor is an improvement — it gets depreciated, not written off in year one. When in doubt, ask your CPA; the line matters in an audit.

What if you're renting a former primary residence?

If you converted your homestead into a rental, you lose the 3% Save Our Homes cap. The property gets reassessed at just value the year after it becomes non-homestead, the 10% non-homestead cap applies from there, and your property tax bill can jump sharply. Plan for the increase before the first rental tax bill arrives.

This is the exact situation a lot of Florida landlords land in — relocated for work, inherited a house, or couldn't sell, and now renting a home they used to live in. The Save Our Homes portability benefit only moves with you from one homestead to another; it doesn't follow you to a rental. If you're weighing whether to rent out your home, factor the property tax increase into the numbers before you decide. Our guide on what it takes to become an accidental landlord in Florida walks through the rest of that decision.

The bottom line

Florida's lack of a state income tax is a real advantage for rental owners — you owe the state nothing on the rent. Your federal bill comes down to how well you track and claim deductions, and property tax is the one ongoing cost you can't avoid. Understand non-homestead versus homestead, know what's deductible federally, and you're already ahead of most accidental landlords.

If you own one rental and the tax tracking, the receipts, and the county deadlines feel like more than you signed up for, you don't have to carry it alone. We manage single properties, not just portfolios, and we keep the records that make tax season simple. Get a free rental analysis and we'll break down the numbers for your specific property.