Owner guide · Taxes

Miami short-term rental taxes, explained: why it’s so complicated

Renting your Miami condo on Airbnb or Booking.com means you’re also a tax collector. Depending on the building’s address and the platform each guest booked through, up to four different taxes go to three different government offices, every month. Here’s how it works, and where owners most often get caught out.

The short version

• Every short-term stay (6 months or less) in Florida is taxed. It isn’t optional, and it’s due even if you forgot to charge the guest.
• There are up to four layers: Florida sales tax, the Miami-Dade surtax, county tourist taxes and, in some cities, a city resort tax.
• Which taxes apply depends on the exact address: Miami Beach, the City of Miami and Surfside all differ.
• Airbnb pays some of them for you, but not all. Booking.com and direct bookings leave all of them to you, and Vrbo depends on whether you use a property management system.
• Each authority wants its own registration and its own monthly return, usually by the 20th of the following month.

Layer by layer: the taxes on a Miami short-term rental

1. Florida sales tax (6%) + Miami-Dade surtax (1%)

Florida treats a stay of six months or less as a taxable “transient rental”. The state charges 6%, and Miami-Dade adds a 1% discretionary surtax, so 7% in total. Both are reported on the same return (Form DR-15) to the Florida Department of Revenue. The tax applies to the nightly rate and to mandatory charges such as the cleaning fee.

2. Miami-Dade County tourist taxes (3% or 6%)

On top of the state tax, Miami-Dade County charges tourist taxes, filed separately with the Miami-Dade Tax Collector. How much depends on where the property is:

• City of Miami and most of the county: 6% (3% convention development tax, 2% tourist development tax, 1% sports franchise tax).
• Miami Beach: 3% (the convention development tax only), because the city collects its own resort tax instead of the other two.
• Surfside and Bal Harbour: these towns have their own resort taxes, which replace the county’s tourist taxes.

3. City resort tax (Miami Beach, Surfside, Bal Harbour)

If your property is in Miami Beach, there’s a third return: the City of Miami Beach resort tax, 4% of the rent, filed with the city every month on its own account number (one per property). Surfside and Bal Harbour run their own resort taxes too. The City of Miami, Brickell and Downtown have no resort tax.

Rates as published for 2026. Surfside and Bal Harbour set their own resort tax rates: check with the town.

The twist: who pays depends on the platform, and on your software

This is where most self-managing owners go wrong. Some platforms collect taxes from the guest and pay them to the government for you; others collect them and hand the money to you, so paying it over is still your job. And the answer can change depending on whether you list on each site directly or connect them through a property management system (PMS) or channel manager, the software most hosts with more than one listing use to sync calendars and prices.

So the same Vrbo booking can be Vrbo’s responsibility one month and yours the next, just because you connected a PMS. And the taxes your PMS charges guests are only as right as its settings: it applies whatever rates and fees you configure, for every channel it controls.

In practice, a Miami Beach apartment with guests from three platforms in one month needs every booking sorted by channel and by how it was booked. Airbnb stays count towards the resort tax but not the state and county returns; Booking.com stays count towards all three. Get the split wrong and you either overpay, or underpay and collect penalties.

What “doing your taxes” really involves each month

Before the first return you also need the registrations: a Florida sales tax certificate, a Miami-Dade tourist tax account and, in Miami Beach, a resort tax account and business tax receipt for the property. Then, every month:

1. Pull every stay that checked out last month, from every platform.
2. Separate the rent, the cleaning fee and the taxes the guest paid on each one.
3. Work out which stays each tax applies to (Airbnb vs. everything else).
4. Match it against what actually reached your bank (Booking.com and Vrbo pay out differently from Airbnb).
5. File three returns and pay three authorities by the 20th, even in a month with no bookings.

Where owners get caught out

• Assuming the platform handles everything. Airbnb doesn’t pay the Miami Beach resort tax, Booking.com doesn’t pay any of them, and Vrbo stops collecting once you connect a PMS.
• Forgetting the cleaning fee. Mandatory cleaning fees are part of the taxable rent, not a separate untaxed charge.
• Charging guests the wrong rates. Set up your listing taxes for the wrong city and you under-collect, but you still owe the full amount.
• Missing a month. Late returns lose the collection allowance and add penalties and interest, and each authority charges its own.
• Not filing “zero” returns. Quiet months still need a return to each authority.
• Mixing guest taxes with income. The tax collected isn’t your money: it has to be set aside and paid over, not spent.

Why owners hand this to Nomabase

For our owners, guest taxes are part of the service. We set the right tax rates for your property’s exact jurisdiction on every channel, so guests pay the correct amount. We track every booking by platform, set the tax money aside, and file and pay the monthly state, county and city returns on time. Your monthly owner statement shows the taxes on each stay separately from your earnings, so you can see exactly what was collected and paid, and none of it gets mistaken for your income.

Not sure whether your building even allows short-term rentals? Start with our free Miami condo short-term rental check.

This article is general information, not tax or legal advice. Rates, platform policies and filing rules change: confirm the requirements for your property with the Florida Department of Revenue, the Miami-Dade Tax Collector and your city, or with a tax professional.