Credit card processing and merchant services in Florida

Section 501.0117 says a seller or lessor may not impose a surcharge on a buyer for electing to use a credit card instead of cash, check or similar means, and the section is still in the 2025 Florida Statutes. The Attorney General's office says federal courts held the law unconstitutional and that Florida merchants may add a surcharge to credit card purchases. It also warns that undisclosed fees may be an unfair or deceptive trade practice.

Card network rules still set the limits:

• Visa: a Florida merchant can surcharge up to its merchant discount rate or 3%, whichever is lower, after giving its acquirer 30 days' notice.
• Mastercard: Florida businesses can add as much as their average effective merchant discount rate for Mastercard credit or 4%.
• No surcharge on debit or prepaid cards.
• Disclosure online, at the store entrance and point of sale, and on the receipt.

Section 501.0117 doesn't apply to a discount offered to get customers to pay by cash, check or another method that doesn't use a credit card, as long as the discount is offered to all prospective customers.

A cash discount is a lower price for paying another way, not an extra charge for paying by card, so post your prices to match. Our post on dual pricing vs surcharging compares the two setups.

Florida's general state sales tax rate is 6%, with exceptions such as 3% on retail sales of new mobile homes and 4% on amusement machine receipts. Many counties add a discretionary sales surtax. The surtax of the county where a taxable item or service is delivered applies, and for motor vehicles and mobile homes the buyer's home address decides it. For certain transactions, only the first $5,000 of a sale is subject to surtax.

The Department of Revenue collects the state tax and the surtax together and sends the surtax to the counties. Form DR-15DSS lists every county's rate and is updated each November.

Since July 1, 2021, Florida dealers have had to use a rounding algorithm: carry the tax to the third decimal place, and if that digit is greater than 4, round up to the next cent. You can apply it to each item or to the invoice total.

Sales tax must be stated separately on every receipt or invoice. The state tax and the county surtax can be shown as one total or as separate lines.

Since July 1, 2021, a business making remote sales into Florida must collect and remit Florida sales tax, including any county surtax, if its taxable remote sales topped $100,000 in the previous calendar year. Marketplace providers collect on the sales they facilitate.

If you sell online, make sure your checkout applies the surtax of the delivery county.