Florida consistently ranks as one of the most business-friendly states, thanks to its low corporate tax rate and slew of tax incentives. Whether you just started a business in Florida or have been operating for a long time, there are a multitude of business tax credits you can apply for.
Keep reading for a complete list.
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Florida tax incentives for businesses
Experiential Learning Tax Credit Program
Florida’s Experiential Learning Tax Credit Program gives businesses a tax credit for hiring apprentices, pre-apprentices, and student interns between 2022 and 2025. The credit is $2,000 per apprentice hired, with a maximum of $10,000 per year.
To qualify, your business needs to meet the below criteria:
- Have been in operation for at least three years
- Employ at least one qualified student intern full-time (30 hours a week) for nine consecutive weeks OR employ at least one qualified apprentice or pre-apprentice for at least 500 hours
- Have 20% or more of your full-time employees previously employed as an intern or apprentice
Apply online here with the Florida Department of Revenue.
How do you hire interns? Here’s what you need to know.
Rural Job Tax Credit
The Rural Job Tax Credit rewards qualified businesses in rural areas of Florida for creating new jobs. If your business is located in one of Florida’s 36 designated rural areas, you can get a credit from $1,000-$5,000 per qualified employee you hire, with a maximum of $500,000 in tax credits for a calendar year. You can either put the credit toward your corporate income tax or your sales and use tax.
To qualify for the credit, your business needs to:
- Be located in one of the state’s designated rural areas
- Be predominantly engaged in one of the following industries: agriculture, forestry, and fishing; manufacturing; public golf courses; amusement parks; hotels and lodging; public warehousing and storage; research and development; motion picture production; or customer call centers
- Abide by the minimum number of qualified employees rules, which vary depending on the size of your business
For more details on the credit, download the eligibility application from the Florida Department of Commerce.
Want more hiring resources and advice? Start here.
Urban High-Crime Area Job Tax Credit
Under the Urban High-Crime Area Job Credit program, eligible businesses in designated urban areas in the state can get a tax credit for creating new jobs. The credit, which can be applied to corporate income tax or sales and use tax, ranges from $500 to $2,000 per qualified employee.
To qualify, your business needs to:
- Be located in one of the state’s 13 designated high-crime urban areas
- Be predominantly engaged in one of the following industries: agriculture, forestry, and fishing; manufacturing; public golf courses; amusement parks; hotels and lodging; public warehousing and storage; research and development; motion picture production; retail; or customer call centers
- Abide by the minimum number of qualified employees rules, which vary depending on the size of your business
Find more details on the credit apply here on the Florida Department of Commerce’s website.
Capital Investment Tax Credit
Florida’s Capital Investment Tax Credit rewards businesses in certain high-impact industries for spearheading projects that score cumulative capital investments of at least $25 million. If you qualify, you can get a corporate income tax credit of 50-100% of the eligible capital costs you spent on the project.
To qualify, businesses need to be meet the following criteria:
- Operate in a designated high-impact sector, like technology, transportation, or solar panel manufacturing
- Get a project certified by the Florida Department of Commerce
- Execute a project that results in $25 million of cumulative capital investment and generates at least 100 new full-time jobs
Learn more about the credit here.
Community Contribution Tax Credit
Florida’s Community Contribution Tax Credit Program incentivizes businesses to donate cash, property, and goods to eligible community development and housing projects that support low-income individuals in the state.
Qualified businesses can apply for a tax credit of up to 50% of the value of their donation, then put the credit toward their corporate income tax, insurance premium tax, or sales tax. To see which organizations you can donate to—and how to claim the credit—check out these guidelines.
Contaminated Site Rehabilitation Tax Credit, aka Voluntary Cleanup Tax Credit
Florida’s Voluntary Cleanup Tax Credit (VCTC) rewards businesses for rehabilitating designated brownfield sites and sites contaminated with dry-cleaning solvent. If you qualify, you can get a corporate income tax credit for 50% of the rehabilitation costs, up to $500,000 per site per year.
The annual application deadline for the credit is January 31. Check out the FAQs for the VCTC or apply here.
Credit for Manufacturing of Human Breast Milk Derived Human Milk Fortifiers
If your business participates in producing human milk fortifiers from human breast milk, you can qualify for a corporate income tax credit of 50% of the cost of the equipment purchased for the production process.
The credit is for tax years 2023 and 2024, and is awarded on a first-come first-served basis. See more details about how to claim the credit.
Credit for Qualified Railroad Reconstruction or Replacement Expenditures
If you operate a Class II or Class III railroad in Florida, you might be eligible for a credit that helps offset the cost of reconstruction or replacement. The credit is 50% of a qualifying railroad’s qualified expenditures incurred within Florida, not to exceed $3,500 multiplied by the number of miles of railroad track owned or leased in Florida by the qualifying railroad.
Hazardous Waste Facility Tax Credit
If you own a commercial hazardous waste recycling facility in Florida, you can get a tax credit to help offset the cost of obtaining permits and conducting hydrologic, geologic, and soil site evaluations. The credit is equal to the amount of expenses incurred.
Learn more about the credit here.
Live Local Program Tax Credit
Under the Live Local Program Tax Credit, businesses can get dollar-for-dollar credits against their corporate income tax or insurance premium tax for donating money to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, an organization that aims to provide a range of affordable housing opportunities for people in Florida.
Find out how to apply for and claim the credit here.
New Worlds Reading Initiative Tax Credit
Created by Florida’s Department of Education, the New Worlds Reading Initiative Tax Credit is designed to help support elementary school kids with reading support and free books. Under the program, businesses that make monetary contributions to administrators of the initiative can get a dollar-for-dollar credit against their corporate income tax, excise tax on beverages, gas and oil production tax, insurance premium tax, and use tax.
Official administrators of the New Worlds Reading Initiative must be state universities registered as Scholarship Funding Organizations. Learn how to apply for and claim the credit.
Research and Development Tax Credit
Similar to the federal research and development (R&D) tax credit, Florida’s state research and development tax credit gives a corporate income tax credit to businesses that engage in certain research activities. Think: product development, quality control, and supply chain improvement. If you qualify, you can get a credit equal to 10% of the amount of qualified research costs.
To qualify for the credit, your business needs to:
- Receive an approval letter from the Florida Department of Commerce that your business is in one of the eligible target industries: aviation and aerospace; cloud information technology, homeland security and defense, information technology, life sciences, manufacturing, marine sciences, materials science, and nanotechnology
- Receive the federal R&D tax credit
Gather all the application forms here.
Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program
Under the Tax Credit Scholarship Program, businesses can get tax credits for donating to certain nonprofit scholarship-funding organizations within Florida. Qualified businesses can get dollar-for-dollar credit against their corporate income tax, excise tax on beverages, gas and oil production tax, insurance premium tax, and use tax.
State Housing Tax Credit
Run through the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, the State Housing Tax Credit rewards companies for providing equity financing to help rehabilitate low-income housing projects or starting new low-income housing builds.
If your company is eligible, you can get a credit of up to 9% of the eligible costs of the project. Learn more about the program, including how to apply, here.
Strong Families Tax Credit
Under the Strong Families Tax Credit Program, businesses can get tax credits for donating to certain charitable organizations focused on child welfare and well-being. Businesses that make private monetary contributions can get dollar-for-dollar credit against their corporate income tax, excise tax on beverages, gas and oil production tax, insurance premium tax, and use tax.
Salary Tax Credit
Insurance businesses in Florida can use the Salary Tax Credit to get a credit for up to 15% of the salary of their employees. To qualify, employees have to perform insurance-related job duties, be located in Florida, and are covered by Florida’s reemployment assistance statues.
Florida tax incentives for solar energy
There’s no statewide solar tax incentive for individuals and businesses in Florida. However, some electric and utility companies offer rebates and incentives for installing solar panels. Here are a few to note:
- The City of Boynton Beach’s Energy Edge Rebate Program gives rebates of up to $1,500 to businesses located within Boynton Beach that install solar panels, purchase electric vehicles, or make other energy-efficient improvements.
- OUC’s Solar Thermal Rebate Program offers residential electric customers a $900 rebate. This could be a good solution if you’re an OUC customer and operate your business from your home.
- Beaches Energy Services offers up to $1,250 in energy rebates for residential upgrades that improve your energy efficiency, and up to $5,000 in commercial lighting upgrades.
As a Florida business owner, you can also apply for the federal solar energy credit, officially called the Energy-Efficient Commercial Buildings Deduction. Plus, you can take advantage of Florida’s tax exemption for solar systems (more below).
Check out these other key federal tax credits available to businesses.
Florida sales and use tax exemptions
Exemption for Solar Energy Systems
Florida’s Exemption for Solar Energy Systems means you won’t have to pay sales and use tax on a solar energy system you purchase for your business.
To qualify for the exemption, you need to ensure that your solar system actually converts sunlight into energy to power another system in your business, that the equipment is certified by Florida Solar Energy Center, and that the cost of the equipment can be separated from the total cost of the product (like patio lights, for example).
Need some motivation to make the switch to solar? Here are eight powerful benefits of becoming a more environmentally sustainable operation.
Film in Florida Sales Tax Exemption
The Film in Florida Sales Tax Exemption gives certain qualified production companies in Florida an exemption from paying sales and use tax on the purchase or lease of key items used in their in-state production activities.
Eligible items include tangible personal property—like sound booms and video recorders—and real property like sets and stages. You can apply for a 90-day exemption or a 12-month exemption.
For more details on how to apply, visit the Florida Department of Revenue website.
Local Florida film tax incentives
There are a handful of cities and counties in Florida—including Fort Lauderdale and Jacksonville—that offer their own local tax incentives to film and production companies. See a full list here, or check out your city’s website for more information.
Exemption for Research or Development Costs
Florida offers a sales and use tax exemption to companies that invest in certain research and development activities. To qualify for an exemption on R&D costs, you need to meet the below criteria:
- Prove that the result of your R&D work is commercially exploitable
- Conduct R&D work that isn’t ordinary testing, quality control inspections, market research, surveys, or research in nontechnical areas like literary, historical, or social sciences
Other Florida tax exemptions include:
- Refunds for building materials, rental items, and pest control services used in rural areas
- Exemption for building materials used to construct eligible residential units for affordable housing
- Tax refund for building materials used in redevelopment projects
- Tax refund for community contributions
See all Florida’s sales and use tax incentives here.
Florida city and county tax credits
Some cities and counties in Florida run their own tax credit and incentive programs for businesses. Check here to find your city and visit their local website for more information.
Financing resources for businesses in Florida
If you need capital to start or grow a business in the sunshine state, we’ve got you covered. Check out Gusto’s guide to grants and loans in Florida.
Want even more specific state guidance? Explore these topics below.
