tourist development tax st johns county

TOURIST DEVELOPMENT TAX

Pursuant to St Johns County Ordinance 2021-43, an additional 1% tourist development tax has been approved. Effective October 1, 2021, the tourist development tax rate will be 5%. For more information, please  click here .

To view the ordinance, please  click here .

St. Johns County Tourist Development Tax Ordinances 86-62 and 86-72 were passed under the authority of Section 125.0104(3) Florida Statutes. This tax applies to transient or short term (six months or less) living accommodations.

Tourist Development Tax

Who must collect the tax.

The St. Johns County Tourist Development Tax applies to any living quarters or accommodations in any hotel, apartment hotel, motel, resort motel, apartment, apartment motel, rooming house, mobile home park, recreational vehicle park, single family dwelling, time share resort or condominium rented for a period of six months or less. Participants are required to obtain a Sales Tax Identification Number from the  Florida Department of Revenue , a  St. Johns County Business Tax Receipt  and complete a  St. Johns County Tourist Development Tax Application .

All owners and/or agents of rental property are subject to the Tourist Development Tax and must collect these taxes from their tenants or guests and remit to the St. Johns County Tax Collector. This is in addition to any other tax imposed pursuant to Chapter 212; Florida Statutes as amended, and in addition to all other taxes, fees and the considerations for the rental or lease.

When is the Tax Due?

These taxes shall be remitted to the Tax Collector’s office monthly. They are due on the first of the month following collection and are considered delinquent if not postmarked by the 20th of the same month. You must remit a monthly return even if there is no tax due. Failure to do so will result in penalty collection action. If the tax return’s due date falls on a weekend or legal holiday, then it is due on the following business day.

You are entitled to a collection allowance of 2.5% of the first $1,200.00 taxes due providing the tax remitted is correct and submitted on time. The collection allowance shall never exceed $30.00. Deduction of the collection allowance is your responsibility. Should you fail to deduct the collection allowance, your remittance will be accepted as submitted.

Penalties for Delinquent Taxes

If a tax payment is not remitted properly and on time, the following penalties apply: the collection allowance is not allowed; penalty of 10% for each 30 days or a fraction thereof, up to a maximum of 50% taxes due, but in no case less than $50.00 and, interest accrual. Please contact the Tax Collector’s office at (904) 209-2250 for interest information.

Closing my Tourist Development Account

In order to close your Tourist Development Tax Account, it is important that you contact the St. Johns County Tax Collector in writing stating your Tourist Development Tax account number, business mailing address, location address of the rental property, Business Tax Receipt account number, and the date you terminated business.

More Information

For more information, please contact the St. Johns County Tax Collector Office at (904) 209-2250 or [email protected] .

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St. Johns County passes new short-term rental rules

• May 11, 2021 | Jennifer Sokolowsky

Short-term rental operators in St. Johns County, Florida, will be required to register with the county by November 5 under new regulations passed by the St. Johns County Commission .

Changes to the county Land Development Code will also limit vacation rentals to 10 guests at a time, a rule that will be phased in over three years for existing rentals. Short-term rental operators must also abide by parking, noise, and garbage rules.

Operators who break the rules will first get a warning then face citations and fines for further violations.

The new rules apply to unincorporated county properties east of the Intracoastal Waterway, with exceptions for owner-occupied units; duplexes with at least one unit occupied by the owner; and multifamily units with homeowners associations, condo associations, or on-site property management. The cities of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach already have their own short-term rental laws.

An estimated 2,302 short-term vacation rental units are currently operating in the area of St. Johns County affected by the regulations.

The commission waited to pass the legislation until after the state legislative session. A bill that would have further limited local governments’ ability to regulate short-term rentals failed to pass , leaving the county free to institute new rules.

Current state law does not allow local governments to ban short-term rentals entirely or regulate the length of stays or their frequency, but local governments may pass rules to control negative effects of vacation rentals.

The defeated state bill also would have required short-term rental marketplaces such as Airbnb and Vrbo to collect and remit lodging taxes on their listings.

Short-term rental hosts in St. Johns County must register with county tax authorities, collect the county’s Tourist Development Tax from guests, and file regular tax returns with the county. They must also apply for a Florida Vacation Rental Dwelling License, obtain a state tax certificate, and collect state taxes.

Airbnb and Vrbo automatically collect and remit state lodging taxes on behalf of their hosts. However, neither marketplace collects St. Johns County lodging taxes, so hosts are responsible for county taxes themselves.

MyLodgeTax  can help vacation rental hosts automate and simplify lodging tax compliance on the local and state level, including tax registration and filing. For more on vacation rental lodging taxes in Florida, see our state  Vacation Rental Tax Guide . If you have tax questions related to vacation rental properties,  drop us a line  and we’ll get back to you with answers.

Learn more about FL lodging tax rules

St. Johns County Ups “Bed Tax” On Hotel Stays

Beginning in October, St. Johns County will add an additional 1-cent tax to overnight stays in hotels, bringing the so-called “bed tax” there from 4- to 5-cents. 

The Tourist Development Tax, as it is formally known, is levied on short-term overnight stays at hotels and bed and breakfasts, and brings in about $13 million a year in revenue for the coastal county. When the tax hike goes into effect in October, the proceeds are forecast to rise to about $16 million a year. 

According to data released by the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners, 40% of the expected $3 million in additional revenue will go towards tourism-related infrastructure, such as boat ramps and sports complexes. Another 40% will go towards beach restoration. The remaining 20% will be split between destination marketing and arts, culture and heritage projects. 

The allocation of the fifth cent is substantially different from the allocation of the other four cents. Taken as a whole, the largest portion goes towards destination marketing ($4.8 million), followed by beach maintenance ($4.2 million) and “administrative and special uses” ($2.4 million.)

Contact Sydney Boles at [email protected], or on Twitter at @sydneyboles.

St. Johns County awaits final decision on bed tax increase

Tourist development council recommends approval, allocation of funds for beach renourishment.

With hurricane season looming just over two months away, residents of St. Johns County are eagerly awaiting a final decision on whether they will soon have a local funding source to combat the increasingly critical issue of beach erosion.

The tourist development tax, also known as the bed tax, is the potential source in question, with a proposal to raise the tax from 4 to 5 percent currently under consideration. If approved, the tax increase is projected to generate an additional $2.57 million annually, and it is the hope of many residents that those funds would be designated for a beach renourishment plan.

On Feb. 26, following a request for recommendation from the Board of County Commissioners, the Tourist Development Council (TDC) discussed the proposal at great length, with numerous residents coming forward to voice their support.

“With 42 miles of beach, we are a coastal community,” County Commission District 4 candidate Dick Williams said. “It’s a huge asset, and for the purposes of the fifth cent, clearly it is a major tourist attraction. But the reality is, if we don’t have a long-term plan, we’re going to continue to see that asset go away.”

Ponte Vedra Beach resident Guy Rasch agreed, warning, “We’re losing people already. The two renters on either side of me, the rental properties, have not been able to fill their properties recently, because they didn’t have beach to go to. … You can have a conquistador and you can have a young lady in a bikini advertising coming to the beaches, but if you have no beach to come to, it doesn’t do us any good.”

Other residents echoed those sentiments, with some even voicing support for increasing the tax to 6 percent. St. Johns County Tourism and Cultural Development Director Tera Meeks advised, however, that the county is only currently eligible to raise the tax to 5 percent.

While the majority of the TDC expressed support for adding a fifth cent to the bed tax, there was some dissention. For example, St. Augustine Mayor Nancy Shaver – who left the meeting before the vote – felt that the resulting funds would be insufficient to truly make an impact on the issue of beach erosion.

“I don’t believe it is our role to solve what is a major issue across the state, and for that reason, I do not support levying the fifth cent—even though I believe, quite frankly, there is probably not much tourist resistance,” Shaver said. “This discussion is clearly being driven by the beach issue, and I think it’s the wrong thing for us to do. I think there is a huge problem in the county, in the state and nationally, but we’re not going to solve it by a penny of bed tax.”

Another topic of contention was how the funds would be allocated, with some people expressing hopes that they would also benefit the county’s other tourist attractions. Commissioner Jay Morris, however, stated he would only support raising the tax if the resulting funds were designated specifically for a beach management plan.

  “There are no beaches,” he said. “The beaches aren’t there anymore. This is the only funding source available that we have to kick this (renourishment) program off, so I am totally in favor of it, if we can do that.”

Ultimately, the council voted – with one dissention – to recommend raising the bed tax from 4 to 5 percent, with the stipulation that the resulting funds be allocated “in total, or to the greatest extent possible, for beach renourishment.”

With that recommendation in mind, the Board of County Commissioners will put the matter to a final vote, with at least a 4-1 supermajority required for the proposal to be approved. Although a date has yet to be set for that vote, community members like Ponte Vedra Beach resident Martha Johnson are continuing to stress the urgency of the matter, stating: “If we lose the beaches, we lose everything.”

St. Johns County Commission approves 1% bed tax increase, expects to bring in $3M

More money going to beaches, other categories.

St. Johns County commissioners voted 4-1 to approve increasing the bed tax from 4 to 5% this week. 

Commissioner Jeb Smith was the dissenting vote. The increase, which is expected to bring in an extra $3 million during the next fiscal year, is scheduled to go into effect on Oct. 1. 

The extra charge is added to short-term lodging, such as hotels, motels, and bed and breakfasts. 

Farmer and commissioner: Jeb Smith prepares to be new voice on County Commission

Tourism and the pandemic: St. Johns County forgives $2 million taxpayer loan used for marketing

The funds are collected and separated into several categories, and are used to draw tourism into the county; fund certain arts programs and marketing; fund beach renourishment; and pay for tourist-related infrastructure improvements, among other things. The uses are limited by state law. 

The vote amended the county's spending categories to include all beach spending, and only beach spending, in Category 5. 

The extra revenue will be split with 10% going to Category 1: destination marketing; 10% to Category 2: arts, culture and heritage; 40% to Category 3: leisure and recreation; 0% to Category 4: administration and special uses; and 40% to Category 5: beach assets. 

The bed tax is expected to bring in about $15 million in the next fiscal year. Of that, $4.8 million is planned to go into Category 1, $1.8 million in Category 2, $1.8 million in Category 3, $2.4 million in Category 4 and $4.2 million in Category 5.

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St. Johns County 2024 Delinquent Tax Certificate Sale

• 30 April 2024
• Category: SJC News

The St. Johns County 2024 Delinquent Tax Certificate Sale will be held online this year. Tax Collector Dennis W. Hollingsworth has retained SRI., an Indianapolis based company that has been conducting these types of internet sales since 1998, to host the delinquent tax certificate sale at www.zeusauction.com .

The tax sale will begin at 9am on May 31st and will conclude at 6 p.m.  Registration will begin May 1st  and will end May 28th at 5 p.m. Please complete all registrations for the delinquent tax certificate sale at  www.zeusauction.com . If you have any questions or problems navigating this web site, please contact SRI at 1-800-800-9588.

Delinquent Taxes Listing

Latest News

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