Florida Senate - 2014 SB 176 By Senator Hukill 8-00189B-14 2014176__ 1 A bill to be entitled 2 An act relating to the tax on sales, use, and other 3 transactions; amending s. 212.031, F.S.; reducing the 4 tax levied on rental or license fees charged for the 5 use of real property effective on a certain date; 6 providing an effective date. 7 8 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 9 10 Section 1. Paragraphs (c) and (d) of subsection (1) of 11 section 212.031, Florida Statutes, are amended to read: 12 212.031 Tax on rental or license fee for use of real 13 property.— 14 (1) 15 (c) For the exercise of such privilege, a tax is levied in 16 an amount equal to 6 percent of and on the total rent or license 17 fee charged for such real property by the person charging or 18 collecting the rental or license fee. The total rent or license 19 fee charged for such real property mustshallinclude payments 20 for the granting of a privilege to use or occupy real property 21 for any purpose and mustshallinclude base rent, percentage 22 rents, or similar charges. Such charges mustshallbe included 23 in the total rent or license fee subject to tax under this 24 section whether or not they can be attributed to the ability of 25 the lessor’s or licensor’s property as used or operated to 26 attract customers. Payments for intrinsically valuable personal 27 property such as franchises, trademarks, service marks, logos, 28 or patents are not subject to tax under this section. In the 29 case of a contractual arrangement that provides for both 30 payments taxable as total rent or license fee and payments not 31 subject to tax, the tax shall be based on a reasonable 32 allocation of such payments and doesshallnot apply to that 33 portion which is for the nontaxable payments. Effective January 34 1, 2015, the tax levied under this paragraph is reduced to 5 35 percent. 36 (d) IfWhenthe rental or license fee ofanysuch real 37 property is paid by way of property, goods, wares, merchandise, 38 services, or other thing of value, the tax shall be at the rate 39 of 6 percent of the value of the property, goods, wares, 40 merchandise, services, or other thing of value. Effective 41 January 1, 2015, the tax rate imposed under this paragraph is 42 reduced to 5 percent. 43 Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2014.