Florida Sales Tax and Rental Surcharges on Cart Rentals
A family books a four-seater for a week at $450. What do you charge them at checkout, and what do you send to Tallahassee?
Most guides to golf cart rental taxes are written for a national audience and stop at "check your state." This one is only about Florida golf cart rental tax: state sales tax, the county surtax, and the $2 a day rental car surcharge that confuses almost everybody who rents carts or low-speed vehicles here.
We are not accountants and this is not tax advice. We rent carts at Welaka Golf Carts in Putnam County, Florida, and we built Greenlit to run it. What follows is what the statute and the Florida Department of Revenue publish, and the questions we think are worth putting to your accountant. Your accountant and the Department of Revenue decide how it applies to you.
Florida sales tax on golf cart rentals
In Florida, renting out tangible personal property is taxable the same way selling it is. A cart rental is a rental of tangible personal property, so the state sales tax of 6 percent applies to the rental charge.
If you rent carts, you register with the Department of Revenue as a sales tax dealer, collect the tax from your renter, and report it on your sales and use tax return, Form DR-15, on the schedule the Department assigns you.
Nothing about golf carts changes that. The questions are what counts as the "rental charge," and which extra lines sit on top of it.
The county surtax on Florida cart rentals
On top of the 6 percent, most Florida counties add a discretionary sales surtax. It varies by county. In Putnam County, where we operate, the combined state and county rate is 7 percent as of 2026. Check the Department's current county rate table before you set yours, because county rates do change.
Two details from the Department's own surtax guidance matter for cart rentals:
The surtax follows delivery. For rentals of tangible personal property, the Department says surtax is collected at the rate of the county where delivery is made. If you deliver carts into a neighboring county with a different rate, ask your accountant which rate applies to those bookings.
It applies to the first $5,000. The surtax generally applies to the first $5,000 of a single rental. For a cart rental, you are unlikely to reach it, but it exists.
The $2 a day Florida rental car surcharge
This is the one operators ask us about most.
Florida Statute 212.0606 imposes a surcharge of $2 per day, or any part of a day, on the lease or rental by a motor vehicle rental company of a motor vehicle that is licensed for hire and designed to carry fewer than nine passengers. It applies only to the first 30 days of a rental.
According to the Department of Revenue's rules and guidance:
- The surcharge must be separately stated on the invoice or receipt
- The surcharge is itself subject to sales tax and surtax
- It is reported on a separate return, Form DR-15SW, not on the regular DR-15
Does the rental car surcharge apply to golf carts?
This is the honest answer: it depends on what you rent, and it is a question to settle with your accountant or the Department, not with a blog.
The statute is written around motor vehicles licensed for hire. In Florida, a traditional golf cart is generally not a titled, registered motor vehicle. A low-speed vehicle is: it carries a VIN, a title, a registration and a plate.
So operators renting street-legal LSVs are the ones who most need a clear answer on whether the surcharge applies to their fleet. Operators renting golf carts that are not registered are in a different position. If you rent both, you may have two answers.
If you want certainty, the Department of Revenue issues written guidance on specific fact patterns through its Technical Assistance Advisement process. Your accountant can tell you whether it is worth requesting one.
If it applies, the math
For the $450 week, if the surcharge applies:
- 7 days x $2 = $14.00 surcharge
- Taxable amount: $450 + $14 = $464
- At 7 percent in Putnam County: $32.48 tax
- Renter total: $496.48
If the surcharge does not apply, the same rental is $450 plus $31.50 tax, for $481.50.
This is arithmetic on a hypothetical rate, not a rate we are recommending.
Other lines that affect Florida golf cart rental tax
A cart rental receipt often has more than the daily rate on it. Each line raises its own tax question.
Delivery fees. Do not assume a separately stated delivery fee is outside sales tax. Ask your accountant how Florida treats your delivery fee when you are the one delivering the cart.
Add-ons. A rented cooler, speaker or yard game is a rental of tangible personal property too.
Cleaning, late and damage charges. How these are taxed depends on what they are for and how they are written up. Put your actual fee list in front of your accountant.
Discounts and coupons. Tax the price the renter actually pays, after the discount, unless your accountant says otherwise.
The Florida golf cart law question
You may see marketing that ties cart taxes or rules to a recent change in Florida law. The last real change to Florida's golf cart operating rules was HB 949, effective October 1, 2023, and it dealt with who may drive a golf cart on public roads, not with how rentals are taxed. Nothing has changed since. Be skeptical of urgency built on anything else.
How to set up Florida golf cart rental tax at checkout
However you take bookings, four things keep this clean:
- Show the renter each line. Price, then extras, then taxes and surcharges, then the total. A total that jumps on the last screen with no explanation is the moment a renter stops and rereads everything.
- Label the surcharge for what it is. "FL Rental Surcharge" reads as a government charge. "Booking fee" reads as something you invented, even when it is not.
- Separate what the law says to separate. If the rental car surcharge applies to you, it has to be separately stated, and it has to go on the DR-15SW.
- Check the 30-day limit. If you ever rent a cart for longer than 30 days, confirm the surcharge stops at day 30 in whatever system you use.
Setting this up is part of what Greenlit does. There is a sales tax percentage, a per-day surcharge, a per-rental surcharge, and a custom label for the surcharge line, so the renter sees exactly what it is. The renter sees your price, then any extras they pick, then taxes, then the total. We will never add a service fee to your renter's bill. See our promise. It runs on your own Stripe or Square at a flat $49 a month.
What Greenlit does not do is file your returns. The DR-15 and, if it applies, the DR-15SW are still yours.
Questions operators ask
Do you charge sales tax on golf cart rentals in Florida? Yes. Renting tangible personal property is taxable in Florida. The state rate is 6 percent, plus any county discretionary sales surtax.
Does the Florida rental car surcharge apply to golf cart rentals? It applies to motor vehicles licensed for hire that carry fewer than nine passengers. Whether that covers your fleet depends on whether your carts are registered vehicles such as LSVs. Ask your accountant or the Department of Revenue.
How much is the Florida rental car surcharge? $2 per day or part of a day, for the first 30 days of a rental. It must be separately stated, it is subject to sales tax, and it is reported on Form DR-15SW.
Which county's surtax applies if I deliver the cart? The Department's guidance says surtax on rentals is collected at the rate of the county where delivery is made. Confirm with your accountant if you deliver across county lines.
Is there a new Florida golf cart law for 2026? No. The last change to golf cart operating rules was HB 949, effective October 1, 2023.
Does Greenlit work for cart rentals outside Florida? Yes. Greenlit works for golf cart and LSV rental operators in every US state. You set your own sales tax rate, any per-day or per-rental surcharge your state or county requires, and the label your renters see on each line, so the checkout matches the rules where you operate. The rules themselves still come from your state and your accountant, and filing your returns is still yours.
Before you set your rates
Take this page, your fee list and a sample receipt to your accountant. Get Florida golf cart rental tax right once, before the season, and it takes care of itself for every booking after that.
Not tax, legal or accounting advice. Rates, rules and forms were checked against Florida Department of Revenue publications and Florida Statutes in September 2026 and can change. Greenlit is booking and fleet software for golf cart and LSV rental companies, built inside Welaka Golf Carts.