Do I Need a CPA in Florida If There’s No State Income Tax?

What “no income tax” actually means

It is worth being precise, because the common phrasing undersells it in one way and oversells it in another.

It is constitutional, not a rate set to zero. Article VII, Section 5 of the Florida Constitution bars the state from taxing the income of natural persons. That is not a policy the legislature can revisit in a session — it would take a statewide referendum. The same sentence also rules out estate and inheritance tax.

But it applies to natural persons. The very next subsection permits a tax on everyone else, and Florida levies one: corporate income tax at 5.5%. “Florida has no income tax” is a statement about individuals that a lot of business owners read as being about them.

If you’re a W-2 employee with a simple return

Honestly? You probably don’t need one, and we would rather say so than sell you something.

In most states the strongest argument for hiring locally is that there are two tax systems to know — federal and state — and a local professional knows the second one. In Florida that argument simply does not exist for you. There is no state return. If you have one or two W-2s and take the standard deduction, commercial tax software will handle your federal return for a fraction of what a CPA costs, and there is nothing else to file.

If you own a business: the answer flips

Florida did not abolish taxes on business. It moved the burden, and the taxes it moved it to are ones a business can quietly get wrong for years.

Corporate income tax

5.5% on Florida net income, after a $50,000 exemption, on Form F-1120. It catches corporations, LLCs taxed as corporations, and more entity types than owners expect. And the deadline does not match the federal one: a calendar-year filer is due May 1, not April 15. An extension extends filing, never payment.

Sales and use tax — the real trap

6% state, plus a discretionary county surtax of up to 2% that varies by county — three counties impose none at all — and changes. Rates carry expiration dates and are reissued every November. Palm Beach dropped from 1% to 0.5% on January 1, 2026 — a business still charging last year’s rate is over-collecting from its own customers.

This is the single most common reason a Florida small business needs professional help, and it has nothing to do with income tax.

The ones people forget entirely

• Reemployment tax — 2.7% for a new employer on the first $7,000 of each employee’s wages. Employer-paid; you may not deduct it from anyone’s pay.
• Tangible personal property tax — Form DR-405, due April 1, with a $25,000 exemption you only get if you file on time. Not filing carries a 25% penalty.

None of that is exotic. It is the ordinary cost of running a Florida business, and it is where the 29,952 CPAs on this site spend most of their time.

If you moved here: this is the expensive one

Florida attracts people from high-tax states, and the reason they came is exactly the reason their old state pays attention.

Two separate questions get confused here. Florida gives you ways to evidence domicile — a sworn declaration of domicile filed with the clerk of the circuit court under Florida Statute 222.17, and the homestead exemption, worth up to $50,000 off assessed value with the Save Our Homes cap limiting annual increases to the lower of 3% or CPI. Homestead applications are due March 1, and you must own and occupy the property as your permanent residence on January 1.

But the state you left is the one that decides whether you left. It applies its own facts-and-circumstances analysis — where you actually spend your days, where your family and doctors and belongings are, where you vote and register a car. A Florida declaration of domicile is useful evidence in that argument. It is not a switch that ends it, and anyone telling you otherwise is setting you up for a residency audit years later, when reconstructing where you slept in March is difficult and expensive.

You will also generally file a part-year return in the state you left for the year you moved. This is the situation where a CPA earns their fee several times over, and where getting it wrong is not a small correction.

What no state income tax doesn’t help with at all

Worth listing plainly, because it is the part the headline hides. None of the following gets easier because Florida taxes no personal income — they are all federal:

• Self-employment income and the self-employment tax
• Rental property, and what happens when you sell it
• Equity compensation — RSUs, options, an ESPP
• An inheritance, or a trust
• Retirement withdrawals and Social Security taxation
• An IRS notice, an audit, or unfiled back years

For most people who genuinely need an accountant, the reason is on that list — and it would be the same in any state.

So what is a Florida CPA actually for?

The honest reframe: in a state with an income tax, a local CPA is partly a specialist in that state’s return. Florida takes that job away, and what remains is arguably the more valuable half — business tax compliance, sales and use tax, property and payroll filings, residency planning for people arriving with assets, and the whole federal picture.

Which is why “do I need a CPA in Florida?” has a genuinely different answer depending on who is asking, rather than one answer with the state name swapped in.

Common questions

Do I need to file a Florida state tax return?

Not as an individual. Florida levies no individual income tax, so there is no personal state return to file. Businesses are different — a Florida corporation still files Form F-1120 for corporate income tax, and many businesses also file sales and use tax, reemployment tax and tangible personal property returns.

Could Florida add an income tax later?

Not easily. The bar is in the state constitution at Article VII, Section 5, not in a statute the legislature can amend. Changing it would take a statewide referendum, which is why it is fair to treat it as a structural feature rather than a policy that might switch next session.

I moved to Florida. Do I still owe tax where I came from?

Possibly, and this is the most expensive thing to get wrong. You will generally file a part-year return in the state you left, and that state decides whether you genuinely changed domicile using its own facts-and-circumstances test. Filing a Florida declaration of domicile is useful evidence, but it does not settle the question by itself.

Does no state income tax make a CPA cheaper in Florida?

Slightly, for a simple individual return, because the usual fee surveys price a federal return bundled with a state one and you do not have a state one. It makes no difference to a business, which still faces corporate income tax, sales and use tax, reemployment tax and tangible personal property tax.

What does a Florida CPA actually help with, then?

Business taxes, which is where Florida puts its burden instead; sales and use tax, which is the compliance trap most small businesses fall into; residency and domicile for people relocating; and everything federal, which no state policy changes — self-employment, rentals, equity compensation, an inheritance, or an IRS letter.

Florida tax figures are from the Department of Revenue, the Florida Constitution and DBPR, checked September 20, 2026. County surtax rates change every November — check the current DR-15DSS rather than relying on a figure quoted anywhere, including here. General information, not tax advice.