On Monday, Governor Ron DeSantis signed on the dotted line to remove the Business Rent Tax later this year.
Local business owners like Marla Hansen, the owner of Fitness Junky in Panama City Beach, say this is something they have been waiting for after investing over 10 years into their business.
“This will be our ten-year anniversary in October. So, we have finally made it double digits,” said Hansen. “If you had asked me ten years ago, I wouldn’t have known if we had made it here yet, but we are here.”
In their decade of business, Marla and her husband have invested a lot of time and energy into their gym.
“We, as a local business we are always trying to listen to our members and give back and put in to keep growing,” explained Hansen.
For a local business, every dollar counts.
On Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 7031, eliminating the business rent tax.
Local real estate advocates say many Florida businesses should have more of those dollars to work with because of it.
“Florida is the only state in the country with the business rent tax, implemented on their commercial real estate, so this cut will put us on par with the other states across the country and will essentially be a $900 million tax relief for businesses across the state,” said Melissa Strange, Advocacy and Event Coordinator at CPAR. Those savings come just in time for Fitness Junky’s birthday since the new law is implemented on Oct. 1. Marla says it is a welcome present after watching expenses steadily increase. “It gets more and more expensive every year, rent goes up. So that is just more tax, it has been more taxes every month, so sometimes it can feel like a struggle to just make all of the pieces come together,” said Hansen. A local real estate expert says there was a gradual effort to eliminate the tax.
“This is a tax, a sales tax that was implemented on commercial real estate and had a height of 6% back in 2018, and it has been incrementally decreasing,” said Hansen.
Most recently, the tax was 2% on businesses’ rent. Come October, that becomes money, Marla plans to put to good use.
“We are super excited to be able to just put that money back into the gym and continue to grow and hopefully for another ten years,” said Hansen.
The business rent tax was implemented in 1969, and after its elimination, Florida will join the rest of the country in not having this type of tax.
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