Commercial lease sales tax faces repeal

Florida State Rep. Greg Steube, R-Bradenton, will likely score some major points in the business community with a new bill he's proposed for the 2014 Legislative session: The elimination of a sales tax on commercial leases.

“We are the only state in the country that has this tax,” Steube tells Coffee Talk. “I think it needs to be completely repealed.”

The target of Steube's proposed bill is the 6% sales tax on every commercial lease signed in the state. The bill would cut the tax by 1% a year for six years until it's totally wiped away. “What better way to help small businesses than to not have them pay this tax?” asks Steube. “It would be a huge boost to our state for attracting and retaining small businesses.”

Steube says big corporations, like Bealls and Publix, would also benefit, and that would have a positive trickle-down effect on the economy. Those two companies, he says, could save $40 million to $50 million a year if the tax is repealed. Says Steube: “Just think about the amount of people they will hire and locations they can open if they don't have to pay the tax.”

The rub, of course, is the sales tax brings in money for Florida. Steube acknowledges elimination, phased over six years, could cost the state $2 billion. But Steube and others who support repeal, including State Sen. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, say the eventual return would dwarf the money taken in from the tax. Hukill filed a similar tax repeal bill in the Senate for the upcoming session.

Florida Realtors, a trade group and lobbying organization, also considers elimination of the tax a top priority for the 2014 session. The association points to a study conducted by Fishkind & Associates, an Orlando-based economic consulting firm, that says repeal would create 184,500 jobs a year. The study, commissioned on behalf of Florida Realtors, also says the economic benefits for the state under repeal would be five times greater than the money the tax generates.