Your Florida Annual Resale Certificate expires December 31: what to do now

Most of the Florida sales tax calendar is about monthly returns, but one year-end item is easy to miss because it never shows up as a due date: the Annual Resale Certificate expires every December 31. If you are a dealer who buys inventory tax-free, it is your proof that you are entitled to. If you are a seller who accepts those certificates from customers, it is your proof that you were right not to charge tax. Either way, the turn of the year is when an out-of-date certificate becomes a problem.

What the certificate is, and what it is not

A registered dealer does not apply for the certificate separately. After the Department approves a Florida Business Tax Application, it issues a Certificate of Registration together with a Florida Annual Resale Certificate for Sales Tax (Form DR-13). It allows tax-exempt purchases or rentals for resale, for re-rental, for resale of services, for incorporation into the repair of tangible personal property, and for use as a material or component in property produced for sale. It is not a general exemption. Goods that will be used rather than resold are outside it, and the Department's brochure gives examples: a restaurant can buy take-out containers tax-free but not its own dishes, and a car dealer can buy tires for resale but not shop tools. Service providers such as attorneys, accountants, doctors and dentists are treated as end users and generally do not qualify. If goods bought for resale end up being used instead, the buyer owes use tax and surtax on them. Our exemption certificates page has the full comparison with the nonprofit Consumer's Certificate of Exemption.

When the new certificate appears

A certificate for the following calendar year becomes available each November, on the Department's website for electronic and paper filers alike, and by mail with the annual coupon book for paper filers. It is reissued automatically as long as the dealer's registration stays active. Only dealers whose registration status is active receive one; a dealer on inactive status, or one with only a use-tax account, does not. You can download or print your current certificate at any time at floridarevenue.com/taxes/printcertificate. A certificate issued to a new business location beginning in mid-October runs from its issue date through the end of the following calendar year, which is worth knowing if you opened a location this fall.

The practical step for dealers is simple: in November, print the new certificate, update the copy you give suppliers, and confirm your registration is still active. A registration left open after a business stops trading is also a common source of estimated assessments and late penalties, so closing one properly matters.

If you are the seller: three ways to document the sale

The Department describes three methods for documenting a tax-exempt sale for resale:

• Keep a copy of the customer's current Annual Resale Certificate on file for three years.
• Get a transaction authorization number for a single sale by calling 877-357-3725, using the online tool at floridarevenue.com/taxes/certificates, or using the free FL Tax mobile app. Each returns a pass or fail and, if the certificate is valid, a number good for that purchase only. If you keep the number you do not need to keep a copy of the certificate.
• Get an annual vendor authorization for a regular customer: one number per calendar year covering that customer's resale purchases, with a batch-upload option for verifying many customers at once.

Because the certificate expires each December 31, a copy dated for the prior year that a customer presents in January is out of date on the Department's description of it. Ask for the current certificate rather than relying on the old one in your file.

Why sellers should care about misuse

Under section 212.085, Florida Statutes, using a certificate to evade tax that is actually due carries a mandatory 200% penalty on top of the tax, and resale fraud is a third-degree felony. A selling dealer who reasonably accepts a valid-looking certificate in good faith is protected, but the Department's own example of what not to accept is plain: do not take a car dealership's resale certificate for a purchase of office supplies. Goods a business of that type would not plausibly resell are a warning sign.

Other January resets and the year-end calendar

Discretionary sales surtax rates are reset each January, and the Department publishes a new Form DR-15DSS for each calendar year. The 2026 table on our rates and surtax page prints expiration dates for some counties' components at 12/31/2026, Brevard's two 0.5% components among them, so check the 2027 form when it appears rather than assuming rates carry over.

Year-end return dates, from our due dates page: the September return is late after Tuesday, October 20, and the October return after Friday, November 20. The November return is due December 1 and is late after Sunday, December 20, which moves to Monday, December 21. The December and fourth-quarter return is due January 1, 2027 and is late after Wednesday, January 20. Electronic payments must be initiated by 5:00 p.m. Eastern on the business day before the 20th, so confirm exact dates on Form DR-659.

This is general information from published Department sources, not tax advice. Confirm anything that affects your own filings with the Florida Department of Revenue.