Does Florida have a capital gains tax?
No. Florida capital gains tax does not exist for individuals, because Florida does not tax personal income of any kind, and the Florida Department of Revenue’s list of state taxes includes a corporate income tax but no individual income tax. A Florida resident who sells a rental house, a duplex or a 40-unit apartment building files a federal return and nothing with the state.
That makes Florida one of the few states where the state’s share of a real estate gain is zero for a person, a married couple, a trust taxed like an individual, or an LLC whose income passes through to its owners. The federal bill is unchanged, though, and on a building you have owned for a decade it is usually the largest single cost of selling.
Two Florida charges can still apply. A corporation, or an LLC that elected to be taxed as one, pays Florida corporate income tax on the gain. And every deed recorded in Florida carries documentary stamp tax, which is a transfer tax on the price rather than a tax on profit.
The federal tax a Florida seller still owes
A Florida seller pays the same federal tax as a seller anywhere else: long-term gain at 0%, 15% or 20%, depreciation recapture at up to 25%, and the 3.8% net investment income tax above the income thresholds. Holding the property more than one year gets you the long-term rates. Sell sooner and the whole gain is taxed at ordinary rates up to 37%.
The 2026 long-term thresholds come from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32. The gain is stacked on top of your other taxable income, so a large sale often runs through two brackets.
| Federal rate (2026) | Single filers | Married filing jointly |
|---|---|---|
| 0% long-term gain | Taxable income up to $49,450 | Taxable income up to $98,900 |
| 15% long-term gain | $49,451 to $545,500 | $98,901 to $613,700 |
| 20% long-term gain | Over $545,500 | Over $613,700 |
| Up to 25% on unrecaptured Section 1250 gain | Gain equal to straight-line depreciation | Same |
| 3.8% net investment income tax | MAGI over $200,000 | MAGI over $250,000 |
How gains stack with federal brackets
Federal tax works in layers, and with no Florida layer on top, the order of those layers is the whole calculation. Your wages, rents and other ordinary income fill the lowest brackets first. Next comes the depreciation recapture, taxed at your ordinary rate but never more than 25%. The remaining long-term gain sits on top and is taxed at 15% until your taxable income passes $613,700 on a joint return, then at 20%.
The 3.8% net investment income tax is a separate charge. It applies to the smaller of your net investment income or the amount by which your modified adjusted gross income exceeds $250,000 for a married couple or $200,000 for a single filer. A real estate professional who materially participates in the rental can sometimes avoid it, which is worth asking a CPA about before the sale year ends.
Depreciation recapture in Florida
Florida does not tax depreciation recapture for individuals, so recapture on a Florida rental is a federal issue only. The straight-line depreciation you deducted on the building, or could have deducted, comes back as unrecaptured Section 1250 gain at a top federal rate of 25%. Depreciation on short-life items such as appliances, carpet and site work found in a cost segregation study is Section 1245 recapture, taxed at ordinary federal rates with no cap.
Owners who claimed bonus depreciation after a cost segregation study should expect a larger 1245 slice. The 2025 federal law, P.L. 119-21, made 100% bonus depreciation permanent for property acquired after January 19, 2025, which speeds up deductions now and increases recapture when you sell.
For a corporation, recapture is part of federal taxable income, and Florida starts its corporate tax base from federal taxable income. The recapture therefore flows into the Florida corporate base along with the rest of the gain.
Florida corporate income tax for C-corp sellers
A C corporation that sells Florida real estate pays Florida corporate income tax at 5.5% on its net income, after a $50,000 exemption. The rate is set by section 220.11 of the Florida Statutes and fixed at 5.5% for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2022 by section 220.1105. The $50,000 exemption is in section 220.14.
The Florida Department of Revenue says the tax applies to corporations, including entities taxed federally as corporations. That covers an LLC that elected corporate tax treatment. A single-member LLC that is disregarded for federal tax, or a multi-member LLC taxed as a partnership, passes the gain through to its owners, and individual owners pay no Florida income tax on it.
Florida begins with federal taxable income, adjusts it, and apportions it to Florida when the company also does business in other states. A corporation that owns only Florida property and has no other income would generally apportion all of the gain to Florida. The corporation also pays the 21% federal corporate rate, and its shareholders pay federal tax again on any dividend, which is why few investors hold rentals in a C corporation.
Documentary stamp tax on Florida deeds
Florida charges documentary stamp tax of 70 cents per $100 of consideration on every deed, under section 201.02, and it is paid to the clerk or recording office when the deed is recorded. That is 0.70% of the price, rounded up to the next $100. On a $2,000,000 sale the stamps are $14,000.
The consideration includes any mortgage on the property, whether the buyer assumes it or not, so you cannot reduce the tax by having the buyer take over your loan. The Department of Revenue’s guidance also says all parties to a transfer are liable for the tax, no matter which one agreed to pay it in the contract. Who pays is negotiated, but the state can collect from either side.
Deed stamps are a cost of sale. They reduce your amount realized for federal purposes, which slightly lowers your federal gain, but they are owed even when you sell at a loss or complete a 1031 exchange.
Miami-Dade deed stamp rates
Miami-Dade County uses a different deed rate: 60 cents per $100 of consideration, plus a discretionary surtax of 45 cents per $100 authorized by section 201.031. The surtax does not apply when the deed transfers only a single-family residence, such as a house or a condominium unit. An apartment building is not a single-family residence, so a Miami-Dade multifamily sale pays both.
| Where the deed is recorded | Rate per $100 | Stamps on a $2,000,000 apartment sale |
|---|---|---|
| Any Florida county except Miami-Dade | $0.70 | $14,000 |
| Miami-Dade, single-family residence only | $0.60 | Not applicable to apartments |
| Miami-Dade, all other property (including apartments) | $0.60 + $0.45 surtax = $1.05 | $21,000 |
Is there withholding when you sell Florida property?
Florida requires no state income tax withholding at closing, because there is no state income tax to prepay. Unlike states such as California or Georgia, Florida does not ask the closing agent to hold back a percentage of the price for nonresident sellers. A New York or Illinois owner selling a Florida building may still owe tax to their home state on the gain, so check with that state.
Federal withholding can apply. If the seller is a foreign person, the buyer must generally withhold 15% of the amount realized under FIRPTA (Internal Revenue Code section 1445) and send it to the IRS, unless an exception or a withholding certificate applies. Florida has a large number of foreign owners, so closing agents here ask about it on most commercial sales.
Example: selling a $2M apartment building in Florida
Here is the full tax on a $2,000,000 sale of a Tampa apartment building by a married couple filing jointly. They bought it in 2014 for $1,200,000 and have taken $400,000 of straight-line depreciation. Selling costs are $100,000, including $14,000 of deed stamps. Their other taxable income for 2026 is $150,000, and their modified adjusted gross income before the sale is $182,200.
The adjusted basis is $800,000 and the amount realized is $1,900,000, so the gain is $1,100,000. Of that, $400,000 is unrecaptured Section 1250 gain and $700,000 is long-term capital gain. The recapture layer runs from $150,000 to $550,000 of taxable income and costs $96,237. The long-term gain runs from $550,000 to $1,250,000: $63,700 at 15% and $636,300 at 20%, or $136,815. The net investment income tax is 3.8% of $1,032,200, or $39,224.
The same couple selling the same building in a state with a 5% tax on gains would pay about $55,000 more. If the building were owned by a C corporation with no other income, the corporation would instead pay up to $231,000 of federal corporate tax at 21% and $57,750 of Florida corporate tax (5.5% of $1,050,000), before any shareholder tax on distributions.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Sale price | $2,000,000 |
| Selling costs (includes $14,000 deed stamps) | $100,000 |
| Adjusted basis ($1,200,000 cost less $400,000 depreciation) | $800,000 |
| Total gain | $1,100,000 |
| Federal tax on $400,000 of recapture (22%, 24%, 25%) | $96,237 |
| Federal tax on $700,000 of long-term gain (15% and 20%) | $136,815 |
| Net investment income tax (3.8%) | $39,224 |
| Florida income tax | $0 |
| Total income tax on the sale | $272,276 |
How a 1031 exchange changes the Florida numbers
A 1031 exchange defers the federal tax, and since Florida charges individuals nothing on the gain, a full exchange can take the income tax on a Florida sale to zero for now. In the example, buying a replacement worth at least $1,900,000 and reinvesting all the net cash would defer the full $272,276. The deferred gain carries into the new property’s basis and comes due when you later sell without exchanging.
Deed stamps are not deferred. The relinquished deed still carries $14,000 in stamps, or $21,000 in Miami-Dade, and a Florida replacement deed carries its own stamps on its price. For a corporate owner, Florida follows the federal result, because its corporate base starts from federal taxable income, so a gain deferred federally stays out of the Florida corporate base too.
The guides on 1031 exchange rules and 1031 exchange in Florida cover the 45 and 180-day deadlines and the state-level details. You can run your own numbers with the capital gains tax calculator and the 1031 exchange calculator.
Skyline buys apartment buildings with five or more units in Florida. We buy directly, close on your timeline, and can work inside 1031 deadlines.
Selling? Spread the tax with seller-carry terms
If a large tax bill is what is keeping you from selling, an installment sale may help. When you carry part of the price as a note, the gain is generally reported as you receive payments instead of all in the year of sale. Some parts of the gain, such as certain depreciation recapture, can still be due up front, so run the numbers with your CPA first.
Skyline Capital Investments buys apartment buildings with five or more units and can offer seller-carry terms, or a delayed closing that fits your 1031 timeline. Send the address and unit count and we typically respond within 48 hours. How seller financing works · How an installment sale is taxed · Seller financing calculator.
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