Gov. Rick Scott fails to repeal Florida's commercial lease tax

As chief executive of the only state to tax commercial leases, Florida Gov. Rick Scott has repeatedly tried to eliminate this business cost.

As Scott campaigned for re-election, he promised to push the Legislature to repeal the 6 percent sales tax on commercial leases. The tax comes off of the total rent paid for any commercial property, including storefronts, offices and warehouses. It does not affect rentals for agriculture, nonprofits or government agencies.

With Scott's final legislative session behind him, we wanted to size up the state of this promise.

Here's the headline: The tax remains in effect.

Legislators did agree to pare it back a bit, but it's a fraction of what Scott hoped for.

Kurt Wenner, the vice president of research at Florida TaxWatch, said the initial 6 percent tax was cut to 5.8 percent in 2017, and taken down another notch to 5.7 percent with passage of SB 620 in 2018.

Florida TaxWatch has disapproved of the commercial lease tax for years.

"We do see it as a competitive disadvantage for Florida businesses that don't own their own property," said Kurt Wenner, TaxWatch's vice president of research.

Scott spokesman McKinley Lewis told us the reduced tax on commercial leases cost the state $90 million a year. Amy Baker, the chief economist for the Legislature, said in the 2019-20 fiscal year, when both reductions are fully implemented, business savings will be roughly $100 million. Baker said she wasn't sure where Scott's office got the $90 million number.   

Scott initially asked the Legislature to shave off a half-percentage point of the tax in 2014, but it did not pass.

The tax has not been eliminated though Scott has signed legislation that lowered the tax rate by 0.3 percent. So we rate this Promise Broken. ​