CS/CS/HB 493 Summary

• Amends Florida Statutes sections 125.0104, 125.0108, 212.03, and 212.0305 to clarify definitions and tax collection requirements for tourist development tax, tourist impact tax, transient rentals tax, and convention development tax.

• Requires persons operating transient accommodations or owners to separately state taxes from rental charges on receipts, invoices, and documentation provided to customers.

• Requires third-party reservation booking facilitators who are unrelated to the accommodation operator to separately state estimated tax amounts prior to occupancy on customer documentation.

• Clarifies that "consideration" and "rental" amounts subject to taxation exclude payments received by unrelated third parties for facilitating reservations, with "unrelated persons" defined by Internal Revenue Code standards.

• Authorizes the Department of Revenue to compensate county governments up to 10 percent of collected taxes or penalties from transient rental tax violations, and $100 per registration of noncompliant taxpayers.

• Effective July 1, 2011, with declaration that the act is clarifying and remedial in nature affecting only prospective application.