Hotel And Lodging Tax In Miami 2026: TOT Rate And Rules

How Miami's Hotel and Lodging Tax Works

Miami's hotel and lodging tax stacks five separate charges: Florida's state sales tax, a Miami-Dade discretionary surtax, and three county tourist levies, the Tourist Development Tax, the Convention Development Tax, and the Professional Sports Franchise Facilities Tax, combining to 13% in the City of Miami.

The sales tax portion is authorized under Florida Statutes Chapter 212, while the three county tourist levies trace back to Florida's Local Option Tourist Development Tax Act (F.S. 125.0104) and related enabling legislation for convention and sports facility financing. Miami-Dade's Tax Collector administers and collects all three tourist levies together on a single monthly return, even though they remain legally distinct taxes with different authorizing statutes and different uses for the revenue.

These taxes apply to any transient stay of six months or less at a hotel, motel, resort, timeshare, or licensed short-term vacation rental within the City of Miami, whether the stay is booked directly, through a hotel's own site, or through an online travel platform. Short-term vacation rentals also have to clear Miami's own zoning rules before the tax question even comes up: the city's Miami 21 code restricts lodging use in lower-density residential (T3) transect zones, so not every address that can legally take an overnight booking will pass Miami-Dade's certificate requirements.

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Tax Rates and Extra Fees

The City of Miami does not levy its own separate municipal hotel tax the way Miami Beach does. Instead, every hotel stay in Miami carries the standard Florida sales tax plus three Miami-Dade County tourist taxes that apply everywhere in the county except Miami Beach, Surfside, and Bal Harbour, which use a different municipal Resort Tax structure instead.

Even though the county collects all three tourist levies on one combined monthly return, they are not one tax with three names. The Convention Development Tax funds convention center and tourism capital projects, the Tourist Development Tax funds tourism marketing, and the Professional Sports Franchise Facilities Tax retires bonds issued for professional sports and civic facilities, most notably the Miami Marlins' ballpark, now known as loanDepot park, along with older debt tied to facilities like the Orange Bowl and the Miami Arena.

Because the combined 13% rate is the sum of five components with three different authorizing statutes, a change to any single piece, such as a county vote to raise the Convention Development Tax, changes the total without necessarily changing the others. Hotels should track each component separately in their tax configuration rather than hard-coding 13% as a single flat rate.

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Collection and Remittance

The guest pays these taxes as part of the total charged at checkout. The operator, whether that is a hotel, resort, or an individual short-term rental host, is legally responsible for collecting the tax and remitting it to Miami-Dade County. Every registered operator must file a tourist tax return every month, even in months with zero rentals, with returns and payments due on the 1st and considered late after the 20th of the following month.

As of October 1, 2025, Miami-Dade requires tourist tax returns to be filed electronically. Operators who still file on paper face a $10 penalty on top of the tax due for each return and payment. Late payments carry a 10% per-month penalty with a $50 minimum, and a return that is not filed at all carries its own $50 minimum penalty.

Online travel agencies and short-term rental platforms do not uniformly handle this for hosts. Some platforms have voluntary agreements with Miami-Dade to collect and remit the county's tourist taxes automatically on qualifying bookings, but coverage is not universal across every platform or listing type, so hosts who list directly or through a platform without such an agreement remain responsible for filing themselves.

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Exemptions From Miami's Hotel Tax

Miami-Dade's tourist taxes do not apply to a rental made under a bona fide written lease for a continuous term of more than six months. That exemption applies from the start of the lease when the lease itself is on file. A guest who begins as a short-term stay and continues occupying the same unit beyond six months can also become exempt going forward, but only after the operator has collected and remitted tax on the first six months and the guest documents the continuous stay.

Full-time students enrolled at an accredited college or university can qualify for an exemption with proof of enrollment, and active-duty military personnel with official orders, or holding a qualifying overflow certificate tied to a nearby installation, are also exempt. None of these exemptions apply automatically. Operators need the supporting paperwork on file before treating a stay as tax-exempt, since Miami-Dade can and does audit these exemptions.

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Common Mistakes Hotels Make With TOT Compliance

• Treating the 6% tourist tax as one line item. Miami-Dade's local tourist tax is actually three separate levies, the Tourist Development Tax, the Convention Development Tax, and the Professional Sports Franchise Facilities Tax, each with its own statute. A hotel that hard-codes 13% combined without tracking the pieces separately can miscalculate the moment any one component changes.
• Assuming Miami's rate matches Miami Beach's. Miami Beach, Surfside, and Bal Harbour sit outside this county tax structure entirely and use their own municipal Resort Tax instead. A management company running properties on both sides of that line needs two different tax configurations, not one.
• Missing the mandatory electronic filing switch. Miami-Dade moved tourist tax returns to mandatory electronic filing as of October 1, 2025. Operators still mailing in paper returns now pay a $10 penalty per return on top of any tax due.
• Skipping the monthly zero return. Miami-Dade requires a tourist tax return every month from every registered operator, even in a month with no rentals at all. Treating no activity as no filing required triggers the same $50 minimum failure-to-file penalty as skipping a return with real revenue.
• Applying the long-stay exemption without the paperwork. The six-month exemption depends on having a bona fide written lease, or documented continuous occupancy, on file. Assuming a guest who seems long-term is automatically exempt is one of the more common findings in a county audit.
• Operating a short-term rental without Miami 21 zoning clearance. Miami's zoning code restricts lodging use in lower-density T3 residential zones and requires a lodging-specific Certificate of Use before a short-term rental can legally operate, separate from the county's tax registration.

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Where A PMS Fits Into TOT Compliance

None of this is about software first. It is about a hotel getting the underlying tax rules right and then having a system that keeps applying them correctly after the rules change. A property management system like roommaster lets a hotel configure each tax component, the state sales tax, the county surtax, and each of Miami-Dade's tourist levies, as its own line so a rate change to one piece does not require rebuilding the whole configuration, and it can pull revenue reports by date range to make monthly filing straightforward. A booking engine that shows the full, taxed total upfront also helps front desk and reservations staff avoid the kind of guest disputes that come from a quoted rate that did not include the county's stacked tourist taxes.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Does Miami have its own hotel tax rate?

Not in the way Miami Beach does. The City of Miami does not levy a separate municipal hotel tax. Instead, stays in Miami are taxed under the standard Miami-Dade County structure, a combined 13% made up of the state sales tax, the county surtax, and three county tourist levies. Miami Beach, Surfside, and Bal Harbour are the exceptions that use their own municipal Resort Tax instead.

2. What is Miami's hotel tax?

Miami's hotel tax is a combined 13% charge on transient stays of six months or less: 6% Florida state sales tax, 1% Miami-Dade discretionary surtax, 2% Miami-Dade Tourist Development Tax, 3% Miami-Dade Convention Development Tax, and 1% Miami-Dade Professional Sports Franchise Facilities Tax.

3. What is Miami's lodging tax?

Lodging tax is another name for the same charge as Miami's hotel tax. Hotel tax, lodging tax, occupancy tax, and bed tax all refer to the same combined 13% assessed on hotel, motel, resort, and short-term rental stays in the City of Miami.

4. How long does a stay need to be to qualify for Miami's long-term exemption?

A rental under a bona fide written lease for more than six months is exempt from the start. A guest whose short-term stay continues past six months can also qualify going forward, but only after tax has been collected and remitted on the first six months and the continuous occupancy is documented.

5. Does Miami require hotels to disclose mandatory fees upfront?

There is no Miami-specific ordinance requiring all-in price disclosure the way some other cities have adopted. Federal rules that took effect in 2025 require short-term lodging bookings nationwide, including in Miami, to display the total price, including mandatory fees, before a guest completes a booking.

6. Who is responsible for filing Miami's hotel tax return?

The operator, whether a hotel, resort, or an individual short-term rental host, is responsible for collecting the tax from guests and filing a monthly return with Miami-Dade County, due on the 1st and late after the 20th of the following month, even in months with no rentals.

7. Does Miami's hotel tax help pay for the Marlins' ballpark?

Part of it does. The 1% Professional Sports Franchise Facilities Tax, one of the three county tourist levies included in Miami's combined rate, has been used to help retire bonds issued for professional sports and civic facilities, including the Miami Marlins' ballpark, now known as loanDepot park.