Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks May 1, 2025, during a news conference about immigration enforcement at the South Florida office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Enforcement and Removal Operations in Miramar. | Rebecca Blackwell, AP
Published on June 30, 2025 at 3:10 pm
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Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a $1.6 billion tax cut package that is dominated by eliminating a commercial-lease tax and providing sales tax breaks on back-to-school items, hurricane-preparedness supplies and guns and ammo.
Starting Tuesday, the package (HB 7031) will provide permanent sales tax exemptions on hurricane-preparedness supplies such as batteries, portable generators and tarps. Also, it will offer permanent exemptions on certain purchases related to outdoor activities, such as life jackets, bicycle helmets, sunscreen and insect repellent.
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Also on Tuesday, sales taxes will disappear on admissions to state parks, tickets for NASCAR Cup Series Championship Races at the Homestead-Miami Speedway and on the sale of gold, silver and platinum bullion when the transaction is under $500. The state already provides an exemption on such gold and other precious-metal sales when the price is over $500.
The package, passed June 16 by the Legislature, also includes an annual back-to-school tax “holiday” that will last throughout August. In the past, lawmakers have approved such holidays of varying lengths and at different times; the new package will make them happen each August, with shoppers able to avoid paying sales taxes on such things as clothes and school supplies.
In addition, the Republican-controlled Legislature and DeSantis approved a tax holiday that will run from Sept. 8 through Dec. 31 on hunting, fishing and camping supplies, including guns and ammo.
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Business lobbyists long called for eliminating the 2% commercial-lease tax. The elimination, which will take effect Oct. 1, is projected to reduce state and local revenue during the upcoming fiscal year by $1.146 billion.
Bill Herrle, executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business in Florida, called the elimination “a culmination of a 10-year effort.”
“By eliminating this tax, small businesses who rent or lease properties will see immediate economic relief,” Herrle said in a statement.
The overall package will provide an estimated $1.6 billion in tax cuts during the first year, with the recurring effect of the cuts in later years totaling nearly $2 billion, according to a legislative staff analysis. Senate spokeswoman Katie Betta said the impact on state general revenue, a key issue for lawmakers, will be about $1.3 billion.
The school tax holiday accounts for $217 million of the package in the first year. Under it, shoppers will be able to avoid paying sales taxes on clothes, shoes and backpacks that cost $100 or less, personal computers at $1,500 or less, school supplies at $50 or less and learning aids at $30 or less.
The hunting, fishing and camping tax holiday is projected to result in $44.8 million savings for shoppers. In addition to applying to guns and ammo, it will provide sales tax exemptions on such things as bows, arrows, rods and reels that cost $75 or less, tents that cost $200 or less, sleeping bags and camping stoves.
Other aspects of the package include expanding the allowed use of tourist development taxes by local governments to pay for beach lifeguards and for facilities in certain “fiscally constrained” rural counties and repealing an aviation fuel tax.
DeSantis signed the tax cut package as he also approved a new state budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, which will start Tuesday.
