Business Won

The 2021 Florida Legislative Session ended on April 30th. While there are still issues to be resolved, this session has been a good one for the business community and particularly for small businesses.

Probably one of the most important bills for the small business community that has passed and signed into law is SB 50. SB 50 created an economic nexus to collect sales taxes from internet retailers and marketplace providers. It has been a priority of the Boca Chamber to level the playing field between online retailers and out-of-state businesses doing business in the state and businesses located in the state that already collect and remit sales tax to the Department of Revenue. The US Supreme Court decision, Wayfair v. South Dakota, paved the way for states to set an economic nexus instead of just a physical presence nexus. Florida was only one of two states that had not adopted the Wayfair decision. This is not a new tax, but a tax that was already due, and simply shifts the collection point from the consumer to the business.

If that bill wasn’t already a priority, the pot was sweetened when the House and Senate announced a plan to use the revenue collected from online sales to relieve an immediate $713 million tax increase on job creators in the form of increased unemployment compensation taxes. Money will be diverted from the state’s general revenue fund to the state unemployment compensation trust fund until the trust fund reaches a balance of pre-pandemic levels.

After the trust fund is replenished, the House and Senate decided they would use the money to buy down the business rent tax. This is the largest decrease in the business rent tax since the Chamber has been fighting to begin chipping away at this tax. Florida is the only state in the country that charges a sales tax on commercial leases and each 1 percent reduction in the tax is a savings of $300 million-plus to the business community. The bill will reduce the business rent tax from 5.5 percent to 2 percent. These three issues are a win-win-win for South Palm Beach County’s business community.

In another WIN for Business, the first bill signed into law during session was SB 72, a Chamber-backed COVID Liability Protections legislation. For over a year now, the Chamber has been advocating for commonsense COVID liability protections so predatory plaintiff lawyers could not take advantage of this once-in-a-century pandemic to inundate Florida businesses with frivolous, gotcha lawsuits. SB 72 provides liability protections for businesses, educational institutions, and health care facilities that have substantially complied with governmental health and safety guidelines to keep employees, customers, and patients safe. The bill is retroactive to the start of the pandemic, unless a lawsuit has already been filed, and creates heightened standards for litigation to proceed and a business to be held liable.

Governor DeSantis Signing SB 72 Other wins are included in the states $101.5 billion budget which includes 3 state-tax holidays and full funding for Visit Florida. Governor DeSantis signed the $101.5 billon budget on June 2nd. The budget is the largest in state history and is the fourth largest behind California, New York, and Texas. Overall, areas of the budget are funded in the following amounts:

• $44.6 billion for Health and Human Services • $26.7 billion for Education • $13.7 billion for Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development • $6.7 billion for Agriculture, Environment, and General Government • $5.8 billion for Criminal and Civil Justice

Taking effect on July 1, the approved budget includes, among other provisions, $1,000 bonus checks for teachers, principals, and first responders, funding to update the state's online unemployment system, and $10 billion in non-recurring federal pandemic stimulus funds.

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