Florida Payroll: Employer Tax and Software Guide
Florida payroll for employers: no state income tax, reemployment tax from 0.1 to 5.4 percent on a $7,000 base, wage rules, and 10 providers compared.
Florida Payroll: The Employer Guide
One state payroll tax on a $7,000 wage base, no income tax withholding at all, a minimum wage that finishes its climb on September 30, an E-Verify mandate at 25 employees, and how 10 payroll providers price the work
Florida is the easiest state in the country to run payroll in, and that reputation causes more setup errors than it prevents. There is no state income tax, no state withholding account, no state W-4, no monthly deposit schedule, and no year-end state reconciliation. An employer coming from New York or California genuinely does have less to do here.
The trouble is that plenty of people hear no state income tax and conclude no state payroll obligations. That is wrong in four specific places. Florida charges a reemployment tax on a wage base so small it behaves like a per-head fee. It runs a minimum wage schedule written into the state constitution that finishes climbing on September 30. It mandates E-Verify at 25 employees with a $1,000 per day penalty behind it. And it preempts local wage rules so aggressively that the exceptions themselves are about to change.
This guide covers what Florida actually requires, what state registration does not cover, and how 10 payroll providers price the work at 10, 25, and 50 employees.
What Florida requires from employers
Florida imposes exactly one state payroll tax on employers and no wage withholding at all. Everything else on a Florida pay run is federal, and the state obligations that do exist sit outside the tax engine: minimum wage, workers compensation, new hire reporting, and employment eligibility verification.
No state income tax, and what that does not remove
Article VII, Section 5(a) of the Florida Constitution bars the state from taxing the income of natural persons beyond what could be credited against a similar federal or other-state tax. No such credit exists, so Florida levies no personal income tax. No county or city levies one either, because Article VII, Section 1(a) preempts all forms of taxation to the state unless general law says otherwise.
What that removes is real: no withholding registration, no state equivalent of a W-4, no periodic withholding return, no annual reconciliation. What it leaves in place is everything else. Federal income tax withholding still runs off Form W-4, FICA still applies on both sides, and both unemployment systems still bill the employer.
Reemployment tax, the one state payroll tax
Florida renamed its unemployment tax reemployment tax in 2012, and it is an employer-only cost. New employers pay an initial rate of 2.7 percent under section 443.131 of the Florida Statutes, which covers any employer whose record has been chargeable with benefits for fewer than eight calendar quarters. The Florida Department of Revenue states that the initial rate holds until the employer has reported for 10 quarters, after which an experience rate is assigned each year on Form RT-20.
| Item | Figure | What it means per employee |
|---|---|---|
| Taxable wage base | First $7,000 of annual wages | The same ceiling as federal unemployment tax |
| New employer rate | 2.7% | $189 per employee per year at the cap |
| Minimum experience rate | 0.1% | $7 per employee per year |
| Maximum rate allowed by law | 5.4% | $378 per employee per year |
| Liability trigger | $1,500 in a calendar quarter | Or one employee for part of a day in 20 weeks |
| Rate notice | Form RT-20, issued annually | Carries the rate for the coming calendar year |
The wage base is the detail that reshapes the arithmetic. Section 443.1217 of the Florida Statutes exempts everything paid to an individual above the first $7,000 in a calendar year. Because the base is so low, state unemployment tax here is closer to a fixed annual charge per head than a percentage of payroll, and the spread between the best and worst rate is $371 per employee per year.
Quarterly filing on Form RT-6
There is one state return and it is quarterly. Form RT-6, the Employer Quarterly Report, is due the first day of the month after each calendar quarter and is late if it is not postmarked by the last day of that month, which puts the working deadlines at April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31. A report is required for every quarter, including quarters with no wages and no tax.
Electronic filing and payment are mandatory for any employer with 10 or more employees in any quarter of the preceding state fiscal year, which runs July through June. Paper filing when electronic is required costs $25 per report plus $1 per employee to a $300 maximum, and a delinquent report adds $25 for each 30 days. Any provider running your payroll should be handling this, not reminding you to.
How a Florida paycheck is calculated
The calculation is federal arithmetic with one line permanently set to zero. Employers reaching for a Florida payroll calculator usually want one of two answers: what comes out of the employee, and what the employer owes on top. The table separates them.
| Line | Who pays | Rate | On a $1,000 gross weekly check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal income tax withholding | Employee | Per Form W-4 and the IRS withholding method | Varies by W-4 entries |
| Social Security | Employee and employer | 6.2% each, to the annual wage cap | $62.00 from each side |
| Medicare | Employee and employer | 1.45% each, no cap | $14.50 from each side |
| Additional Medicare | Employee only | 0.9% on wages above $200,000 | Not applicable at this level |
| Florida income tax withholding | Nobody | None | $0.00 |
| Florida reemployment tax | Employer | 0.1% to 5.4% on the first $7,000 | $7 to $378 per year, not per check |
| Federal unemployment tax | Employer | 6.0% less the 5.4% credit on the first $7,000 | $42 per year at the 0.6% effective rate |
Two things fall out of that table. Both unemployment lines are annual charges that finish early in the year for anyone on a normal salary, which is why a Florida payroll bill is heaviest in the first quarter. And Florida carries no outstanding federal unemployment loan, so the 5.4 percent credit is not reduced and the effective federal rate stays at 0.6 percent. Employers in multiple states should not assume the same.
Minimum wage and the September 30 step
Florida voters wrote the wage schedule into the state constitution in 2020. Article X, Section 24(c) set the rate at $10.00 on September 30, 2021 and required a $1.00 increase every September 30 until it reaches $15.00 on September 30, 2026. The current rate is $14.00, and the final step lands this fall.
| Effective date | Minimum wage | Tipped cash wage | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| September 30, 2025 | $14.00 | $10.98 | The rate in effect now |
| September 30, 2026 | $15.00 | $11.98 | Final step of the constitutional schedule |
| September 30, 2027 onward | Indexed to CPI-W | Rate less $3.02 | Calculated annually, effective the following January 1 |
The tip credit is where Florida differs from most states. The constitution allows employers to credit tips only up to the allowable federal tip credit as it stood in 2003, which is $3.02 per hour and does not move. Because the credit is frozen while the wage floor climbs, the employer share of a tipped wage rises every year, and a restaurant budgeting on last season's cash wage will be short.
After the schedule completes, indexing takes over. From September 30, 2027 the state calculates an adjusted rate using the twelve-month change in the CPI-W for urban wage earners and clerical workers, and each adjusted rate is published and takes effect the following January 1. Employers post the state minimum wage notice under section 448.109.
Pay frequency, final paychecks, and registration
Florida sets no pay frequency requirement for private employers. Chapter 532 of the Florida Statutes governs how wages are paid, not how often: a check or payroll debit card must be negotiable and payable in cash on demand without discount at an established place of business in the state, and section 532.04 permits direct deposit only where the employee authorizes it in writing and picks the institution.
Final pay is the same story. No statute sets a deadline, no rule distinguishes a resignation from a discharge, and there is no waiting-time penalty. The working standard is the next regular payday for the period in which the separation fell. An unpaid employee sues, with section 448.08 allowing the court to award attorney fees to the prevailing party.
Registration runs through the Florida Department of Revenue, which handles the reemployment tax account. New hires, rehires, and contractors paid $600 or more in a calendar year go to the Florida State Directory of New Hires within 20 days under section 409.2576. Workers compensation coverage is separate, and required at four employees for non-construction employers and at one in construction.
The local layer that state registration does not cover
Florida has no local income tax and no city payroll tax anywhere in the state, and state law actively prevents both. What survives locally is a set of non-tax obligations that a reemployment tax registration does nothing to satisfy, plus one preemption rule that changes on the same day the minimum wage does.
Local wage and benefit mandates are preempted
Section 218.077 of the Florida Statutes prohibits a county, municipality, district, or board from requiring any employer to pay a minimum wage other than the state or federal rate, or to provide employment benefits not otherwise required by law. Employment benefits is defined broadly and expressly includes health, disability, retirement, and paid or unpaid holiday, sick, and vacation time.
That is why the wage floor in Miami matches the wage floor in Pensacola, and why Florida has no local paid sick leave ordinance despite several large metropolitan labor markets. The exceptions are narrow: a subdivision may set terms for its own employees, for employees of a business receiving a direct tax abatement or subsidy from it, and, under the version in force today, for the employees of its contractors.
What is still genuinely local
The obligations below are administered outside the Department of Revenue, and none is covered by opening a reemployment tax account. Counties and municipalities may levy a local business tax under Chapter 205 of the Florida Statutes, and those receipts are due by September 30 each year and expire September 30 of the following year.
| Obligation | Threshold | Who administers it | Covered by state payroll registration |
|---|---|---|---|
| E-Verify enrollment | 25 or more employees | Florida Department of Commerce | No, separate enrollment |
| Local business tax receipt | Set by each county and city | County tax collector or city | No, separate application |
| Workers compensation policy | 4 employees, or 1 in construction | Bought from an insurance carrier | No, bought separately |
| New hire reporting | Every hire and $600 contractors | Florida State Directory of New Hires | Usually, for employees only |
| Minimum wage poster | Every covered employer | Posted by the employer | No, employer posts it |
| County contractor wage clauses | County service contracts | The contracting county | No, a contract term |
E-Verify at 25 employees
This is the Florida obligation most likely to be missed, because it is an onboarding rule rather than a payroll rule and it fires at a headcount most small employers cross without noticing. Section 448.095 of the Florida Statutes has required private employers with 25 or more employees to use E-Verify since July 1, 2023.
Three details matter operationally. If E-Verify is unavailable for three business days after the employee begins working for pay, the employer documents the outage and falls back to Form I-9. Documentation must be retained for at least three years. And compliance is certified on the first reemployment tax return filed each calendar year, which quietly ties an immigration attestation to a tax filing. Three failures in any 24-month period carry a fine of $1,000 per day.
10 payroll providers for Florida employers compared
Every provider below files Florida reemployment tax and handles federal withholding, and because Florida has no state income tax and only one quarterly state return, the usual state-compliance differentiators are muted here. The two axes that actually separate outcomes are tip credit handling and what a second state costs.
| Provider | Best For | Starting Price | Pricing Model | Files RT-6 | Tip Credit Tracking | Benefits Admin | Trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OnPay | All-in pricing, no tiers | $49 + $6/ee | Base + PEPM | 1 month | |||
| Gusto | First-time payroll buyers | $49 + $6/ee | Base + PEPM | Until 1st run | |||
| Patriot | Lowest cost, tight budgets | $37 + $5/ee | Base + PEPM | 30 days | |||
| Square | Restaurant and tipped teams | $35 + $6/ee | Base + PEPM | Free trial | |||
| SurePayroll | Very small and household teams | $29 + $7/ee | Base + PEPM | Varies | |||
| QuickBooks | Existing QuickBooks accounting | $50 + $6.50/ee | Base + PEPM | 30 days | |||
| ADP RUN | Compliance depth at scale | ~$79 + $4/ee | Quote | 3 months | |||
| Paychex Flex | Hands-on service model | Quote | Quote | Varies | |||
| Rippling | Payroll tied to HR and IT | $35 + $8/ee | Modular PEPM | Demo | |||
| Justworks | Benefits through a PEO | $50 + $8/ee | Base + PEPM | Demo |
OnPay
One plan at $49 per month plus $6 per employee, every feature included, no tiers to climb. Tax filing covers all 50 states with no multi-state surcharge, and year-end W-2 and 1099 filing sits in the base price. For a Florida business with staff drifting across the Georgia or Alabama line, the absence of a per-state fee is the whole argument.
Gusto
The most common first payroll purchase for US small businesses. Tax filing is automatic, the interface is pleasant, and pricing is published. Simple runs $49 per month plus $6 per employee following a base increase in March 2026, and it files Form RT-6 and the new hire report without prompting.
The catch is that Simple covers single-state payroll only. A remote hire in Georgia or a snowbird arrangement in the Carolinas moves you to Plus at $80 plus $12 per employee, so model the Plus number if a second state is plausible within a year.
Patriot Software
The cheapest legitimate full-service payroll available. Full Service is $37 per month plus $5 per employee and includes federal, state, and local tax filing plus new hire reporting. Basic is $17 plus $4 if you file taxes yourself, which in Florida is a genuinely small job: four RT-6 filings a year and no state withholding deposits at all. In a withholding state the self-file plan is a trap; here a small employer could plausibly run Basic and save $240 a year on the base fee plus another $12 a year for each person on the roster, with the electronic filing mandate at 10 employees as the main risk.
Square Payroll
At $35 per month plus $6 per person, Square is the cheapest full-service option with published pricing, and it is the obvious pick for the industry Florida is built on. Tourism, restaurants, and bars mean tipped wages, and Square pulls timecards and tips from its own point of sale into payroll with no integration work and applies the $3.02 tip credit against the state minimum automatically.
SurePayroll
Owned by Paychex and aimed at very small and household employers, a category Florida has more of than most states given its retiree population. Full Service is $29 per month plus $7 per employee, with a flat $9.99 monthly multi-state fee however many states are involved.
QuickBooks Workforce Payroll
Formerly QuickBooks Payroll, now renamed. Core is $50 per month plus $6.50 per employee, and the reason to pick it has always been the same: if your books already live in QuickBooks Online, payroll entries reach the general ledger without an export step. Per-employee pricing rose across all tiers on July 1, 2026.
ADP RUN
ADP processes payroll for roughly one in six American workers and has the deepest tax compliance engine in the category. Florida is not where that depth earns the most, because there is so little state complexity to absorb, but it becomes the argument the moment a Florida headquarters starts hiring in states that do withhold.
The cost is opacity. ADP does not publish RUN pricing; third-party estimates put Essential near $79 per month plus $4 per employee, but every quote is individual, and contracts typically run a year with automatic renewal.
Paychex Flex
Paychex competes on a service relationship rather than a software subscription, with a named contact at higher tiers. Pricing is quote-only at every tier, and quarterly administrative charges show up regularly in customer reports. Worth a quote if you would rather call a person about a reemployment tax rate notice than read Form RT-20 yourself.
Rippling
Rippling sells a unified employee record where payroll, HR, and IT provisioning share one data model. The core platform is $35 per month plus $8 per employee, with payroll as a separate module. Real-world all-in costs land between $25 and $45 per employee per month once you assemble a working configuration.
Justworks
Two products under one name. Payroll is $50 per month plus $8 per employee and is straightforward software. PEO Basic at $79 per employee per month is a co-employment arrangement giving a small business access to benefits priced off a much larger risk pool, which in a state with no benefit mandates at all is the main reason companies look at a Florida PEO.
What each provider actually costs a Florida employer
The table below models published rates at three headcounts, plus what happens when a second state enters the picture. Florida employers should weigh that last column carefully for a specific reason: the state is a magnet for remote workers and seasonal staff, and a single hire across the Georgia line adds the withholding layer Florida does not have.
| Provider | 10 employees | 25 employees | 50 employees | 2nd State Fee | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patriot | $87 | $162 | $287 | $12/mo | Per extra state |
| Square | $95 | $185 | $335 | Included | Strong tipped wage handling |
| SurePayroll | $99 | $204 | $379 | $9.99/mo | Flat, all states |
| OnPay | $109 | $199 | $349 | $0 | None |
| Gusto Simple | $109 | $199 | $349 | Upgrade | Plus tier required |
| QuickBooks | $115 | $213 | $375 | Included | None |
| Justworks | $130 | $250 | $450 | Included | PEO tier priced separately |
Patriot stays cheapest at every headcount, and the gap widens with size: $8 a month below Square at 10 employees, $23 at 25, and $48 at 50. Square lands second while offering the tip handling a hospitality employer actually needs, which for a restaurant is worth more than the difference.
The second-state column reorders things. Gusto Simple is competitive until one out-of-state hire forces the Plus tier, at which point a 25-person payroll goes from $199 to $380. OnPay and Square include additional states at no charge, and SurePayroll charges a flat $9.99 regardless of how many.
Choosing a payroll provider for Florida
Four questions separate providers that will work here from providers that will quietly generate notices. None of them is about state income tax, because there is none.
One item sits outside the payroll engine entirely. Every Florida new hire needs a federal I-9 and W-4, an E-Verify case at 25 or more employees, a signed direct deposit authorization, and a new hire report within 20 days. Because there is no state withholding certificate to collect, the new hire paperwork here is shorter than in most states and correspondingly easier to treat as optional.
Before you choose
FirstHR does not process payroll, file payroll taxes, calculate pay, move money, or administer benefits. Every provider above does something we do not, and if running payroll is the problem in front of you, one of them is the answer, not us.
What we handle is the layer that feeds payroll: onboarding workflows, e-signatures on I-9s and offer letters, employee records, and HR document management for small US teams at a flat $98 to $198 per month. Florida is a state where that distinction bites, because so much of what it actually requires is documentation rather than calculation. If the recurring problem is that an E-Verify case never got run for a hire made after you crossed 25 people, the direct deposit authorization is unsigned, or nobody is sure whether the 20-day new hire report went out, that is a document collection failure rather than a payroll processing failure, and it is the kind of gap we built for.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Florida have a state income tax on wages?
No. Article VII, Section 5(a) of the Florida Constitution bars taxing the income of natural persons beyond amounts creditable against a similar federal or other-state tax, and no such credit exists. Section 1(a) preempts local taxation, so no county or city levies one either. There is no withholding account, no state W-4, and no state reconciliation.
What is the Florida reemployment tax rate?
New employers pay 2.7 percent. Once experience rated, the assigned rate falls between the 0.1 percent minimum and the 5.4 percent statutory maximum. Because the wage base is $7,000, that is $7 to $378 per employee per year. Rates arrive annually on Form RT-20.
What is the Florida taxable wage base for reemployment tax?
The first $7,000 of wages paid to each employee in a calendar year, under section 443.1217 of the Florida Statutes. It is among the lowest state unemployment wage bases in the country and it matches the federal base exactly, so one ceiling governs both lines.
How often does a Florida employer file reemployment tax?
Quarterly on Form RT-6, due the first day of the month after quarter end and late after the last day of that month: April 30, July 31, October 31, January 31. A return is required even for quarters with no wages, and employers with 10 or more employees in any quarter of the prior state fiscal year must file electronically.
What is the Florida minimum wage?
$14.00 per hour now, rising to $15.00 on September 30 as the final step of the schedule in Article X, Section 24 of the state constitution. From September 30, 2027 the rate indexes to the twelve-month change in CPI-W, with each adjusted rate effective the following January 1.
What is the tipped minimum wage in Florida?
$10.98 in cash wages against the current $14.00 minimum, rising to $11.98 when the minimum reaches $15.00. The tip credit is fixed at $3.02, the allowable federal credit as it stood in 2003, and it does not rise with the wage. Tips plus cash wage must reach the full minimum every workweek.
How often must Florida employers pay employees?
There is no state pay frequency law for private employers. Chapter 532 of the Florida Statutes governs only the form of payment: instruments must be negotiable and cashable without discount in the state, and direct deposit needs written authorization with the employee choosing the institution.
When is a final paycheck due in Florida?
No statute sets a deadline, there is no separate rule for quitting versus discharge, and there is no waiting-time penalty. The working standard is the next regular payday for the period in which the separation fell. Unpaid wages are pursued in a civil action, with attorney fees available under section 448.08.
Does Florida require E-Verify?
Yes, for private employers with 25 or more employees, since July 1, 2023 under section 448.095. Documentation is retained three years, compliance is certified on the first reemployment tax return each calendar year, and three failures in a 24-month period draw a fine of $1,000 per day.
How long do Florida employers have to report a new hire?
Twenty days from the hire date, to the Florida State Directory of New Hires under section 409.2576. Contractors paid $600 or more in a calendar year are reportable too. Electronic filers may use two monthly transmissions 12 to 16 days apart instead.
Does Florida require workers compensation insurance?
Yes, at four or more employees for non-construction employers and at one employee in construction, under section 440.02. Agricultural work is excluded only for a bona fide farmer with five or fewer regular employees and fewer than 12 seasonal workers. Coverage comes from a carrier, not a payroll registration.
Can a Florida city set its own minimum wage?
No. Section 218.077 preempts local minimum wages and local employment benefit mandates for private employers. The remaining exceptions cover a subdivision's own employees and, until September 30, its contractors. Chapter 2024-80 closes the contractor exception on that date without impairing earlier contracts.
Do Florida employers still withhold federal taxes?
Yes, in full. Form W-4, federal income tax withholding, Social Security at 6.2 percent, Medicare at 1.45 percent with the additional 0.9 percent above $200,000, employer matching, Form 941, and federal unemployment tax all apply. Florida carries no federal unemployment loan balance, so the credit is not reduced.
How much does payroll software cost for a Florida small business?
At 10 employees, published July 2026 rates run roughly $87 for Patriot Full Service, $95 for Square, $99 for SurePayroll, $109 for OnPay or Gusto Simple, $115 for QuickBooks Core, and $130 for Justworks Payroll. At 50 employees the same plans land between $287 and $450. ADP RUN and Paychex Flex quote individually.