St. Petersburg, FL Business Licensing & Operations: Pawnbrokers (2026)

Item (104) of the § 17-135 tax schedule defines a pawnbroker precisely by the pawn transaction itself, lending money against personal property delivered as security, rather than by the shop's inventory or storefront type. Because pawnshops often also buy and resell unredeemed merchandise, the code heads off overlap by stating a pawnbroker is taxed 'unless taxed as secondhand sales, antique dealer, jewelers, junk dealer, or merchant,' so a single business pays under only one matching classification rather than several. 00 added for each employee beyond 30.

As with any City business, a pawnbroker must hold a current business tax receipt under § 17-124 before conducting business, must display it conspicuously in the shop under § 17-130, and must renew it annually by September 30 under § 17-127, since a receipt expires one year from issuance regardless of when in the year it was purchased. A pawnbroker with more than one City location must obtain a separate receipt for each branch under § 17-124(e), and an agent handling the business on behalf of an out-of-state owner shares responsibility for keeping the tax current under § 17-125.