Orange County, FL Business Licensing & Operations: Pawnbrokers (2026)

Section 25-101 of the Orange County Code sets the local business tax for pawnbrokers operating in the unincorporated county. Subsection (a) charges every pawnbroker $75 for each place of business, on top of a second tax tier based on the maximum number of workers at that location: $30 for one to ten workers, $40 for eleven to twenty, $50 for twenty-one to thirty, $70 for thirty-one to forty, and $90 for forty-one or more. A pawnshop with a large staff can owe as much as $165 per location once both tiers are combined.

Subsection (b) imposes a detailed recordkeeping duty that goes beyond the general business tax article: pawnbrokers must keep a "complete and true record of all transactions," showing from whom each item in their stock was purchased or pledged, the date of that transaction, and the date and buyer for every item later sold. Those records must include the right thumbprint of the person selling or pledging the item, and must be kept in a form the Orange County Sheriff's Office designs and supplies, not a format the pawnbroker chooses.

Subsection (c) requires every pawnbroker in the county to file monthly reports to the sheriff's department summarizing the transaction information required under subsection (b), on forms the sheriff's office prescribes and furnishes. A pawnbroker who fails to file those monthly reports is subject to the penalties cross-referenced in Section 25-52, a section the county repealed in 2009 (Ordinance No. 2009-30); the operative penalty authority today runs through Section 25-53's civil actions under Florida Statutes Section 205.053.