Escambia County, FL Hotels & Lodging: Transient Occupancy Tax (2026)

Escambia County's tourist development tax applies to any rental, lease or letting of living quarters or accommodations, hotel, apartment motel, roominghouse, tourist or trailer camp, or condominium, for a term of six months or less, unless F.S. ch. 212 exempts it. County Code § 90-52 levies the first four cents: two percent under Ordinance No. 80-16, one percent under Ordinance No. 89-7, and an additional one percent authorized under F.S. § 125.0104(3)(l) to fund a multiuse sports facility, convention center debt service, and tourism promotion. Section 90-65 added a fifth cent, effective April 1, 2021, under F.S. § 125.0104(3)(n), raising the total rate from four percent to five percent; that fifth cent applies in every incorporated and unincorporated part of the county, not just the unincorporated area this code otherwise governs, per § 90-66.

The person receiving the rental payment charges and collects the tax at the time of payment, under § 90-54, and remits it to the clerk of the circuit court rather than the state Department of Revenue, under § 90-55, which also gives the clerk audit and examination power over a dealer's books and records. A dealer who fails to charge or collect the tax is personally liable for it and guilty of a first-degree misdemeanor under § 90-60, and advertising that the tax will be absorbed or refunded is a separate first-degree misdemeanor under § 90-61. The unpaid tax becomes a lien on the property of the lessee or tenant under § 90-62.