Charlotte County, FL Local Taxes & Fees: Business Tax Classification (2026)

Sec. 1-10-18 requires anyone engaging in or managing a business, profession, occupation, or lease department in the county to first procure a local business tax receipt from the tax collector, and treats anyone holding themselves out to the public as offering goods or services as subject to the requirement whether or not they actually transact business. Sec. 1-10-32 sets the fee schedule: a wholesale farmers' produce market with one to five tenants pays twenty-five dollars, plus fifteen dollars for each tenant past five, capped at two hundred dollars total; every other business, profession, occupation, or lease department pays thirty-five dollars, with another thirty-five dollars for each additional location in the county; and anyone operating coin-operated machines pays a dollar fifty per machine on top of any other local business tax owed. Sec. 1-10-31 pegs that coin-machine tax to the highest machine count present on the premises on any single day of the licensing year and makes the business owning the machines responsible for notifying each host premises of the requirement.

Sec. 1-10-33 sends five percent of collections to the tax collector for administration, with any surplus below five percent routed to the county's economic development fund, and apportions unincorporated-area revenue separately from revenue collected on behalf of municipalities by population ratio. Sec. 1-10-34 lets the board raise rates by up to five percent every other year by ordinance, requiring a majority-plus-one vote of the Board of County Commissioners.