Florida Sales Tax
We do NOT collect Florida state or local sales tax on orders we ship via licensed common carrier (USPS, UPS, DHL) to any address outside the State of Florida, USA. If the shipping address for your order is outside the State of Florida, you do NOT need to request an exemption because our checkout process will not charge tax anyway.
Unless you qualify for an exemption, if the order is shipped to an address inside Florida then on tangible goods we must collect the sales tax appropriate for the delivery address. If you wish to place an order to be delivered inside Florida for resale or use by a tax-exempt organization, please login or register an account on the Dive Gear Express website and upload your sales tax exemption certificate. The tax-exemption certificate MUST be a form DR-13 or DR-14 issued by the State of Florida Department of Revenue. (Generic letters and multi-state forms are not acceptable; if your organization is a federal or state agency, county, municipality, or political subdivision then most likely your business administrator already has a DR-14.) We will then review and enable the tax exemption option for orders placed using your account login. We can not remove the tax or release the order until we receive a current certificate that matches the organization name and address on the order.
To apply for a Florida sales tax exempt account:
- Please Sign-in to your account or Register for a free new account. If you have not done so already, you may wish to also setup default billing and shipping addresses to later speed up your checkout. The company name and billing address should match the address on the tax exemption certificate.
- On your account profile page under Edit Account Information section you will see an Upload option under Tax Exempt Certificate. Click the "Upload" button and select your certificate file. The document format must be pdf, jpg or png file type, maximum size is limited to 1 MB (1,024 KB).
- Click on the "Save" button to complete the upload for your selected document file. When successfully uploaded, the Account Information page will display a Tax Exempt Certificate Link which you may click to view. The Tax Exempt Expiry Date will indicate "Approval is in Pending".
- Once we have approved your tax exempt status, a confirmation email will be sent to the account email address. The Account Information page will indicate exemption from our collection of State of Florida sales tax is allowed until the appropriate expiration date. If you don't receive an approval email within one business day, please email us to request a review your tax exempt status; it's a good idea to append another copy of your certificate to that email as well.
To place a Florida sales tax exempt order:
Once your account has been approved, you may place orders exempt from Florida sales tax. Please keep in mind the tax exemption is on a per order basis and will need to be selected each time you place an order that you know qualifies for exemption. This is because many of our customers who qualify for tax exemption may also place some orders that are not exempt from sale tax.
- You must first sign-in to the account using the email address with the approved tax exempt status.
- Shop and Add-to-Cart as normal, then view your shopping cart. The shipping estimator tool may indicate tax will be charged but don't worry, the tax will be removed later during the checkout process. Click the Checkout button.
- On the Shipping page select or enter the shipping address, select the carrier and method of shipping, then click Next.
- On the payment page at the bottom of the list of payment methods you will see an item "Tax Exemption V" , click that item to expand it and you will see a check box beside the question "Do you want to include tax exemption?" Check or uncheck the box as appropriate and the Order Summary will indicate the tax has been added to the order Grand Total $ amount as selected.
- Select a method of payment and enter the payment information.
- You may write your company purchase order number or accounting information to be included on the invoice in the Special Instructions/Comments dialog box that appears just above the Place Order button. Although not required, it is a good practice to also write "Tax Exempt, see certificate on file". This ensures our Order Desk will manually confirm the Florida sales tax has been correctly removed from the order before release to shipping.
- Check the box to agree to the Terms and Conditions, then click the Place Order button and you should immediately see a Thank You checkout success page with an Order Number. It's a good idea to record the order number for later reference. You should also receive an order acknowledgement email within one minute.
We will process your order and remove the State of Florida sales tax prior to capturing payment, then ship your order. The package will contain a printed hard copy of the paid invoice for the order as shipped. If you require an additional electronic copy of the printed invoice, simply email us with your order number and request a .pdf of the invoice.
If the order is delivered inside Florida to a licensed customs broker for export, the Florida Administrative Code Sales and Use Tax Rule 12A-1.0015 provides for a refund of sales tax if certain exacting conditions are met. To apply, the broker can email us copies of the appropriate Rule 12A-1.0015 export documentation (typically their sworn export declaration plus a bill of lading that references our specific invoice number.) Please be forewarned that typical small parcel consolidators do not meet the conditions required for a tax refund because they "commingled" your order from Dive Gear Express with other property.