Frequently
Asked Questions
How does the form work?
Where do the Tax rates come from?
What is a Surtax?
What is a Collection Allowance?
I accidentally altered the Tax rates
What figures do I enter?
I get error messages when I enter payments
What currencies can I use?
Can I save or print the form?
How much do I pay?
How secure is this form?
How
does the form work?
These are the steps we go through to calculate and display
tax and payments due:
(i) Split the total payments you entered into Rental
income and Tax.
(ii) Further Split the Tax into State, County and Surtax
amounts.
(iii) Work out the Collection Allowance (rebate) we
get for submitting the forms on time.
(iv) Subtract the Collection Allowance from the State
and County tax.
(v) Display the figures so that you can fill in the
paper forms
Note: We have assumed you have NO penalties
or deductions. You will have to make your own adjustments
when filling in your forms
Where
do the Tax rates come from?
This form is kept up to date with the latest County
and State Tax rates for Central Florida. We may add
other counties (e.g. Gulf Coast) in the near future.
When you select your County, these rates are automatically
entered into the form for you.
At the time of creation the rates for the 'Four Corners'
Counties were:
State Tax County
Surtax
Lake 6%
4%
1
Osceola 6%
6%
1.5
Orange 6%
5%
0.5
Polk 6%
5%
0.5
You can overtype the tax rates if you want (you may
have a villa in a County we don't yet list), but you
will get a warning after any change.
What
is a Surtax?
Each County can levy their own Discretionary Sales tax
rate for a specific purpose, and over a stated period
(usually a few years). This is in addition to the Tourist
Development Tax you pay direct to the County tax collector.
The Sales Surtax is paid to the State along with their
6% Sales tax.
As an example, Lake County levies One percent Sales
Surtax. So Lake County vendors currently pay 6% + 1%
Sales Tax to the State AND 4% Tourist Development Tax
to the County, a total of 11% of Rentals.
You have to calculate the surtax separately, and declare
it on the back of the State tax return (box 15d) so
they know how much to send back to the County.
Also note that the Surtax rate should be entered on
the front of the State tax form, as 0.01 for 1%; 0.005
for 0.5% etc
What
is a Collection Allowance?
Collection allowances are rebates which are deducted
from the Tax you have to pay. They are available where
the forms (and payments) are returned on time. This
is currently 2.5% for both State and Counties. If this
rate changes before the form is updated, you can enter
the correct rate on the form. Should your return be
late, then you lose the rebate and get charged an extra
10% of the tax due. This issue of the form assumes that
all returns are not late.
I
accidentally altered the Tax rates
Just select another county which will overtype the entries
you made, and then re-select the correct county. Your
tax rates will then be reset.
What
figures do I enter?
The green section of the form is set out so that you
can enter the name of the guest and the amount each
guest paid.
The Guest Details are for your convenience only, in
case you want to print the form for your records. You
may choose to enter just one lump sum from all your
guests and no names.
When dealing with guests it is quite normal for us to
negotiate a deal or quote a price that is fully inclusive:
"Right Mr Smith, thats $500
for the week, which includes Cleaning, Pool heating
and all Taxes."
The amount you enter on the form for that guest is the
full $500.
If you normally quote an amount and then ADD tax, it
is the inclusive figure you have to enter.
As you enter the rental income for your guests, the
tax is automatically calculated and displayed.
DO NOT type any $ signs.
DO NOT include any refundable deposit levied for surety
against damage, even if some is kept back to pay for
repairs.
DO NOT include any bookings made by your Management
Company, as they should account for that tax on your
behalf.
INCLUDE any charges you have made for late cancellation/alteration
of booking.
I
get error messages when I enter payments.
The form is designed to trap any invalid entries. These
are examples of what you cannot enter:
$, £, a-z, A-Z In other words, anything
NON numeric, including commas (thousands separator)
but you can use a decimal point;
0120.65 Any entry
starting with a zero, unless its a single zero on its
own;
'Blank'
Each payment cell must have a single zero if no other
amount is entered;
456.987 Any number
with more than 2 decimal places (we dont deal with fractions
of cents).
What
currencies can I use?
The guest payments must be entered in US$. You must
convert from any other currency to US$ before entering
the amounts into the form.
Can
I save or print the form?
There isnt any way at the moment that you can save or
export the figures for later. You CAN print the form.
If you have the option, just print page 1 which should
print the main form on a single sheet of A4.
You may need to adjust the page margins to ensure figures
dont slip off the edge. In Internet Explorer, select
File...Page Setup, and reduce the margins to suit your
printer. I just set them all to 0 and that seems to
work.
How
much do I pay?
You dont have to pay me anything to use this form, as
long as you are a bona fide member of Top-Forums. But
you do have to pay the taxman his due.
Look for the cells labelled with 'Amount Due' . You
should write checks to the State/County to the amounts
in these boxes.
How
secure is this form?
Very secure as long as no one is looking over your shoulder!
We dont save your data on your PC (e.g. in a cookie),
on our website or anywhere else.
The inputs and calculations used here are non-persistent,
that means next time you load this form it will be blank.
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