Texas is taking a fresh look at the sales tax treatment of digital marketplace fees. Florida businesses should take notice, not because Florida has adopted the same approach, but because Florida has its own unusual rules governing the taxation of information services and data.
On September 30, 2026, Texas Comptroller Don Huffines issued Executive Order DH-01 directing the Texas Comptroller's office to begin rulemaking to remove marketplace and platform fees from the state's definition of taxable data-processing services. The order specifically addresses fees paid by businesses to platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Etsy, DoorDash, Grubhub, and Uber Eats. By eliminating a tax absorbed by business selling on the platforms, Texas is helping to reduce product costs to consumers in Texas. The Texas development highlights an increasingly important state and local tax question: Whether the fee paid by the seller to a platform is a taxable data-processing service.
That distinction is important for Florida businesses because Florida generally does not tax services, but due to a quirk in Florida law, certain businesses end up paying Florida sales tax on data processing. The tax on these transaction is often overlooked, and in the event of an audit, could leave some businesses with exposure.
Florida’s Unusual Sales Tax on Information Services
Florida's sales tax system generally begins with a relatively narrow principle: Florida taxes sales of tangible personal property and specifically enumerated services. Rule 12A-1.062(1), Florida Administrative Code (“F.A.C.”), provides that the sale of information services involving the furnishing of printed, mimeographed, multigraphed, or duplicated written or printed matter is taxable. The rule therefore creates a significant distinction between information delivered electronically and information delivered in certain tangible formats.
Sounds straightforward, but the way it plays out in practice can catch many businesses off guard. By way of example, a doctor’s office hires a medical records warehousing service to store electronic patient data. The patient needs that data provided to another office, and a those records are provided on a disk. That invoice, and potentially the entire contract between the parties, are now deemed the sale of tangible personal property subject to Florida sales tax.
That distinction is particularly important in the modern digital economy. Two companies may be doing essentially the same underlying work, collecting data, analyzing it, and making the resulting information available to customers, but the tax result will depend on what is being provided, how it is delivered, and what else is included in the transaction.
So Is Data Taxable in Florida?
Sometimes, but "data" itself is not the taxability trigger. That is the critical point for businesses. Florida's rules require an analysis of the underlying transaction, specifically : What is being sold and How is the information delivered?
Is the taxpayer selling:
- tangible personal property;
- a printed report or publication;
- electronically delivered information;
- research;
- data analytics;
- a database;
- access to information;
- software;
- a professional service; or
- a combination of these?
The characterization of the transaction matters.
This is where Florida's rules become particularly interesting. If an information service involves furnishing printed matter, the transaction may fall within the taxable information-services provision of Rule 12A-1.062 F.A.C. The rule specifically addresses printed and duplicated written material.
This means that a business providing an information service should not assume that the underlying service is nontaxable simply because it considers itself a technology, research, consulting, or data company. The deliverables matter. The question is no longer simply whether a company "provides information." The question is how Florida's decades-old statutory categories apply to the way information is created, processed, delivered, and monetized today.
If are selling information or data processing in Florida, reach out today for a free consultation!
Ribeiro Law focuses exclusively on state and local tax matters. We advise on exemption planning, Department of Revenue applications, refund claims, and sales tax audits, helping businesses maximize available exemptions while minimizing audit risk.
