Palm Beach County charges a 6% tourist development tax on every rental of six months or less, and the county expects you, the owner, to collect it and send it in. Airbnb does not do this for you. Neither does VRBO. If you rent a property short term anywhere in the county, from Jupiter down to Boca Raton, this tax is your monthly obligation, and many owners find out after their first booking, not before.
Here is how it works, how to register, and the one mistake that generates penalty letters.
What is the Palm Beach County tourist development tax?
The tourist development tax, usually shortened to TDT and sometimes called the bed tax, is a 6% Palm Beach County tax on the total rental amount for any stay of six months or less. The host collects it from the guest and remits it to the Constitutional Tax Collector of Palm Beach County every month. It applies on top of state sales tax, and it applies to every booking channel. Source: Palm Beach County Tax Collector.
The county uses the revenue for tourism marketing, beaches, and cultural facilities. For an owner, the practical meaning is that 6% of every booking is owed to the county, remitted monthly.
Doesn’t Airbnb handle taxes for me?
Partly, and the partial coverage is exactly what trips owners up.
Airbnb collects and remits Florida state sales tax and the county discretionary surtax on your bookings. So when you see taxes being collected on your Airbnb payouts, it is reasonable to assume everything is handled. The Palm Beach County Tax Collector says otherwise, plainly: the host must collect and remit the TDT, and online platforms do not remit it to the county.
| Tax | Rate | Airbnb | VRBO | You |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida state sales tax + county surtax | 6.5% combined in Palm Beach County | Remits | Does not remit | You remit on VRBO and direct bookings |
| Palm Beach County TDT | 6% | Does not remit | Does not remit | You remit on every channel |
Sources: pbctax.gov; Airbnb Help Article 2301 (Palm Beach is not among the Florida counties where Airbnb collects county tax).
Note the second row of that table. The TDT applies on every channel. There is no booking source where someone else files it for you in Palm Beach County.
VRBO is its own problem: it remits no Florida taxes at all, so on VRBO bookings you also owe the state sales tax. That is a separate filing with the Florida Department of Revenue, covered in our statewide guide to the Florida tourist development tax.
How do I register for a TDT account?
Registration runs through the Tax Collector’s online TDT portal. The steps, per pbctax.gov:
- Create a login in the TDT portal. The account is tied to your email address.
- Create a TDT account for each rental property. You will need the Property Control Number (PCN) for each one. The PCN is on your property tax bill, or searchable by address on the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s site.
- Receive your account numbers. The county issues a 9-digit TDT account number and a 10-digit short-term rental Business Tax Receipt number per property.
- Start filing monthly returns. Your obligation begins with your first rented night.
One TDT account per property. If you run two rentals in the county, you file two returns each month.
Before any of this, the property also needs a Florida DBPR vacation rental license. The state license, the county TDT account, and the county business tax receipt are three separate registrations, and you need all three.
When and how do I file?
Monthly. The return is due on the 1st of the month for the prior month’s rentals and becomes late after the 20th. Late returns accrue penalties and interest; the Tax Collector publishes the current amounts and applies them consistently, so do not count on a first-time pass.
File even when you had no bookings. This is the mistake behind the penalty letters owners tell us about most often. A month with zero rental activity still requires a return, a $0.00 report, by the same deadline. Owners assume no revenue means nothing to file, skip a slow September, and get a notice. Put the filing on a monthly calendar reminder that does not depend on whether the calendar was booked.
Stays longer than six months are exempt, along with a short list of other exemptions (government travel among them). If you convert a property to a long-term lease, tell the Tax Collector rather than silently going quiet, or the missing returns look like non-filing.
Tired of tracking a monthly tax deadline?
Tax remittance is an add-on to our management service: we register the accounts, collect the tax on every booking, and file the returns each month, including the $0 ones. The county deadline stops being your problem.
Does my city add anything on top?
The TDT is county-wide, so the 6% and the monthly filing are the same whether the property is in Jupiter or Boca Raton. What changes by city is everything else: whether short term rentals are allowed at all, and what local licensing applies.
- Palm Beach Gardens and Jupiter add no city permit; the county layer is the whole local stack.
- West Palm Beach requires a rental tax certificate, an inspection, and a local resident agent for any rental property, short term or not.
- Delray Beach has no city permit but restricts short term rentals by zoning district.
- Lake Worth Beach and the Town of Palm Beach prohibit short term rentals outright.
The full town-by-town map is in our guide to where you can run a short term rental in Palm Beach County.
Outside the county: Martin and St. Lucie counties each charge a 5% TDT with the same host-must-remit rule. If you own in Port St. Lucie, our Port St. Lucie guide covers that county’s version.
Frequently asked questions
Does Airbnb collect the tourist development tax in Palm Beach County?
No. Airbnb collects Florida state sales tax and the county surtax, but not the Palm Beach County 6% tourist development tax. The Tax Collector requires the host to collect and remit it on every booking, from every channel. Palm Beach County is not on Airbnb's list of Florida counties where it remits county tax.
What happens if I don't file a TDT return?
Returns become late after the 20th of the month, and penalties and interest apply. A month with no bookings still requires a $0.00 return, and a skipped zero-month is an easy way to end up with a penalty notice. Contact the Tax Collector's TDT team at (561) 355-3547 if you have missed filings; resolving it proactively beats waiting for the letter.
Do I need a separate TDT account for each property?
Yes. Each rental property gets its own TDT account, registered with its Property Control Number, and each files its own monthly return. The county issues a TDT account number and a short-term rental business tax receipt number per property.
Is the tourist development tax the same as the bed tax or resort tax?
Yes. Tourist development tax, bed tax, resort tax, and transient rental tax all refer to the same county tax. In Palm Beach County it is 6% on stays of six months or less, filed monthly with the Constitutional Tax Collector.
This is general information, not tax advice. Rates, deadlines, and portal mechanics come from the Palm Beach County Tax Collector and can change; confirm current requirements at pbctax.gov or with your tax professional.