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<\/p>\nUnder Florida law, Chapter 125 allows counties to impose a tourist development tax. This tax applies to anyone who rents for short-term stays (for six months or less) including a hotel room, apartment, condo, mobile home, or vacation rental. With few exceptions, it’s considered a taxable activity whenever someone pays to stay in these short-term accommodations.<\/p>\n
Whoever is getting paid for the rental\u2014whether it\u2019s a person or a business\u2014is responsible for collecting the tourist tax, keeping track of it, and sending it to the Collier County Tax Collector. After covering admin costs, the Tax Collector sends the money to the County each month. The funds go into the County\u2019s Tourist Development Tax account and are used according to local rules. Currently, funds are used as follows:<\/p>\n
The table shows that current County policy allocates most tourist tax collections to beach renourishment and beach park facilities. These monies are used to keep beaches intact and accessible for both citizens and tourists. This attracts tourist to the area and, in turn, brings in additional revenues.<\/p>\n
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In Collier, the tourist development tax is currently levied at 5%. Year to date, Collier has collected $36.8M in tourist tax revenues through April 2025. This is a 2.2% increase year over year, and a record amount collected across the first seven<\/p>\n
(7) months of the County\u2019s fiscal year. Notably, this increase occurred in a period that included two hurricanes that dramatically impacted revenues. The tourist tax revenue increase is unique in that year over year performance of both sales tax and gas taxes have lagged the tourist tax at (4.5%) and 1.8%, respectively. This statistic shows Collier\u2019s tremendous appeal to tourists and occurs at a time when there are concerns of declining tourism in the State of Florida.<\/p>\n
On May 27, 2025, the Board of County Commissioners voted to approve consideration of an amendment, and required referendum, to the Collier County Tourist Development Tax Ordinance imposing an additional one percent tax as a high impact tourism destination. If voters approve the additional penny, the total tourist tax will be six (6) percent. As part of the approval, direction was given to the County Attorney to proceed with drafting referendum language for citizens to consider. The sixth (6th<\/sup>) penny is estimated to generate an additional $9.7M in annual tourist tax revenues and, if approved, would become effective January 1, 2027. The Board\u2019s stated objective for the consideration of the additional penny was funding for the Paradise Coast Sports Complex, as well as other tourism related expenditures.<\/p>\n