Florida Auto Loan Calculator (6% Tax + Capped County Surtax)

Florida taxes motor vehicles at the general 6% state rate under Fla. Stat. Ch. 212. The interesting part is the county piece, and almost every online estimate gets it wrong.

Counties may levy a discretionary sales surtax under Fla. Stat. Sec. 212.054 and 212.055, and on most purchases that surtax simply stacks on the 6%. On a single item, including a motor vehicle, it does not. The surtax applies only to the first $5,000 of the sales amount. Everything above $5,000 is taxed at the state 6% alone.

The practical effect is large. A 1% county surtax on a $35,999 taxable base is not $359.99. It is 1% of $5,000, which is $50, full stop. The combined rate you see published for Miami-Dade, 7%, is the rate on a restaurant meal, not the rate on a car. The effective rate on this baseline purchase in Miami-Dade is 6.139%, and it falls further as the price rises.

A second Florida rule catches out-of-town buyers. For motor vehicles, the surtax is sourced to the county where the buyer lives, not where the dealership sits. Driving to a lower-surtax county to buy does not change what you owe, and buying in a higher-surtax county does not raise it.

This calculator applies the $5,000 cap correctly, splits the state tax from the county surtax so you can see each, and models the trade-in credit that Fla. Stat. Sec. 212.09 allows on dealer sales.

The APR columns below are national averages, not Florida figures. No primary source publishes average auto loan APR by state: Experian's report has no geographic cut, the CFPB publishes state origination volume but no rates, and the New York Fed publishes state delinquency only. The payment column is the part that is specific to Florida, because it runs this calculator's own Florida tax and fee rules at each tier's rate.

Payment assumptions: $35,000 vehicle price, $0 trade-in, $5,000 cash down, $999 dealer documentation fee, 60-month term, new-vehicle APR applied to the Florida delivered price including tax and statutory fees. At the 6.39% overall new-car average the same purchase costs $652.98 a month.

The score bands are VantageScore 4.0, not FICO. The same borrower can land in a different tier under each model, so a FICO score pulled from a card issuer will not always match the band here. Source: Experian, State of the Automotive Finance Market, Q1 2026, slide 45.

Each row changes one input and leaves the rest at the baseline below. The dollar effects are this calculator's own output for Florida, not a rule of thumb.

Baseline: $35,000 vehicle price, $0 trade-in, $5,000 cash down, $999 documentation fee, 60 months at 7.25% APR, giving a $666.53 payment and $6,530.30 of total interest.

Florida caps its county surtax at the first $5,000 of the price, so the county piece stops growing on almost every car sold. Five steps.

1. Net taxable base. Fla. Stat. Sec. 212.09 lets a registered motor vehicle dealer deduct the trade-in allowance from the taxable sales price in a single transaction. Florida DOR treats documentation, processing, and e-filing fees as taxable unless they are optional, separately stated, and not required to complete the sale, which is rarely the case.

2. State tax. The 6% rate applies to the entire base, with no cap.

3. County surtax. The county rate applies to the lesser of the taxable base or $5,000.

That is the whole rule, and it is why a 1% county can never charge more than $50 of surtax on a car.

4. Title and registration. A fixed $302.25, being the $77.25 paper title fee on a new or out-of-state vehicle and the one-time $225 initial registration fee. These are outside the tax base.

5. Amortization. The financed balance amortizes as a fixed-rate installment loan:

where $P$ is the amount financed, $i$ is the monthly rate (APR divided by 12), and $n$ is the term in months.

These are county rates. Florida has no municipal sales tax, so there is never a city line on a Florida car deal. The right-hand column is what the surtax actually costs on a vehicle, which is the rate times $5,000.

These five rates come from a summary of Florida DOR Form DR-15DSS rather than the form itself, so treat them as close but confirm your own county before signing. Hillsborough's surtax in particular has been litigated and changed more than once. County surtax rates also expire and renew on their own schedules, so a rate correct last year may not be correct now.

The "Published Combined" column is included precisely because it is the number people misuse. It never applies to more than $5,000 of a vehicle purchase.

Florida's county surtax reaches only the first $5,000 of the price, which is why the entire spread between the cheapest and dearest Florida county on a $35,000 car is $75. The baseline shows the state piece alone.

• Vehicle price: $35,000
• Trade-in allowance: $0
• Cash down: $5,000
• Dealer doc fee: $999
• County surtax: 0%
• Term: 60 months at 7.25% APR

Step 1 -- The taxable base. Doc fee inside the base, no trade-in to deduct: $35,000 + $999 = $35,999.00

Step 2 -- State sales tax at 6%. $35,999.00 x 6% = $2,159.94

Step 3 -- County surtax, on the capped slice. min($35,999, $5,000) x 0% = $0.00

Step 4 -- Title and initial registration, outside the base. $77.25 title + $225.00 initial registration = $302.25

Step 5 -- Total delivered price. $35,000 + $999.00 + $2,159.94 + $302.25 = $38,461.19

Step 6 -- Amount financed. $38,461.19 - $0 trade-in - $5,000 cash down = $33,461.19

Step 7 -- The monthly payment. $33,461.19 at 7.25% over 60 months = $666.53

Step 8 -- Month 1. $33,461.19 x (7.25% / 12) = $202.16 interest, $464.37 principal, balance $32,996.82

Step 9 -- Month 2. $32,996.82 x (7.25% / 12) = $199.36 interest, $467.17 principal, balance $32,529.65. Cumulative interest: $401.52

Step 10 -- The accumulation. Interest through month 12 is $2,236.98, balance $27,699.81. Across the full term, $6,530.30

Now put the same buyer in Miami-Dade at 1%. The surtax is 1% of $5,000, so $50.00. Total tax becomes $2,209.94 and the payment rises to $667.52, a difference of 99 cents a month. Applying 1% to the whole $35,999 base, which is what a naive combined-rate calculation does, would produce $359.99 of surtax and overstate the tax bill by $309.99.

In Tampa or Jacksonville at 1.5%, the surtax is $75 and the payment is $668.02. In Orlando at 0.5% it is $25 and the payment is $667.02. Across every major Florida metro, the entire county spread on this purchase is $75.

Add a $10,000 trade-in at the state rate instead. The taxable base falls to $25,999, tax drops to $1,559.94, and the payment falls to $455.38. The trade-in saved $600 in tax, all of it state tax, because the surtax slice was capped either way.

• Recurring annual registration. The $225 in this calculation is the one-time initial registration fee, charged only when you have no existing Florida plate to transfer. If you are transferring a plate, remove it. Ongoing annual renewal is weight based, roughly $27.60 to $45.60 for a passenger car, plus a $30.50 fee for a new plate. Florida levies no annual value-based vehicle property tax.
• Title fee variation. The $77.25 figure is for a paper title on a new or out-of-state vehicle. A used in-state transfer is closer to $75.25, and the $10 paper surcharge is waived if you take an electronic title. Both this and the registration figure come from secondary summaries of the FLHSMV fee schedule.
• Private-party purchases. There is no trade-in credit outside a registered dealer transaction. Tax is still due, collected by the tax collector when you title the vehicle.
• County surtax expiry and renewal. Surtaxes are enacted for fixed terms and change by referendum. The rates above are a snapshot, not a permanent schedule.
• The doc fee is a market figure, not a statutory one. Florida caps nothing here, and $999 is an observation of a market that commonly ranges from $799 to $1,199. Enter what your dealer actually charges.
• GAP insurance, extended warranties, and negative equity, unless you fold them into the vehicle price yourself.

• Applying the published combined rate to the whole price. This is the single most common Florida error. A 7% Miami-Dade rate on a $35,999 base gives $2,519.93 of tax. The correct figure is $2,209.94. The gap is $309.99, and it grows with the price of the car.
• Shopping in a different county to save surtax. For motor vehicles the surtax follows the buyer's county of residence, not the dealer's location. There is nothing to arbitrage, and the most it could ever be worth is the difference between two $5,000 slices.
• Forgetting the doc fee is taxable. At $999 and 6%, the doc fee adds $59.94 of tax by itself. Florida's doc fees are among the highest in the country, so this is a bigger line here than in most states.
• Budgeting the $225 initial registration when you are transferring a plate. It applies only to a first Florida registration. Assuming it when it does not apply overstates the delivered price by $225.
• Rolling negative equity forward. A shortfall on your old loan is added to the new principal. It raises interest cost and does not increase your tax credit, which is based on the allowance rather than your equity.
• Judging a loan by the monthly payment alone. Stretching the baseline $33,461.19 balance from 60 to 72 months lowers the payment to $574.51 but raises total finance charges from $6,530.30 to $7,903.09.

• Fla. Stat. Sec. 212.054 and Sec. 212.055 (county discretionary sales surtax; the $5,000 limit on a single item and the residence-based sourcing rule for motor vehicles) sec.gov
• Florida Department of Revenue, publication GT-800030, Sales and Use Tax on Motor Vehicles. floridarevenue.com
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z, 12 CFR Sec. 1026.22) disclosure requirements for installment credit. ecfr.gov/current/title-12/chapter-X/part-1026

Also consulted: Fla. Stat. Ch. 212 (6% state sales tax on motor vehicles); Fla. Stat. Sec. 212.09 (trade-in allowance deduction by a registered dealer); Florida Department of Revenue, Form DR-15DSS (county discretionary surtax rate schedule; the metro rates above are from a secondary summary of this form); Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles fee schedule (title fee, $225 initial registration fee, weight-based renewal); Experian, State of the Automotive Finance Market, Q1 2026, slide 45 (average new and used auto loan APR by VantageScore 4.0 credit tier; national, no state level cut published).