No. Florida has no state income tax. Federal income tax applies everywhere in the United States, and that distinction is the one people get wrong.
Written for readers arriving from New York, California, Massachusetts, London, and Latin America. The desk works in English, Spanish and Portuguese. All notes from the desk.
The short answer is no, and the longer answer is worth two minutes, because the phrase "no income tax in Florida" gets repeated so often that it has drifted into "no income tax in Miami," which is not true and can cost a buyer real money in planning.
Florida levies no personal income tax on wages, salaries, business income or investment income. It has no state capital gains tax, because it has no state income tax at all. It has no state estate tax and no state inheritance tax. The Florida constitution prohibits a personal income tax, so this is not a policy that changes with a governor.
For a household moving from New York City, which layers city and state income tax, or from California, which taxes high earners at the top state rate in the country, the arithmetic on that alone is often what starts the conversation about Miami.
Federal income tax is the same in Miami as in Manhattan or Los Angeles. The IRS does not care which state you live in. Federal capital gains tax applies when you sell an asset. Federal estate tax applies above the federal exemption. Moving to Florida removes the state layer, not the federal one.
This matters most for foreign buyers, who sometimes arrive with the impression that a Florida residence sits outside the U.S. tax system. It does not. A non-resident who owns Miami property is inside the federal system for that asset, and that has consequences for rental income, for a future sale, and for the estate. We cover those in what taxes a foreign buyer actually pays.
The state runs on sales tax and property tax. Sales tax is ~6% at the state level, with county surtaxes on top; Miami-Dade adds ~1%. Property tax is assessed by the county, and in Miami-Dade the combined millage typically lands somewhere around ~2% of assessed value per year, varying by municipality. Miami Beach, Bal Harbour and Surfside each carry their own rate.
Property tax is the number a buyer should model before anything else, because it is annual and it scales with the purchase. On a preconstruction residence, the first assessment after delivery can also be a surprise, since the county reassesses to the purchase price. Ask the desk for the millage on a specific building; it is public and we will pull it.
Your situation is specific. Tell the desk in one message and we will say what applies to you, what does not, and who to speak with.
If the Miami residence becomes your primary home, Florida offers a homestead exemption that reduces the assessed value for tax purposes and, more importantly, caps annual increases in assessed value under the Save Our Homes provision. That cap is what protects long-term residents from assessment spikes in a rising market.
Homestead requires that you be a permanent resident of Florida and that the property be your permanent residence as of January 1. It is generally not available on a second home, an investment property, or a residence held by a foreign national who is not a permanent resident. Whether it applies to you depends on your status, and that is a question for counsel, not a website.
For a buyer leaving a high-tax state, the state you are leaving cares a great deal about whether you have actually left. New York and California audit residency changes, and they look at days spent, where the family lives, where the doctors and the dog are, and where the important documents sit.
A Florida declaration of domicile, a Florida driver license, voter registration, and the homestead filing are the paper trail. The substance is spending the majority of the year here and moving the center of your life. The desk can introduce advisors who handle residency transitions for New York and California households; it is a specialty, and the states have made it one.
For a domestic buyer relocating, the tax case for Miami is real and it is at the state layer only. Model federal tax as unchanged, remove the state and city layers, and add Florida property tax and insurance. That is the honest comparison.
For a foreign buyer, the state income tax question is mostly irrelevant, since a non-resident was never paying New York or California tax. The questions that matter are federal: FIRPTA withholding on a future sale, tax on rental income, and estate exposure. Those are the ones to settle with counsel before the deposit, and the desk frames them early so you arrive at that conversation prepared.
Your situation is specific. Tell the desk in one message and we will say what applies to you, what does not, and who to speak with.
This note is general information for people considering Miami, written by a real estate desk, not by a law or accounting firm. Nothing here is legal, tax, immigration or investment advice, and it is not a substitute for advice on your own circumstances. Rules change, treaties differ by country, and the right answer for one family is the wrong answer for another.
Speak with your own attorney and CPA before you commit to anything. If you do not have one who works with international buyers in Florida, the desk is glad to recommend an attorney, a CPA or an adviser suited to your situation, and to sit in the first conversation so that nothing is lost in translation.
Structure, financing, currency, timing, the right building and the right line: the desk works through these questions with international buyers every week, and the answer is nearly always that it can be done, in order, without surprises. If Miami is on your mind, as a home or as an allocation, we would be glad to share what we are seeing, privately, and to start with the question this note did not answer.