FLORIDA SALES & USE TAX AUDITS
A Florida sales-and-use tax audit runs on a schedule of its own, with deadlines shorter than their federal equivalents and consequences that become permanent quietly. The single most costly misunderstanding is about which notice starts the clock that matters. It is not the one that opens the audit.
Sixty days from the NOPA. Then it is a debt.
When that window closes there is no protest, no appeal, and nothing left to argue. Only a collectible assessment.
Scheduling does not create an attorney-client relationship. No such relationship exists until the firm has run a conflicts check and both sides have signed a written engagement agreement.
THE FLORIDA MAP
The Florida sales and use tax audit, station by station. Deadlines per Fla. Admin. Code R. 12-6.003 and Fla. Stat. chs. 72 and 213.
Notice of Intent to Audit Books and Records, Form DR-840. The audit opens. This notice does not assess anything and does not start an appeal clock. It does something else: it generally ends the window in which the taxpayer could have self-corrected the periods under review.
The audit. Records are examined. Where the Department finds records inadequate, it is entitled to estimate — commonly by markup analysis or bank deposits — and estimates are not built to the taxpayer’s advantage. Missing or expired resale and exemption certificates are the most frequent finding, and each one converts an exempt sale into a taxable one.
Notice of Intent to Make Audit Changes. The proposed result. A request for an informal conference with the auditor’s supervisor must be made within thirty days of the date of issuance. This is the cheapest stage at which to move numbers, and it is routinely skipped.
Notice of Proposed Assessment — the NOPA. This is the clock that matters. A written informal protest must be postmarked or faxed within sixty consecutive calendar days of the date of issuance, or one hundred fifty days if the notice is addressed to a person outside the United States. Fla. Admin. Code R. 12-6.003. Let that window close and the proposed assessment becomes a final assessment. There is no protest, no appeal, and no argument left to make. There is a collectible debt.
Technical Assistance and Dispute Resolution. TADR reviews the protest and may require the originating office to explain the basis for the assessment in writing. An informal oral conference may be requested. Conferences are held in Tallahassee and are not transcribed.
Notice of Decision. TADR’s determination. A Petition for Reconsideration may follow, producing a Notice of Reconsideration.
The fork — DOAH or circuit court. A formal challenge must be brought within one hundred twenty days of the NOPA where no informal protest was filed, or within sixty days of the Notice of Decision where one was. A petition for formal hearing must be received by the Department within that window, not postmarked, and no extension is available.
- Division of Administrative Hearings, under chapter 120 — a formal, court-like proceeding before an administrative law judge.
- Circuit court, under chapter 72 — which requires, under section 72.011, that the taxpayer pay the contested amount or post a bond first.
That prepayment requirement is the state analogue of the federal choice between the Tax Court and a refund suit, and for most taxpayers it decides the forum by itself.
ONE FURTHER DOOR
Under section 213.21(11)(a), the Department may in its discretion consider a request to settle or compromise filed within one hundred eighty days after the time to challenge an assessment under section 72.011 has expired, where statutory conditions are met. It is narrow, it is discretionary, and a determination on it is not itself reviewable under chapter 120. It is not a substitute for a timely protest, but it is occasionally the only door still open.
WHAT THE FIRM DOES
Runs the audit from the DR-840
including sampling methodology and the exemption-certificate record.
Requests the supervisor conference
inside its thirty-day window, where numbers still move cheaply.
Drafts the NOPA protest
the document the case is ultimately decided on.
Appears before TADR
including the informal conference in Tallahassee.
Advises on the forum election
DOAH or circuit court, and the section 72.011 prepayment that comes with one of them.
Sixty days after the NOPA there is no protest, no appeal, and no argument left — only a collectible debt.
HOW AN ENGAGEMENT BEGINS
Book a free consultation
Thirty minutes, no charge. Bring the notice — we read it together on that call.
The deadline is identified
Which notice it is, what it asserts, and which forums are still open behind it.
Conflicts check and written engagement
Scope and fee agreed in writing before any work begins.
HOW A CONTROVERSY RESOLVES
The firm takes over
Correspondence with the Service runs through the firm. You stop answering.
The position is built and pressed
Records, authority, and the argument — pressed at the earliest stage that will take it, because that is the cheapest place to win.
Resolution
Closed at examination, settled at Appeals on the hazards, or tried. The firm does not hand the file to anyone to reach the last of those.
If you are holding a NOPA, the sixty days are running from the date on its face. Contact the firm through the contact page or call (561) 529-5873. Representative engagements are described on the Experience page.