Federal Payroll Taxes Apply Everywhere

Florida’s lack of a state income tax doesn’t change your federal obligations one bit. You still owe the employer’s half of FICA: 6.2% for Social Security on wages up to $176,100 in 2025, and 1.45% for Medicare with no cap. Employees pay the same amounts through withholding, and those earning over $200,000 owe an additional 0.9% Medicare surtax from their side.

FUTA runs 6.0% on the first $7,000 per employee, reduced to 0.6% with the standard 5.4% credit. Florida’s UI trust fund has been solvent, so Miami employers typically get the full credit. That means roughly $42 per employee per year in federal unemployment tax.

Florida Reemployment Tax

What most states call unemployment insurance, Florida calls reemployment tax. It’s employer-paid, and the taxable wage base for 2025 is $7,000 per employee — same as the federal FUTA base.

New employers in Florida start at a rate of 2.7%. After you’ve been in the system long enough to build an experience rating (typically three years), your rate adjusts based on your claims history. Rates range from 0.1% to 5.4%. A stable workforce with few claims pushes your rate toward the bottom of that range. Layoffs push it up. The Florida Department of Revenue sends your rate notice each year in late December.

No State Income Tax Withholding

This is the big difference between Miami and cities like New York or Los Angeles. You don’t withhold any state or local income tax from your employees’ paychecks. Your payroll runs are simpler, your compliance burden is lower, and your employees see more of their gross pay.

That said, you still need to withhold federal income tax using the employee’s W-4 and the IRS withholding tables. And if you have employees who live in another state but work remotely for your Miami office, you might owe withholding in their state of residence. This comes up more often than you’d think in a post-2020 world where remote work blurs state lines.

No State Disability or Paid Family Leave

Florida does not mandate state disability insurance or paid family leave. That means no SDI deductions, no PFL deductions, and no related employer contributions. Compare that to New York (which requires both DBL and PFL) or California (where SDI covers both disability and family leave at 1.1% of all wages), and the cost advantage for Miami employers is real.

Some Miami employers offer voluntary short-term disability and family leave through private insurance. It’s a recruiting tool, especially when competing for talent against companies in states where these benefits are mandatory. But there’s no state-mandated payroll deduction for it.

What You File and When

Federal filings are the same regardless of location: Form 941 quarterly, Form 940 annually for FUTA, and W-2s/W-3 by January 31.

On the state side, Florida employers file the Employer’s Quarterly Report (Form RT-6) with the Florida Department of Revenue. It covers your reemployment tax and wage detail. Due dates follow the standard quarterly schedule:

• Q1 (Jan–Mar): due April 30
• Q2 (Apr–Jun): due July 31
• Q3 (Jul–Sep): due October 31
• Q4 (Oct–Dec): due January 31

That’s it for state payroll filings. No withholding returns, no disability reports, no supplemental wage reports. Compared to a New York employer filing Form NYS-45 with withholding, UI, and city tax all bundled together, Miami’s reporting load is minimal.

Where Miami Employers Still Trip Up

The biggest mistake is assuming no state income tax means no state payroll obligations at all. You still owe reemployment tax, and failing to register with the Florida Department of Revenue or file RT-6 can result in penalties and loss of your FUTA credit — which turns that 0.6% effective rate back into a full 6.0%.

Worker misclassification is less aggressively policed in Florida than in California or New York, but it still carries consequences. The IRS doesn’t care what state you’re in — if you’re calling someone a 1099 contractor and the IRS says they’re an employee, you owe back FICA taxes plus penalties. Florida’s reemployment tax can also be assessed retroactively on misclassified workers.