Sales Tax in Indian River County — Indian River County, Florida

The sales tax rate in Indian River County is 7%, the 6% Florida rate plus a 1% county surtax, and the same 7% applies in Sebastian, Vero Beach, Fellsmere, Indian River Shores, Orchid and the unincorporated county (Form DR-15DSS).

Florida's general state sales tax rate is 6%, with three exceptions the state lists by name: 3% on retail sales of new mobile homes, 4% on amusement machine receipts and 6.95% on electricity (Florida Department of Revenue). The county's 1% is added to sales that are already subject to state tax, so a taxable purchase at a store on U.S. 1 in Sebastian, a restaurant bill in downtown Vero Beach and a hardware purchase in Fellsmere carry the same combined rate (Discretionary Sales Surtax).

The county Revenue Manual describes the levy as 1% on all sales tax eligible purchases in Indian River County up to a maximum of $5,000 (Indian River County Revenue Manual, p. 62). Cities such as Sebastian and Vero Beach share in the money, as the last section shows, but they do not set the rate.

The county is using half of its legal room. The Florida Legislature's Office of Economic and Demographic Research (EDR) lists Indian River, with an April 1, 2025 population of 173,013, at a 2.0% maximum potential county rate, a 1.0% current rate and 1.0% unutilized, and shows no school district levy against a 0.5% school maximum (EDR 2026 rates, row 41).

The Indian River County surtax paid in Sebastian and Vero Beach took effect on June 1, 1989 and is scheduled to expire on December 31, 2034, after voters approved it in March 1989 and renewed it in November 2002 and November 2016 (DR-15DSS, Revenue Manual).

The state's surtax chart prints the dates on one line for the county: Indian River 1%, effective Jun 1, 1989, expiring Dec 31, 2034 (Form DR-15DSS). The county's 2025-26 Revenue Manual records the three referendums and cites section 212.055(2) of the Florida Statutes as the legal authority, and the county's Office of Management and Budget books the money in Optional Sales Tax Fund 315 (Revenue Manual, p. 62). Sebastian's draft 2026-27 budget tells the same story from the city side: the revenue was extended by referendum vote in fiscal 2016-2017 until December 31, 2034 (City of Sebastian draft budget, p. 106).

A vote is built into the law. Section 212.055(2) lets a county levy a local government infrastructure surtax of 0.5 percent or 1 percent, and the levy must be approved by a majority of the county's voters in a referendum, whether the question comes from a county ordinance or from uniform resolutions of cities representing a majority of the county's population (section 212.055). Continuing the tax in Sebastian, Vero Beach and the rest of the county after 2034 would therefore take another countywide referendum.

The state chart lags. The Department of Revenue says the current year DR-15DSS is updated yearly in November (Florida Department of Revenue), yet on October 12, 2026 the posted edition was still the calendar year 2025 chart, revision 11/24. EDR's separate 2026 table confirms the Indian River rate is still 1% this year (EDR 2026 rates), so a buyer in Fellsmere or Orchid is paying the same surtax that the 2025 chart shows.

The Indian River County surtax applies only to the first $5,000 of a single item of tangible personal property, so the county share on a car, boat or appliance bought in Sebastian or Vero Beach tops out at $50 (Florida Department of Revenue).

That $50 is arithmetic: 1% of $5,000. The cap has limits. The Department of Revenue says the $5,000 cap does not apply to prepaid calling arrangements, admissions, transient rentals or sales of services, so a ticket to an event at a Vero Beach venue or a week in a Sebastian motel is surtaxed on the full price (Discretionary Sales Surtax). Lodging in Sebastian or Vero Beach also carries a separate county tourist development tax, which Form DR-15TDT lists as collected by the county rather than the state (Form DR-15TDT).

Delivery decides the county. A dealer who delivers taxable goods into a county with a surtax collects at the rate of the county where the delivery is made, and an out-of-state seller shipping into a surtax county does the same (Florida Department of Revenue). A sofa bought in Brevard and delivered to a Roseland or Sebastian home is taxed at the Indian River County rate, and a Vero Beach dealer delivering into a county with no surtax collects none.

Vehicles are handled at the Indian River County Tax Collector. Sales tax may be due at the time of title transfer, six percent is collected on the total price of a straight sale, and additional local discretionary sales surtax may also apply based on the purchaser's county of residence (Tax Collector). The Tax Collector lists four offices: the Main Office at the County Administration Complex, 1800 27th Street, Building B, Vero Beach; the West Office at 1860 82nd Avenue, Suite 102; the Sebastian Office at Sebastian Corners, 1921 U.S. Highway 1; and the Oceanside Office at 3003 Cardinal Drive, Suite C, and appointments are required for in-office services (Indian River County Tax Collector).

The 7% combined rate in Indian River County matches Brevard, St. Lucie and Okeechobee in 2026, while Osceola, on the county's western edge, charges 7.5% (EDR 2026 rates).

The neighbors build the same total differently. EDR's 2026 table shows Brevard, just north of Sebastian and Roseland, with a 0.5% county infrastructure levy plus a 0.5% school levy (EDR, Brevard row), and St. Lucie, south of Vero Beach, with the same 0.5% and 0.5% pairing (EDR, St. Lucie row). Okeechobee levies a 1% small county surtax (EDR, Okeechobee row), and Osceola stacks a 1% county levy with a 0.5% school levy (EDR, Osceola row).

The Brevard line matters most to north county shoppers, since Sebastian sits on it. EDR lists both of Brevard County's 0.5% levies, the local government infrastructure surtax and the school capital outlay surtax, among the levies scheduled to expire on December 31, 2026 (EDR 2026 rates, note 15). The Indian River County rate on the Sebastian side of the line is not affected by that date.

Dealers in Indian River County, from Sebastian to Vero Beach, reported $362,266,185 of taxable sales for January 2026 and $277,365,977 for March 2026, according to the Department of Revenue's Form 9 county series (FDOR Form 9, Taxable Sales).

January runs well above midsummer. January 2025 taxable sales were $368,638,104 and July 2025 were $273,305,361 on the same Indian River County row, a gap of $95,332,743 (Form 9). The tax column tracks the state rate: $21,700,261 collected for January 2026 (Form 9, Tax Collections) is 5.99% of that month's taxable sales ($21,700,261 divided by $362,266,185), which matches the 6% state tax rather than the full 7% paid at a Sebastian or Vero Beach register.

The Department's Form 10 breaks the county down by kind of business. For reporting month April 2026, preliminary data released May 4, 2026, Indian River County dealers reported $666,677,369 in gross sales, $316,157,584 in taxable sales and $18,949,830 in state sales and use taxes (FDOR Form 10, Indian River). Motor vehicle dealers, trailers and campers led with $64,775,184 of taxable sales (Form 10), followed by restaurants, lunchrooms and catering at $40,549,577 (Form 10), general merchandise stores at $36,746,372 (Form 10), grocery stores at $21,594,141 (Form 10) and hotels, rooming houses and apartments at $16,353,466 (Form 10). The state does not publish these figures for Sebastian, Vero Beach or Fellsmere separately; the county is the smallest area in both series.

The state sends the surtax to the Indian River County Clerk of Court every month, and EDR estimates that Sebastian will receive 13.084429% of the countywide total, $4,965,936, for the local fiscal year ending September 30, 2027 (EDR estimate).

The flow runs through Tallahassee and back. Vendors submit monthly sales tax payments to the State, and the State remits the 1% surtax to the IRC Clerk of Court, who deposits it into the county fund (Revenue Manual, p. 62). Without an interlocal agreement, section 212.055 splits the money by the formula in section 218.62 (section 212.055), and EDR's estimate for Indian River County uses those default-formula columns. Sebastian's budget describes the split as a percentage basis determined by the city's population (City of Sebastian).

Sebastian's own number is higher than the state's. The city's draft 2026-27 budget, dated September 8, 2026, estimates its allocation at $5,194,125 based on trend analysis, after actual receipts of $4,791,513 in fiscal 2022/23, $4,902,213 in 2023/24 and $5,068,598 in 2024/25 (City of Sebastian draft budget, p. 106). The city figure exceeds EDR's estimate by $228,189 ($5,194,125 minus $4,965,936). The fiscal 2024 receipt also appears in EDR's municipal revenue file, which reports Sebastian's $4,902,213 of infrastructure surtax as $182.19 per resident (EDR, Sebastian revenues 2024).

On the county side, Fund 315 took in $26,014,111 in fiscal 2021/22 and $28,074,542 in 2023/24, and the 2025/26 budget counts on $28,574,000 (Revenue Manual, p. 62). State law limits all of these shares, Sebastian's and Fellsmere's included, to infrastructure, land for public recreation, conservation or protection of natural resources, and a few other listed purposes, and the proceeds may not be used for the operational expenses of infrastructure (section 212.055). Last verified: October 12, 2026, on Florida Department of Revenue Form DR-15DSS (page 1) and its Discretionary Sales Surtax page, EDR's 2026 surtax rate table (rows 16, 41, 58, 60 and 67) and its 2026-27 distribution estimates (rows 197 to 203), page 62 of the Indian River County 2025-26 Revenue Manual, page 106 of the City of Sebastian draft 2026-27 budget, and the Indian River County Tax Collector's sales tax and office pages.