Florida Passes Data Center Sales Tax Exemption

DALLAS, June 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Florida Governor Rick Scott has signed legislation that includes a sales tax exemption for data centers. The exemption, which goes into effect on July 1, 2017, is Florida's first official tool to attract data center investment. The exemption eliminates sales tax and use tax for data centers, infrastructure, equipment, personal property, and electricity. 

In order to qualify for the exemption, a company must:

• Make a minimum $150 million cumulative investment;
• The data center must have a critical load of at least 15MW and a critical load of at least 1MW per each individual owner or tenant in the facility;
• The data center must be operational by June 30, 2022;
• Applications for exemption certificates must be made to the Florida Department of Revenue; and
• Reporting to the Florida Department of Revenue will be required to demonstrate the exemption was utilized to the letter of the law.

The legislation creating the data center sales and use tax exemption requires a review by the Florida Department of Revenue to assure continued qualification. It also contains a "claw back" provision, if it is determined that the data center property does not meet the criteria for exemption.

Several of Florida's larger utility companies already have economic development programs in place to attract heavy users, such as data centers. 

The text of the bill with the data center exemption can be found here.

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