Florida House OKs $154M Tax Cuts on Guns, Gear and US Beer

The Florida House voted 105-2 Thursday to pass a tax-cut package that would eliminate sales taxes on firearm accessories, extend a hunting and fishing sales tax holiday, and lift taxes on American-made beer. The changes could directly benefit Treasure Coast hunters, anglers, campers and outdoor retailers.

The House bill (HB 7031) is projected to cut state and local revenue by $153.9 million in the next fiscal year. For Treasure Coast residents, the most immediate benefit would be the revival of the hunting, fishing and camping sales tax holiday, running Sept. 1 through Dec. 31. During that window, taxes would be lifted on camping tents priced under $200, fishing rods priced at $75 or less, and purchases of firearms, ammunition, bows and crossbows.

The bill drew its two dissenting votes in part over a provision exempting firearm accessories — including holsters, magazines, muzzle devices, sights and suppressors — from sales tax for the next fiscal year. Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Wyann Duggan, R-Jacksonville, tied the inclusion of gun accessories to a 2024 constitutional amendment enshrining the right to hunt and fish. "Obviously, those are activities that the citizens of our state engage in, and as a component of that in our sales tax holiday we wanted to include the accessories that go along with exercising that constitutional right," Duggan said.

Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, D-Parkland, who voted against the bill, questioned whether the accessory exemption supports "the purchase of unlimited firearm accessories, unlimited ammunition, unlimited guns." Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, backed the portion of the bill that decouples Florida's corporate income tax from federal changes under President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, warning that conforming with federal language could cost the state up to $3.5 billion a year.

The bill also moves the back-to-school sales tax holiday to July 20 through Aug. 20, shifts at least $50 million annually to mostly rural "fiscally constrained" counties through state sales tax revenue rather than satellite tax proceeds, and reduces both the pari-mutuel tax on cardrooms and the tax on slot machine revenue.

The Senate passed its companion measure (SB 7046) Monday. The two chambers must negotiate differences before the legislative session ends March 13.

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