Sweetwater Bay Short-Term Rental Regulations: A 2026 Guide For Airbnb Hosts

Do you own a place in Sweetwater and you're weighing whether to put it on Airbnb or Vrbo? Well, the good news is that no Florida city gets to ban you outright, and Sweetwater has never tried. This little municipality of under a square mile sits inside Miami-Dade County, wrapped around Dolphin Mall and the Florida International University campus, and its code says nothing hostile about renting your house by the night.

Then again, it says nothing at all. I pulled the entire City of Sweetwater code, codified through Ordinance No. 5240, adopted March 2, 2026, and searched every chapter of it. The words "vacation rental" and "short-term rental" do not appear once. So there's no permit designed for you, no occupancy cap written for you, and no registry to join. What you get instead is the city's ordinary business machinery, a certificate of use and a business tax receipt, plus a zoning use classification that one director assigns by hand. That's a different problem from the one most Florida guides describe, and it's also why the Miami-Dade County vacation rental certificate you may have read about doesn't apply to you here at all.

So let's walk through what it actually takes to do this properly: what the city requires in 2026, what each piece costs, the three tax authorities you'll be answering to, how hard any of it gets enforced, and who to call when you get stuck. Every figure below comes from Sweetwater's, Miami-Dade County's or Florida's own documents, checked in July 2026, and where something isn't settled I've said so rather than filled the gap. Before you buy anything on the strength of a nightly rate, run the property through BNBCalc first.

What are Short-Term Rental (Airbnb, VRBO) Regulations in Sweetwater, Florida?

Since the city wrote no rules of its own, three separate governments end up sharing the job, and untangling which one owns which piece explains most of the confusion around this market.

Florida sits at the bottom, and it's the layer that protects you. Under Fla. Stat. § 509.032(7)(b), "a local law, ordinance, or regulation may not prohibit vacation rentals or regulate the duration or frequency of rental of vacation rentals." Only ordinances adopted on or before June 1, 2011 escape that, and Sweetwater has no such ordinance to grandfather.

The same chapter then requires you to hold a state licence. Section 509.242(1)(c) defines a vacation rental as a condo, cooperative or one-to-four-family dwelling used as a transient public lodging establishment, and § 509.241 says each such establishment "shall obtain a license from the division."

Miami-Dade County sits above that, and here's where the biggest misconception lives. The county does run a vacation rental programme with its own certificate of use, annual inspection, occupancy caps and a live-in responsible party rule. It just doesn't reach you.

Section 33-28 of the county code opens by saying the section "shall apply in the unincorporated areas of Miami-Dade County," and the county's own short-term vacation rental page tells municipal property owners to follow their local regulations instead. Sweetwater is an incorporated municipality.

So the county's $36.70 certificate, its two-per-bedroom cap and its six-months-residency requirement are all somebody else's rules, and any guide that hands them to you has quietly moved you into the wrong jurisdiction. What Miami-Dade does keep is the money, in the form of tourist taxes we'll come to shortly.

That leaves Sweetwater itself, working through two ordinary chapters of its code. Chapter 25 makes it "unlawful for any person to open or operate any business and/or occupy any structure within the city limits for the privilege of engaging in any business prior to obtaining the required certificate of use." Chapter 62, Article III adds the local business tax receipt on top.

Neither one mentions rentals by name, and both catch you anyway.

Zoning is what actually decides your outcome, though, because a certificate of use is nothing more than the city confirming your use is allowed where you are. Sweetwater's Land Development Code divides the city into 16 districts and defines "transient dwelling/lodging" as "a use consisting of units available for lease or rent by transient guests for a period of typically not more than 30 days," including hotels and motels.

That use is listed in the Dolphin Community Urban Center and the Flagler Center District, while hotels and motels are permitted in C-1, C-2, C-3 and I-1. None of them appear in the residential districts, and the single-family district closes its list with a sentence you should read twice: "No other use is permitted in this single-family residential district other than those set forth in this section."

Does that make a nightly rental of your own house an unpermitted transient lodging use, or is it still a single-family dwelling that happens to turn over quickly? Sweetwater has never answered that in writing, and I couldn't find an ordinance, an administrative order or a decided case that settles it.

Keep in mind that the state statute above forbids a ban, not ordinary zoning, so the two arguments collide here rather than one obviously winning. The practical answer is that the Building and Zoning director makes the call on your application, which is exactly why the next section starts there.

One more constraint applies wherever you land. The Land Development Code defines a "family" as a single person, or a related group, or else "not more than four unrelated persons occupying a dwelling."

Watch out for that if your revenue model assumes a six-guest group booking in a four-bedroom house.

Starting a Short-Term Rental Business in Sweetwater

Because that zoning classification decides everything downstream, the first money you spend should buy an answer rather than an application. Sweetwater sells one directly. Its zoning verification request form costs $200 for a simple letter and $400 where the letter requires research, takes a minimum of 20 business days, and is non-refundable either way.

Ask the question in plain terms, name the folio, and describe the operation you intend to run, because a letter answering a vague question is worth nothing.

Twenty business days feels slow when you're under contract. It's still cheaper than the alternative, which is buying a house on the assumption that nightly rentals are fine, filing for a certificate of use, and discovering at the counter that the director classifies your plan as transient lodging in a district that doesn't allow it.

Where you sit on the map matters more here than in most cities, because Sweetwater is small and mixed. The commercial and mixed-use districts are the ones that already contemplate lodging.

The Dolphin Community Urban Center permits hotels, motels and condo-hotels outright, and the Flagler Center District is brand new: Ordinance No. 5235, adopted February 9, 2026, added it to the district list and wrote its regulations into § 2.07.00.

So a condo inside one of those areas is a much easier conversation than a house on a residential street.

Renters and condo owners have a second gate to clear before any of that. The city's certificate of use packet requires a copy of the lease, a letter of approval from the landlord where the application is for a sublease, and a letter of approval from the association where one applies. So a condo board that dislikes short-term rentals can end your plan without any help from the city, and plenty of Miami-Dade associations do exactly that.

Assuming your address survives all of that and you're able to move forward, there's still the licensing sequence to get through, and that's where the real work begins.

Short-Term Rental Licensing Requirements in Sweetwater

Five separate approvals stack up before you take a booking, and three different governments issue them, so do check the order rather than filing everything at once.

The state licence comes first in practice, because the city asks for a copy of it. The DBPR Division of Hotels and Restaurants issues vacation rental licences in two classifications, Vacation Rental Dwelling and Vacation Rental Condo.

Per the division's lodging fee schedule, as of July 2026 a new single-unit licence runs a $50 application fee plus $170 for a full year (or $90 for a half-year), a 2-to-25-unit licence is $180 for a full year, and a $10 Hospitality Education Program fee attaches in every case. Licences renew annually on a staggered schedule, and you have 30 days to report an address change through your online account.

Sweetwater's Chapter 25 then requires that all state-regulated businesses "submit a copy of their current state license, certification, and/or registration prior to the issuance of their certificate of use thereafter each year at time of renewal."

Next comes the city certificate of use, and the fee schedule is friendlier than most people expect. Under § 25-6, the residential certificate of use fee is $200.00 for 1 to 10 units, $500.00 for 11 to 100, and $10.00 per unit above that.

The city's own process packet describes a $150.00 non-refundable upfront fee payable when you submit, with the balance due once a process number is assigned. Renewals afterward are modest: $35.00 a year for premises under 2,000 square feet, $75.00 at 2,000 square feet or more, plus a $10.00 processing fee on the renewal application.

The dates are unforgiving, though, so put them in a calendar now. Certificates are issued from June 1 each year, every certificate expires on September 30 regardless of when you got it, and the renewal application and fee are due October 1.

Miss that and a delinquency penalty of 10% per month runs for up to three months. Miss December 31 and your certificate is null and void, which means a fresh application at full price. Operating without one carries a separate penalty of 30% of the fee determined to be due, on top of anything else.

Inspections are the step that catches people, mostly because of a clock nobody mentions. Section 25-7 gives you 30 days from the date you submit the application to request the required inspections, and if that window lapses, "the application will be null and void and a new application and fees are required. All application fees paid are not refundable or transferable."

You request them by emailing [email protected] for the building, plumbing, mechanical, electrical and zoning inspections. Separately, you call Miami-Dade County Fire at 786-331-5000 for the fire inspection, whose passing report has to reach the city before the certificate issues. Anything the inspectors write up has to be fixed within 30 days of the notice, or the application dies the same way.

Between the certificate application and the business tax receipt sits a county step the city inserts on your behalf. Once you have a process number, you file the Miami-Dade County Approval of Municipal Application for Certificate of Use to get sign-off from the county's Department of Environmental Resources Management, which everyone here calls DERM, then bring that approval document back to Sweetwater.

The business tax receipt closes it out. Section 62-48 bars anyone from engaging in a listed business without first paying the tax and obtaining a city licence, and receipts are sold from July 1, due on or before September 30, and expire on September 30 of the following year.

Sweetwater's schedule prices living accommodations at $21.00 for four to 15 units and $2.10 for each additional unit, and its catch-all unclassified line at $63.00. Which line a single house lands on isn't spelled out, since the living accommodations entry starts at four units, and § 62-69(b) leaves the licensing department to classify anything not listed. Ask them rather than assuming.

Remember that you need a separate Miami-Dade County business tax receipt as well, which the city's own packet spells out: "You are required to obtained one from Miami Dade County and a separate one from the City of Sweetwater."

Once issued, the certificate has to be displayed conspicuously at the premises and stay open to public view, and § 25-18 subjects you to an annual inspection of the place of business for as long as you hold it.

Required Documents for Sweetwater Short-Term Rentals

Since none of those fees come back, it's worth assembling the whole file before you submit anything. The certificate of use application under § 25-7 and the city's process packet between them ask for:

• Your Florida DBPR vacation rental licence, or the receipt issued by the state, resubmitted at every annual renewal.
• A completed certificate of use application, signed by the property owner or corporate officer in an individual capacity, and notarized.
• A copy of the lease or sublease, or a relocation letter, plus a landlord's letter of approval where the applicant is a sublessee.
• A letter of approval from the association, where a condo or homeowners association governs the property.
• A floor plan or location sketch showing existing walls, overall dimensions, and the address and unit number.
• Articles of incorporation and a fictitious name registration, where you're holding the property in an entity or trading under a different name.
• The emergency locator block, naming the owner and manager with business and residence addresses and phone numbers for fire or other emergencies, updated in writing whenever it changes.
• Your Miami-Dade County business tax receipt and DERM approval, both of which the city requires with the business tax receipt application.
• A driver's licence copy for the officer or owner, and the $150.00 non-refundable fee.

Clear your debts to the city first, too. Section 25-8 lets the director deny an application where the applicant is delinquent on any certification fee, code enforcement lien, special assessment lien "and/or any other debt or obligation due to the city."

Section 25-8(c) then goes further. No city officer may issue any permit, licence, certificate of use, building permit or zoning action to a named violator carrying unpaid civil penalties, hearing costs or liens. So an old open permit on the property will stop you before the zoning question ever gets asked.

Sweetwater Short-Term Rental Taxes

Assuming you get through all that and are able to start hosting, there's still tax to deal with, and it arrives from two directions at once. Florida collects part of it, Miami-Dade County collects the rest directly rather than through the state, and the split is what makes this stack easy to get wrong.

Charge	Rate	Collected by
Sales tax on transient rentals	6%	Florida Department of Revenue
Discretionary sales surtax	1%	Florida Department of Revenue
Convention Development Tax	3%	Miami-Dade County Tax Collector
Tourist Development Tax	2%	Miami-Dade County Tax Collector
Professional Sports Franchise Facility Tax	1%	Miami-Dade County Tax Collector
Total	13%	two agencies

The state half is straightforward. Florida's Department of Revenue guidance makes rental charges for living, sleeping or housekeeping accommodations of six months or less taxable at the general 6% rate plus any county surtax, and the department's current DR-15DSS puts Miami-Dade's discretionary sales surtax at 1%, in force since January 1, 1992 with no expiration date.

Whoever rents the accommodation, or an agent collecting rent for the owner, has to register with the department, file returns, and remit even in periods where nothing came in.

The county half is where Miami-Dade differs from most of Florida. Its 6% local option transient rental tax is remitted straight to the county rather than to the state, and the county's tourist and restaurant taxes page breaks it into the 3% Convention Development Tax, the 2% Tourist Development Tax and the 1% Professional Sports Facilities Franchise Tax.

Returns are monthly, due on the 1st and late after the 20th of the following month, and you file "even if no taxes are collected." Late filing costs 10% per 30 days with a $50 minimum, plus daily interest. Since October 1, 2025 the county has added $10 penalties for filing or paying outside its electronic system.

Platform collection takes most of this off your desk, mind you. Airbnb's own occupancy tax page says it collects the Florida transient rental tax, the discretionary sales surtax, and in Miami-Dade specifically the 2% Tourist Development Room Tax, the 1% Professional Sports Franchise Facility Tax and the 3% Convention Development Tax, all on reservations of 182 nights and shorter. That covers the full 13% on an Airbnb booking.

Don't forget that it covers nothing else. Take one direct booking, one Vrbo reservation on a different collection arrangement, or one corporate stay booked over email, and you personally owe every layer on that reservation. Check your own payout detail rather than trusting a general statement, mine included.

Tax Deductions and Write-Offs

Florida takes none of your profit, at least. The state has no personal income tax, so the only income return you file on this business is federal, and there's no Florida equivalent to chase.

Everything you spent getting legal is deductible against that federal income, and in Sweetwater the list is longer than most: the DBPR licence and its education fee, the certificate of use and its renewals, both business tax receipts, the zoning verification letter, the re-inspection fees if you needed them, even the 3% surcharge the city adds when you pay by card.

Depreciation, mortgage interest, insurance, cleaning, utilities and platform commissions run the usual way. Do keep the county tourist tax receipts filed separately from the state ones, though, since they go to different agencies on different schedules and one mixed folder makes an audit far more painful than it needs to be.

Florida Wide Short-Term Rental Rules

That federal-only picture is one of several places where Florida law works in your favour, and the statewide framework is worth understanding on its own terms, because it's what keeps Sweetwater from writing the ordinance it currently lacks.

The preemption in § 509.032(7)(b) has held since 2011 and survived a serious attempt to rewrite it. A 2024 package would have expanded state control, added a statewide registration system and preempted advertising platform regulation, but HB 1537 was laid on the table on March 5, 2024 and SB 280 passed both chambers only to be vetoed on June 27, 2024.

Neither became law, so the older and narrower preemption still governs. Cities keep their ordinary zoning, life-safety, noise and building-code powers. They simply can't ban vacation rentals or dictate how often you rent.

The rule that did change recently is the one deciding whether you need a state licence at all. Chapter 2025-113, signed as SB 606 and effective July 1, 2025, rewrote the transient occupancy test: a rental is now transient when it's rented more than three times in a calendar year for periods of less than 30 consecutive days, counted in consecutive days rather than calendar months.

It also dropped the old presumption based on what the operator said they intended, so a stay is presumed temporary unless a written lease says otherwise. Just make sure you count in consecutive days now, because the old month-based arithmetic gives a different answer near the boundary.

Two 2026 bills would have added water-safety duties for licensees within 150 feet of a pool or water body, with a compliance certificate filed at licensure and renewal. SB 658 passed the Senate 37-0 on February 19, 2026 and then died in Messages in the House on March 13, 2026, and its House companion died the same day. Neither is law, so treat a 2027 refile as plausible rather than planning around it.

How all that plays out on the ground varies enormously by county, which is the honest caveat on any statewide summary.

Our Florida statewide guide maps the framework as a whole. The Orange County guide covers the Orlando market, where entire-home rentals do face real zoning limits, and the Osceola County guide covers the purpose-built resort corridor next door. The Collier County guide is worth a look for a different reason, since Collier struck its own tax collection deal with the platforms.

Does Sweetwater Strictly Enforce STR Rules?

Enforcement here follows the same logic as everything else in this guide: there's no short-term rental unit, so there's no short-term rental crackdown, and what you face instead is a general code enforcement operation that is neither small nor gentle.

The city runs a Code Enforcement Division out of 1695 NW 110 Ave with a chief officer, a field supervisor, five code officers and a parking enforcement officer, working Monday to Friday from 9 to 5. That's a real staff for a city this size. Complaints from neighbours are the usual trigger, and a nightly-turnover house on a residential street generates them.

The penalty schedule in Chapter 2, Article IX was itself amended by Ordinance No. 5240 on March 2, 2026, and three lines in it can attach to an unpermitted rental:

• Chapter 25, certificate of use required, renewal, revocation: $500.00.
• Section 62-48, business tax receipt required: $500.00.
• Land Development Code 2.04.00, allowable uses within each zoning district: $250.00.

Those aren't one-time fines, and that's exactly where owners get badly hurt. Under § 2-369, a continuing violation adds another penalty in the same amount for every single day past the correction deadline, and a repeat violation doubles, with each subsequent repeat doubling again. You also get one warning and only one: § 2-367 states flatly that "there shall be only one warning for any Code violation." After that the citations write themselves.

Revocation is the slower and more expensive outcome. Section 25-17 lets the director revoke, suspend or refuse to renew a certificate where the holder misrepresented a material fact, changed the use without authorization, or violated city, county, state or federal law including zoning and licensing ordinances.

You get a written notice of intent and 15 calendar days to request a hearing before the planning and zoning board through the city clerk. Lose it and no reapplication is accepted from the same applicant for a year, which in practice means a year of no legal operation at that address.

I should be straight about the limits of this picture, though. Sweetwater publishes no case counts, no citation totals and no revocation data, so I can't tell you how many hosts have actually been hit. What I can tell you is that the annual inspection under § 25-18 puts a city inspector inside your property every year by design, and that the city attorney is authorized to seek inspection warrants when access is refused. Enforcement isn't hypothetical when someone is scheduled to walk through the door.

How to Start a Short-Term Rental Business in Sweetwater

Given how many of those penalties trace back to a zoning classification nobody confirmed, the order below is doing more work than it looks like it is. The early steps are the ones that tell you whether the later steps are worth paying for.

1. Buy the zoning answer before you buy the property. File the zoning verification request, $200 simple or $400 with research, and allow at least 20 business days. Describe the actual operation, not a general question about rentals.
2. Check the association and the lease. A condo board or landlord that prohibits short-term rentals ends this regardless of what the city says, and you'll be submitting their approval letter with the application anyway.
3. Clear old violations and open permits. Section 25-8 blocks issuance where anything is owed to the city, and § 25-8(c) blocks every other permit too.
4. Apply for the Florida DBPR vacation rental licence. Budget $50 plus $170 for a single-unit full year, plus the $10 education fee, and pick the right classification between Dwelling and Condo.
5. Register with the Florida Department of Revenue for sales tax, and register separately with Miami-Dade County for the transient rental taxes. Two agencies, two accounts, two filing calendars.
6. File the certificate of use application with the $150.00 non-refundable fee, the notarized form, the lease, the approval letters and the floor plan, then pay the balance once a process number issues.
7. Request every inspection within 30 days of that submission. Email the city for building, plumbing, mechanical, electrical and zoning, and call Miami-Dade Fire at 786-331-5000 for theirs. Missing the window voids the application and the fees.
8. Get DERM approval through the Miami-Dade County Approval of Municipal Application for Certificate of Use, then bring it back to the city.
9. Apply for both business tax receipts, the county one and then the city one, and diarize September 30 for the certificate and the receipt together.
10. Post the certificate where guests and inspectors can see it, keep the emergency locator details current in writing, and confirm on your first payout statement that the platform really is collecting all 13%.

Who to Contact in Sweetwater about Short-Term Rental Regulations and Zoning?

Working through that list, you'll deal with four offices, and knowing which one owns your question saves a genuinely irritating amount of time.

Zoning, certificates of use and inspections

The City of Sweetwater Building and Zoning Department issues the certificate of use, assigns the zoning use classification, and schedules the city inspections. This is your first call and the one that matters most.

• Address: 1695 NW 110 Ave, Unit 109, Sweetwater, FL 33172
• Phone: 305-485-4526
• Hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., closed 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.
• Building Director and Building Official: Richard Rubi, [email protected]
• Zoning Director: Jorge Vera, [email protected]
• Certificate of use submittals: [email protected]
• Business tax receipt submittals: [email protected]
• Inspection requests: [email protected]

Address the zoning question to the zoning director in writing, and keep the reply. A verbal answer at the counter protects nobody, least of all you at a code hearing two years later.

Complaints and citations

The Code Enforcement Division handles violations, which makes this line worth knowing in both directions.

• Address: 1695 NW 110 Ave, Suite 109, Sweetwater, FL 33172
• Phone: 786-953-8308
• Hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• Chief Code Enforcement Officer: Martin Garcia, [email protected]
• Code Enforcement Clerk: [email protected]

General city business, records requests and commission agendas run through Sweetwater City Hall at 500 S.W. 109 Avenue, Sweetwater, FL 33174, 305-221-0411.

County taxes and the fire inspection

Miami-Dade County collects the 6% transient rental taxes itself, and the Tourist Tax Section administers registration, returns and audits.

• Address: 11805 SW 26th Street, Suite 230, Miami, FL 33175
• Phone: 305-375-5550
• Fax: 305-375-5594
• File and pay: TouristExpress, at miamidade.county-taxes.com/tourist

Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue handles the fire inspection the city requires before it issues your certificate, on 786-331-5000.

State licensing and state tax

The DBPR Division of Hotels and Restaurants issues and renews the vacation rental licence, and its licensing pages carry the current fee ladder and the online account where address changes get reported within 30 days. State sales tax registration, returns and the surtax belong to the Florida Department of Revenue, which is a separate registration from the county's.

What Do Airbnb Hosts in Sweetwater on Reddit and Bigger Pockets Think about Local Regulations?

Four offices, three governments, and no ordinance written for any of this is a lot to hold in your head, which is roughly the shape the online conversation takes too. I want to be careful about what I claim here, though. I could not read Reddit or the BiggerPockets Miami threads directly for this refresh, so what follows is my read of where the confusion sits, drawn from the documents above rather than from any survey of posts. Do weigh it accordingly.

• Almost everyone starts in the wrong rulebook. Search for Miami-Dade short-term rental rules and you land on the county's vacation rental certificate, its inspection fee and its occupancy caps, none of which apply inside an incorporated city. Sweetwater hosts who follow that trail spend weeks preparing for a programme they can't enrol in.
• The paperwork count, not any single rule, is the real complaint. A state licence, a city certificate of use, a city business tax receipt, a county business tax receipt, DERM approval, a state tax account and a county tax account is seven registrations before a first guest, across three governments with three renewal calendars.
• The zoning silence unsettles people, and it should. A city that has never written down its position can change that position without changing any ordinance, and an owner holding nothing but a verbal assurance has nothing to point at.
• Associations end more plans than the city does. Miami-Dade's condo and homeowner association rules are frequently stricter than anything municipal, and Sweetwater's own application asks for the association's approval letter, which puts that veto right in the middle of the process.

Take the second point seriously if you're comparing markets. Compliance overhead is a real cost, it lands mostly in the first ninety days, and it doesn't scale down for a single property. If you're weighing Sweetwater against somewhere else in the state, the Florida market data is the place to see what the nightly economics look like before you commit to any of this paperwork.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally run an Airbnb in Sweetwater, Florida in 2026?

Most likely yes, though nothing about it is automatic. The City of Sweetwater has no vacation rental ordinance and no ban, and Florida law bars a city from prohibiting vacation rentals outright. You still need a Florida DBPR vacation rental licence, a Sweetwater certificate of use, business tax receipts from both the city and Miami-Dade County, and a zoning use classification from the Building and Zoning director. That last one is the piece the city has never settled in writing.

Does the Miami-Dade County vacation rental certificate of use apply in Sweetwater?

No. Section 33-28 of the Miami-Dade County code states that it applies in the unincorporated areas of the county, and the county's own guidance tells owners inside municipalities to follow their local rules instead. Sweetwater is an incorporated city, so the county's vacation rental certificate, its inspection fee, its two-guests-per-bedroom occupancy cap and its live-in responsible party requirement are not requirements there. The county's tourist taxes do still apply.

How much does a Sweetwater certificate of use cost?

The residential certificate of use fee is $200.00 for one to ten units, $500.00 for 11 to 100 units, and $10.00 per unit above that. A $150.00 non-refundable payment is due when the application is submitted, with the balance payable once a process number issues. Annual renewal is $35.00 for premises under 2,000 square feet or $75.00 at 2,000 square feet and above, plus a $10.00 renewal application fee. Every certificate expires on September 30.

What taxes do you pay on a short-term rental in Sweetwater?

Thirteen percent in total on stays of six months or less. Florida takes 6% sales tax plus a 1% Miami-Dade discretionary sales surtax, both remitted to the Department of Revenue. Miami-Dade County takes 6% of its own, made up of a 3% Convention Development Tax, a 2% Tourist Development Tax and a 1% Professional Sports Facilities Franchise Tax, all remitted directly to the county monthly. Airbnb collects all five components on bookings it processes. Direct bookings are yours to remit.

What happens if you rent a Sweetwater property without a certificate of use?

Operating without one carries a penalty of 30% of the fee determined to be due, plus a $500.00 civil penalty under the city's code enforcement schedule. Business tax receipt violations carry another $500.00, and a zoning use violation adds $250.00. None of these are one-time charges: a continuing violation accrues the same amount for every day past the correction deadline, and repeat violations double. The city issues one written warning per code violation, and only one.

Last verified: July 2026. Every ordinance, tax rate, state law, and contact detail in this guide links to or comes from its official source.