Bookkeeping, Tax Preparation Support and Virtual CFO Services for Miami Businesses

Florida is one of nine states with no personal income tax, so a Miami business owner running an S corporation or LLC taxed as a pass-through does not file a Florida personal return on that income. That does not mean Florida is tax-free for a business. C corporations pay the Florida corporate income tax at 5.5% of net income apportioned to the state, a rate that has held since tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2022, after a few years of temporary reductions. S corporations and single-member LLCs generally sit outside this tax at the entity level, but the exemption thresholds and add-back rules still need to be applied correctly in the books, not guessed at.

Sales tax is the one Miami businesses underestimate most. Florida's state rate is 6%, and Miami-Dade County adds a 1% discretionary surtax, for a combined 7% on most taxable sales delivered inside the county. Rates differ by county once you ship or deliver outside Miami-Dade, so a business selling statewide needs its bookkeeping system tracking the destination county on every invoice, not a single flat rate. We build the chart of accounts and point-of-sale or invoicing integration to capture that from day one, and flag when a rate needs reconfirming with the Florida Department of Revenue rather than assuming last year's number still holds.

Tangible personal property tax is another one that catches new Miami-Dade businesses off guard. Business equipment, furniture and fixtures are assessed annually by the county property appraiser, and a Tangible Personal Property Tax Return is due by April 1. We track the asset register so this filing has real numbers behind it instead of a rough guess.

A Florida LLC or corporation files an annual report with the Division of Corporations, Sunbiz, every year. The filing window opens January 1 and the report is due by May 1. Miss that date and a $400 late fee applies automatically to profit corporations, LLCs, limited partnerships and LLLPs (nonprofits are exempt from the fee). Miss the following third Friday in September and the state administratively dissolves the entity, which then has to be reinstated with additional fees before it can legally operate again. We track this date on your calendar alongside your bookkeeping close so it never becomes a surprise.

A new Miami business also needs a federal EIN before it can open a bank account or run payroll, and if it sells taxable goods or services it needs a Florida sales tax registration (a DR-1 filing with the Department of Revenue) before the first taxable sale, not after. Businesses with employees register for Florida reemployment tax (the state's version of unemployment insurance) separately. None of these are one-time tasks either; sales tax returns are filed monthly, quarterly or annually depending on volume, and reemployment tax returns are quarterly. We set up the registrations correctly the first time and keep the filing calendar current as your volume changes the frequency.

Real estate and property management is one of Miami's largest sectors, from short-term rental operators in Brickell and South Beach to multi-property landlords across Miami-Dade and Broward. That work means security deposit trust accounting done correctly, rental income and expenses tracked by unit or property, and 1099s issued to contractors and vendors on time.

Hospitality is close behind. Restaurants and hotel operators in Miami are reconciling daily point-of-sale deposits that bundle sales, tips, tax and card fees into a single bank deposit that needs to be split apart correctly before it means anything on a P&L.

Logistics and trade businesses moving freight through PortMiami, the Miami River, and Miami International Airport are common here, and their books carry multi-currency invoices, freight-forwarder commissions, and customs and duty costs that need their own line items rather than getting lumped into cost of goods sold.

Crypto and fintech firms clustered in Brickell need bookkeeping that treats digital asset transactions as what they are for accounting purposes, with gains, losses and wallet activity reconciled month over month, not just a bank feed import.

Startups, many backed by Miami's growing venture scene, need a clean cap table-adjacent set of books, burn and runway tracking, and financials that survive investor and eventual acquirer diligence.

Documents move through a secure client portal rather than email attachments, and bank and card feeds connect directly into your accounting software so nothing is retyped by hand. Monthly close follows a fixed calendar: reconciliation, categorization, a review pass, and a set of financials delivered by a date you know in advance, not whenever it happens to get done.

Senior review sits over every close before it reaches you, so the person answering your questions has already seen the full picture, not just the ticket you sent in.

QuickBooks Online and Xero cover the majority of the small and mid-size businesses we see in Miami, with Xero showing up more often among businesses with cross-border ties to Latin America or Europe. Restaurant and hospitality operators typically run Toast or Square for point-of-sale, and property managers lean on AppFolio or Buildium for rent rolls and trust accounting. Bill.com and Ramp are common for accounts payable and card spend control once a business grows past a handful of vendors.

On the banking side, national banks with a strong South Florida presence, along with Miami-headquartered institutions serving the region's international client base, are typical. Businesses with Latin American ownership or customers often run accounts in more than one currency, and we build the bookkeeping to reconcile that cleanly rather than forcing everything through a single USD ledger.

Pricing depends on transaction volume, the number of bank and card accounts, whether payroll and accounts payable are in scope, and whether the engagement starts with clean books or a catch-up project first. A single-entity Miami LLC on cash basis with modest volume costs less to maintain than a multi-property real estate portfolio or a multi-location restaurant group running several point-of-sale systems. See our rate card for the current tiers and what is included at each level, and tell us your monthly transaction count and account structure for an exact quote rather than a range.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks as a distinct occupational category with published wage data by metro area, and the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach metro is one of the areas it reports on separately from the state or national figure. Confirm the current mean and median wage for this metro at the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics data tool before comparing, since the figure updates annually and a stale number understates the real cost.

Whatever the base salary lands at, a full-time in-house hire in Miami also carries employer-side payroll tax, health benefits if offered, software licenses, a workstation, and management time spent supervising someone who may be handling their first controller-level role. A part-time bookkeeper, meanwhile, often means the business owner is still doing the parts that require judgment: reconciling ambiguous transactions, closing the month, and reading the financials. Outsourcing to a team that has already built the chart of accounts, the reconciliation process and the review layer removes both the hiring risk and the management overhead, for a fee that scales with your transaction volume instead of a fixed salary that scales with headcount decisions.

We start with a short call to understand your entity structure, current software, transaction volume and whether your books are current or need a catch-up first. If you are switching from another bookkeeper or a DIY setup, we review the last three to six months of statements to price the cleanup separately from ongoing monthly service. Once scoped, we send an engagement letter, connect your bank and card feeds through your existing accounting software (or set one up if you do not have one), and put the first month's close on the calendar. Most Miami engagements are live within one to two weeks of signing.