Florida employers paying third-quarter reemployment tax electronically need a confirmation number by 5 p.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, and the Employer’s Quarterly Report, Form RT-6, is due by Monday, Nov. 2. For most employers this is the first quarterly report filed in the Florida Department of Revenue’s new eFile and Pay system, which took over reemployment tax on Aug. 24. The two dates are different on purpose, and an owner who treats Nov. 2 as the payment day can end up with a late payment.
As of Tue., Oct. 20, 2026, payment is due by Fri., Oct. 30.
What follows covers who files, what changed with the new system, the order of the steps inside it, what late filing and late payment cost, and what payroll providers and bookkeepers handling several clients should know. Every date, rate and penalty below comes from the Department of Revenue’s own pages, forms and publications, all read on Oct. 8, 2026. When in doubt, the Department’s Tax Information and Assistance line is 850-488-6800.
Two Deadlines, One Quarter
The third quarter covers wages paid July through September. The Department’s due date table lists the RT-6 for that quarter as due Oct. 31, and the same page adds that if the last day of the month is a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, “the timely filing period is extended until the end of the next working day.” Oct. 31, 2026 is a Saturday, so the report is timely through Monday, Nov. 2.
Electronic payments run the other way. The Department’s 2026 Calendar of Electronic Payment Deadlines, Form DR-659, lists Oct. 30 as the reemployment tax payment deadline for October and explains why: “deadlines for electronic payments are moved back to the previous business day to ensure the funds are received by the state on the payment due date.” The form also says the banking process takes one business day and that a payment completed after 5 p.m. ET on the deadline is not processed until the next business day.
| What | Deadline | Source rule |
|---|---|---|
| Electronic payment of Q3 tax | Complete it and get a confirmation number by 5 p.m. ET, Fri., Oct. 30, 2026 | DR-659 lists Oct. 30 for reemployment tax |
| Q3 RT-6 report, filed online | By Mon., Nov. 2, 2026 | Oct. 31 falls on a Saturday, so filing moves to the next working day |
| Paper RT-6 with payment (only for employers not required to file electronically) | Postmarked by Mon., Nov. 2, 2026 | Late if not postmarked by the last day of the month, with the same weekend rule |
| Second half of Q3 tax, if you elect installments | Electronic payment by Wed., Dec. 30, 2026 | DR-659 lists Dec. 30 for the final installment |
The safest habit is to file and pay together, early. DR-659 says the system lets you schedule a payment withdrawal up to 30 calendar days ahead, so a report filed on Oct. 20 can carry a payment set to debit on Oct. 30.
Who Has to File
An employer is liable for Florida reemployment tax if it meets any of several tests on the Department’s reemployment tax page. The two that catch most small businesses are a quarterly payroll of $1,500 or more in a calendar year, or one or more employees for any part of a day in 20 weeks of a calendar year. Nonprofits, agricultural employers, households with domestic help and businesses that bought a liable company have their own thresholds on the same page.
Once registered, you file every quarter. The RT-6 instructions say a registered employer “who had no employees or paid no wages during the quarter must still complete, sign, and return” the report, and the Department’s return page says you must file “even if you owe no tax or do not have any wages to report.” New employers without an account number register first through the Department’s online business tax application.
Some employers must file and pay electronically. The rule on the Department’s return page applies to any employer “who employed 10 or more employees in any quarter during the preceding state fiscal year,” which runs July 1 through June 30. Those employers must also file corrections electronically. Employers below that line may still file a paper RT-6, though the Department encourages everyone to file and pay online.
What Changed With the New System
The Department moved its tax types onto a new eServices File and Pay platform in stages, and reemployment tax moved in the final phase. The Department’s transition page lists “Reemployment Tax on August 24, 2026,” a date it moved from June 1 to allow more time for preparation and testing. Its reemployment tax FAQ said the old portal would stay available through Sept. 30, 2026, so third-quarter reports go through the new system.
For employers who type in their wage data or import a text file, the Department said “your login credentials will not change.” It asked filers to locate their existing user ID and password, because those have to be entered by hand in the new system, and to update bookmarks to floridarevenue.com/taxes/filepay. The Department’s September 2026 step-by-step RT-6 guide adds that you can also file using your reemployment tax account number and federal employer identification number if you do not have your user ID and password, and the Department’s resources page links a short video on recovering them.
Bulk filers saw bigger changes. The Department’s FAQ says Direct File, formerly SecureNet, requires registration for the new Direct File web portal, accepts only web portal and secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) submissions, and no longer supports plain FTP. Web portal files larger than 75 MB must be zipped, batch enrollment files sent through the portal must be ZIP files, and filers submitting more than 20,000 employee records must use Direct File. The FAQ also says the XML schema did not change, client relationships transferred to the new system, ACH credit payments work as before and the amendment process did not change.
Inside the System: The Step Order
The Department’s own RT-6 guide, dated September 2026, lays out the path. Here it is in plain order, so you know what to have open before you start.
- From the Department’s File and Pay page, choose Reemployment Tax, Employers, Agents, and Employee Leasing, and log in with your user ID and password, or with your account number and FEIN.
- Under Online Transactions, choose File a Tax Return/Report, then pick the form type, return type and filing period (the third quarter of 2026).
- Review the Return Header, then enter Employee Counts: full-time and part-time covered employees who worked during, or were paid for, the payroll period including the 12th of each month.
- On the Wage Detail Schedule, check the employees carried over from earlier quarters, edit their third-quarter wages, add new hires and delete anyone who should not be there. Payroll exports can be imported as a .txt file of no more than 25 MB.
- On the RT-6 Report tab, check the boxes that apply: final report, out-of-state wages, or the Installment Payment Plan. Sign the E-Verify certification if it applies, then click Calculate.
- Review the auto-calculated report and summary, sign, and save the green confirmation banner.
- Choose Make a Payment Now, pick the bank account and debit date, authorize the withdrawal, confirm, and print the payment receipt.
The guide notes that every submitted return and payment appears later under Online Transactions, Submitted Items, where the confirmation number links to the filed report and a downloadable wage detail file. Keep both the filing confirmation and the payment confirmation. DR-659 says to keep the payment confirmation number in your records.
The Rate and the $7,000 Wage Base
Only the first $7,000 of wages paid to each employee in a calendar year is taxable. That is why many employers owe little or nothing for the third quarter on long-time staff: once a worker has been paid more than $7,000 since January, wages above that line are reported as excess wages on the RT-6. Newer hires and seasonal staff are the employees most likely to still carry taxable wages in the third quarter.
New employers pay an initial rate of 2.7 percent until they have reported for 10 quarters, after which the Department calculates an earned rate from the employer’s benefit charges and taxable payroll. For wages paid in 2026, the Department lists a minimum rate of 0.1 percent, or $7 per employee, and a maximum of 5.4 percent, or $378 per employee. Rate notices are mailed each year, normally in December, and an employer can protest a rate in writing within 20 days of the date printed on the notice, Form RT-20. The Department’s “View Reemployment Tax Rates in Five Easy Steps” sheet shows how to download your current rate as a spreadsheet after you log in.
As a planning example using those published figures, an employer still on the 2.7 percent new-employer rate pays at most $189 a year for each employee: 2.7 percent of the first $7,000. The tax is calculated on line 5 of the RT-6 as taxable wages times your rate.
What Late Costs
The penalties are spelled out on the Department’s return page and in the RT-6 instructions. Filing late costs $25 “for each 30 days or fraction thereof” that the report is delinquent, so a report one day late carries the same $25 as a report 29 days late. Tax not paid by the end of the month after the quarter also owes interest at Florida’s floating rate, which the Department set at 11 percent for July 1 through Dec. 31, 2026, a daily factor of 0.000301370 under Tax Information Publication 26ADM-02.
To put that factor in dollars, $1,000 of tax paid 30 days late adds about $9.04 in interest on top of the late-filing penalty. Other penalties apply in specific cases. An employer required to file electronically that files on paper owes $25 per report plus $1 per employee, up to $300, and one required to pay electronically that does not owes $25 per payment. An erroneous or incomplete report, including one with an invalid Social Security number, can draw a penalty of $50 or 10 percent of the tax due, whichever is greater, up to $300 per report.
There are routes back. The incomplete-report penalty is waived if an accurate report is filed within 30 days of the penalty notice, though not more than once in 12 months. More broadly, an employer may ask the Department to waive penalty or interest by calling 850-488-6800 or by filing a written request that shows the charge would be inequitable. The Department’s examples include serious illness of the person responsible for the report, destruction of records and unscheduled, unavoidable computer downtime. It will not consider a penalty waiver until the employer has filed all reports due for the prior five years.
Installments for the Third Quarter
Employers can split third-quarter tax into two equal payments, the first due with the report and the second by Dec. 31, which DR-659 moves to Dec. 30 for electronic payments. To qualify, the report and at least the first installment must be on time, and the employer pays a $5 installment fee once per calendar year, with the first quarter it elects installments. In the new system, that election is a check box on the RT-6 Report tab. Employers already paying first or second quarter tax in installments have their next installments due on the same Oct. 31 schedule, according to the chart in the RT-6 instructions. There is no installment option for the fourth quarter.
Notes for Payroll Providers, Agents and Bookkeepers
A reemployment tax agent who files for clients registers with the Department using the Application for Agent Registration, Form RTS-9, and a Power of Attorney, Form DR-835, for each client. The Department’s FAQ says agent-client relationships transferred to the new system and work as before, and agents can download a history of each client’s tax rate.
For high-volume filers, the Department recommends that anyone with 8,000 or more employee records submit during the first two weeks of the month the report is due, and an XML upload is required above 20,000 records. Direct File does not offer an API, according to the FAQ. If one client’s report in a bulk file has an error, only that report is rejected, not the whole file. Questions about Direct File passwords go to the Department’s inbox at BTOEXDTeam@floridarevenue.com, and employee leasing companies checking a memorandum of understanding can write to elc@floridarevenue.com.
Each employer reports only its own payroll unless it is an employee leasing company or an approved common paymaster, the Department’s return page says. If your payroll software files for you, the Department’s DR-659 notes that software programs generally follow its calendar but tells filers to check with the vendor for any deadline that differs.
Your Checklist for the Next Three Weeks
Confirm this week that you can log in to the new system, or that you have your account number and FEIN ready as a backup, and that your bank account on file is current. Run the third-quarter payroll register, separate taxable wages from excess wages over $7,000 per employee, and confirm that every employee has a valid nine-digit Social Security number on file.
Aim to file and schedule the payment by about Oct. 23, with the debit date no later than Oct. 30. The Department says its file and pay applications run 24 hours a day Monday through Saturday, with routine maintenance on Sunday, so Sunday, Nov. 1 is not a day to plan around. Save both confirmations, and if you pay in installments, put Dec. 30 on the calendar now.
Sources
These pages were opened on Oct. 8, 2026.
- Florida Department of Revenue, Reemployment Tax Report and Payment Information
- Florida Department of Revenue, Form DR-659, 2026 Calendar of Electronic Payment Deadlines (PDF)
- Florida Department of Revenue, eFile and Pay Transition for Florida Reemployment Tax, FAQ (PDF)
- Florida Department of Revenue, eFile and Pay Information Center, transition updates
- Florida Department of Revenue, Employer’s Quarterly Report (RT-6) Electronic File and Pay Step-by-Step Guide, September 2026 (PDF)
- Florida Department of Revenue, Form RT-6N, Employer’s Quarterly Report Instructions (PDF)
- Florida Department of Revenue, Reemployment Tax Rate Information
- Florida Department of Revenue, Reemployment Tax overview and liability
- Florida Department of Revenue, View Reemployment Tax Rates in Five Easy Steps (PDF)
- Florida Department of Revenue, Tax and Interest Rates
- Florida Department of Revenue, Tax Information Publication 26ADM-02 (PDF)
- Florida Department of Revenue, Reemployment Tax Agents
- Florida Department of Revenue, eServices File and Pay
Related Reading
For related deadlines, see our Florida $15 minimum wage checklist, our CareerSource Broward employer training guide and the SoFla Business Grants and Incentives Guide. Each one covers another cost or program that touches payroll.
Key Facts for Owners and Search
When is the Florida RT-6 for the third quarter of 2026 due?
The Florida Department of Revenue lists the third-quarter Employer’s Quarterly Report, Form RT-6, as due Oct. 31. Because Oct. 31, 2026 falls on a Saturday, the timely filing period runs through Monday, Nov. 2. Electronic payments have an earlier deadline of 5 p.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 30, 2026.
Why is the electronic payment deadline Oct. 30 instead of Nov. 2?
The Department’s 2026 Calendar of Electronic Payment Deadlines, Form DR-659, moves electronic payment deadlines back to the previous business day so funds reach the state on the due date. It lists Oct. 30 for reemployment tax. You must complete the payment and receive a confirmation number by 5 p.m. ET that day.
Do my old reemployment tax login credentials work in the new system?
For employers who enter wage data or import a text file, the Department said login credentials did not change, though users must enter their existing user ID and password in the new system. Its RT-6 guide says you can also file with your reemployment tax account number and FEIN. Direct File users had to register for the new portal.
What is the penalty for filing the RT-6 late?
The Department charges $25 for each 30 days or fraction of 30 days that the report is late. Unpaid tax also accrues interest at Florida’s floating rate, which is 11 percent for July 1 through Dec. 31, 2026. Employers may request a waiver by calling 850-488-6800 or filing a written request showing the charge is inequitable.
Who must file and pay Florida reemployment tax electronically?
Employers who had 10 or more employees in any quarter of the preceding state fiscal year, July 1 through June 30, must file and pay electronically and must also correct reports electronically. A waiver from electronic filing is possible for a valid business reason through 850-488-6800. The Department says there is no waiver from electronic payment.
Brian D’Antoni writes The Sundaze Gazette from Palm Beach County. He reports on business, film and technology for South Florida owners.
