Florida's Hunting, Fishing and Camping Sales Tax Holiday Runs Through December 31
Hunters, anglers and campers in Freeport are in the middle of a four-month window to buy their gear sales-tax-free: Florida’s 2026 Hunting, Fishing and Camping Sales Tax Holiday began September 1 and runs through Thursday, December 31.
Gov. Ron DeSantis highlighted the holiday this week, saying the state’s per-capita tax burden is one of the lowest in the nation and that billions of dollars in tax cuts have been enacted since he took office. “This year’s hunting, fishing and camping sales tax holiday — ongoing through December 31 — will provide Floridians with even more tax relief,” the governor said in a post on X. “We are proud to protect Floridians’ Second Amendment rights while helping hunters, anglers, and sportsmen keep more of their hard-earned money.”
The holiday was passed by the Florida Legislature and signed into law by DeSantis. His office estimates this year’s holiday will provide approximately $40 million in tax relief, bringing projected savings over the program’s first two years to nearly $85 million. The Florida Department of Revenue lists the qualifying items and rules at FloridaRevenue.com/HuntFishCamp.
For shoppers, the exemption works by category and price:
Camping — tax-free at $30 or less: camping lanterns and flashlights. At $50 or less: camping stoves, collapsible camping chairs, portable hammocks and sleeping bags. Tents qualify at $200 or less.
Fishing — bait and fishing tackle at $10 or less individually ($20 or less when multiple items are sold together); tackle boxes and tackle bags at $30 or less; fishing reels and rods at $75 or less individually, or $150 or less sold as a set.
Hunting — the exemption covers ammunition as defined in Florida Statutes, bows and crossbows along with their accessories (arrows, bolts, quarrels, quivers, releases, sights or optics, wrist guards), firearms including pistols, rifles and shotguns, and a defined list of firearm accessories — barrels, cases or range bags, charging handles, cleaning kits, handguards, holsters, internal parts and components, magazines or other ammunition feeding devices, pistol grips, shooting chronographs, shooting mats, rests or bipods, sights or optics, slides or cylinders, slings, stocks or braces, suppressors, triggers and slings.
There are boundaries. The exemption does not apply to rentals or repairs of eligible items, or to purchases for commercial use, and it does not apply to sales inside a theme park, entertainment complex, public lodging establishment or airport. Items bundled into a set with taxable merchandise — the Department’s example is a rifle scope packaged with a camouflage vest — are taxed as a set.
This year’s version of the holiday came with expansions beyond the original categories. The price thresholds for fishing bait and tackle were doubled to $10 for individual items and $20 for multiple items sold together, and a separate exemption added more firearm accessories to the list — magazines, range bags, barrels, triggers, slings, bipods and suppressors. The archery side is growing too: DeSantis announced the groundbreaking of the new Florida Archery Center at Tenoroc in Lakeland, which will expand the public shooting sports facility’s existing rifle, handgun, sporting clays and archery ranges.
The rules also work in shoppers’ favor in a few practical cases: eligible items put on layaway qualify even if final payment comes after December 31; purchases made with a gift card during the window are exempt regardless of when the card was bought; and online orders accepted during the holiday for immediate shipment stay exempt even if delivery slips past the end of the year.
For Freeport anglers stocking up ahead of winter speckled trout season on Choctawhatchee Bay, or hunters replacing gear before the late-season hunts, the clock runs out December 31.
Announced by Gov. Ron DeSantis on X. Item list and rules from the Florida Department of Revenue. Image: Florida Department of Revenue promotional poster.
