What this guide covers
How an employer’s costs break down in Florida: withholding, federal and state contributions, health coverage, and the filing schedule. What you think you save on contributions reappears elsewhere, and the filing calendar is denser than in Europe.
What exists
Withholding
The employer withholds federal income tax from the employee and remits it. Because Florida has no state income tax, that portion disappears, which is the main difference from other states.
Federal contributions
Federal retirement and health insurance are shared between employer and employee, each paying a share set by statute, with an annually revised cap on one of the two.
Unemployment contributions
Borne by the employer, at both the federal and state level. The state rate varies with the company’s layoff history.
Health coverage
Not mandatory below a headcount threshold, but decisive in hiring: it is the part of the package candidates compare first, and its annual cost per employee is substantial.
What surprises people arriving from Europe or Quebec
No state income tax does not mean employment is cheap. Health coverage, which the employer largely bears in practice, represents a cost with no direct equivalent in a European system where health insurance is public.
Where it gets complicated
The filing schedule catches people out. Federal deposits follow a calendar specific to each company depending on volume, with late penalties running from day one. It is the first function founders outsource, and rightly so.
Official sources
- IRS, Employment taxes
- IRS, Publication 15 (employer’s guide)
- Florida Department of Revenue, reemployment tax
What French Executive Network can do
Introduce you to the French-speaking business lawyers, accountants and tax advisers in the network who handle this subject, and to the members who have already been through it.