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Florida's sales tax refund on impact windows, explained

Florida may offer eligible homeowners a sales tax refund on qualifying impact-resistant windows, exterior doors and garage doors, created by HB 7031 (2026) and claimed from the Florida Department of Revenue. The mechanic worth knowing is this: you pay the sales tax at purchase and apply for the refund afterward. It is not a discount off the quote. Amounts, eligibility and filing deadlines change with legislation, so this page does not print them. The DOR page is the current one. This guide covers what does not move: how the claim works, and how to keep the paperwork so filing is a formality.

The old exemption is gone. A refund replaced it.

These are two different programs, and conflating them costs homeowners real money in expectations. The older program removed sales tax at the register during its run and has ended. What may be available now works the other way around: you pay tax at purchase, then apply to the Florida Department of Revenue to get some of it back. A large share of window marketing pages were written during the exemption years and never updated, which is why you will still find the old version described in the present tense. Check anything you read against the DOR, this page included.

Who it is aimed at

Two conditions, both about the property. The home must carry a homestead exemption, meaning it is your permanent Florida residence as recorded by the county, and its just value must sit within the limit the statute sets. Rental houses, second homes and investment properties sit outside the program, which is the design: it targets owner-occupants hardening the home they live in. Qualifying products are impact-resistant windows, exterior doors and garage doors, bought inside the purchase period the statute sets.

"Just value" trips people up because it is a property appraiser term, not a real estate term. It is the market-value figure the county property appraiser assigns to your property each year, before exemptions and assessment caps are applied. It is not your purchase price, not your insurance replacement value, and not an online estimate. In Brevard County, your just value is on your property record at the Brevard County Property Appraiser (BCPAO) site, which takes about a minute to look up by address. Check it against the current limit before you count on the refund, especially on canal-front and beachside properties where values run higher than the house itself suggests. Every one of those limits, and the refund amount itself, is set by the Department of Revenue and changes with legislation, so read the current version at floridarevenue.com and treat any page that quotes you a number, a contractor's included, as something to verify there.

What counts as impact-resistant

The practical test is the same one that runs through every page of this site: the unit carries a Florida product approval or Miami-Dade NOA number stating the impact standards it was tested and approved to resist. That number belongs on every line of your invoice anyway, both for the Melbourne permit counter and for this refund file. A whole-home hurricane window replacement is the obvious case, but smaller projects can generate qualifying receipts too: a first phase of impact windows, an entry door, or a garage door on its own.

How to make the claim painless

1. 01 Ask the installer for an itemized invoice: every opening on its own line with the product approval number, and the sales tax shown as its own line. It is a reasonable request and installers working in Brevard hear it regularly.
2. 02 Keep the product approval numbers from your permit file with the invoice. The same documents feed your OIR-B1-1802 wind mitigation form, and the Brevard wind mitigation guide explains that chain.
3. 03 File the application after purchase, using the current forms, filing window and instructions from floridarevenue.com.

Where the refund fits in the project

Price the job on its own economics. An impact window project is justified by the protection and by the documentation it creates: the permit record, the product approvals, and the opening-protection insurance credit under Florida Statute 627.0629, which recurs every policy year once the openings are on the 1802 form. The full map-to-permit-to-credit sequence is in the Brevard wind mitigation guide, and for what the work itself costs, see the Melbourne cost guide. Separately, this DOR refund may be available on a qualifying purchase, and My Safe Florida Home may help eligible homeowners with opening protection. Treat both as possible offsets to confirm with the agency that runs them, not as line items in your budget.

One Brevard-specific note: this is a homestead program, and homestead neighborhoods are exactly where the county's window work concentrates. Owner-occupied subdivisions across Palm Bay and Melbourne are full of pre-2000 homes with original openings and a homestead exemption on file. If that describes your house, check your eligibility with the Department of Revenue while you are gathering quotes. As always, what your openings must be replaced with is set by the county wind map, which governs by address, so verify the requirement before you buy the product.