What a Florida exemption costs, when it expires, and how to renew

By Adrian Middleton, Sword & Shield, PLLC · Updated Monday, October 19, 2026

The cost

The fee is per officer, per company. Three exempt officers of one roofing corporation pay $150 every two years. An officer with certificates for two affiliated companies pays for each. Section 440.05(8)(b) earmarks the fee revenue for administering exemptions, auditing fee-paying businesses, and enforcing Chapter 440, which is to say the fee funds the investigators.

How long it lasts

A certificate issued on or after January 1, 2013 is valid for two years from its effective date and expires at midnight two years after issuance (s. 440.05(6)). The officer may revoke it earlier, and the Division may revoke it at any time for noncompliance (s. 440.05(12)).

The renewal notice

The Division must send notice of expiration at least 60 days before the certificate expires (s. 440.05(6)). It goes to the contact information on the original application. If the email address was an employee's who has since left, or the mailing address was a jobsite trailer, the notice goes nowhere and the certificate quietly expires. Put the expiration date on a calendar the day the certificate is issued.

How to renew

1. 1

   Check Sunbiz before you renew.

   The same officer listing and 10 percent ownership rules apply to renewals. If the annual report lapsed, fix it first.

2. 2

   Renew at the exemption portal.

   Use the same Division exemption page; the renewal is a new Notice of Election to be Exempt with the same contents required by section 440.05(3).

3. 3

   Pay the $50 again if construction.

   Section 440.05(8)(a) charges the fee for each renewal.

4. 4

   Verify the new certificate and replace the copy on every jobsite and with every contractor who collected the old one.

   Contractors must keep evidence of your exemption on file (s. 440.10(1)(c)), and they will ask.

What a lapse costs

The day after expiration, the officer is an employee. If the company has no policy, every dollar paid to that officer from the expiration date forward is uninsured payroll. In a stop-work order case, the Department's penalty worksheet rates that payroll at the class code for the work the officer was doing and multiplies the premium by two (s. 440.107(7)(d)1). A roofing officer earning $1,500 a week with a 90-day gap puts roughly $19,500 of payroll on the worksheet at roofing rates. If the officer is also the only person the Department can identify and no records are produced, payroll is imputed instead at 1.5 times the statewide average weekly wage, which is $2,036.93 per week for 2026 (s. 440.107(7)(e)). See the penalty audit page.

Affiliated delinquency blocks renewal

Section 440.05(14) makes an officer ineligible for an exemption if an affiliated person is delinquent on a stop-work order penalty or a court-ordered debt. 'Affiliated' reaches a spouse, anyone owning 10 percent or more, controlling persons, officers or managers of the other company, and anyone who shares an officer, director, partner or joint venturer with it. An unpaid penalty on an old company can block a new company's exemptions years later. See denied or revoked exemptions.

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