Bay County: No Local Business Tax to Exempt

Section 205.055 exempts an honorably discharged veteran, a spouse or unremarried surviving spouse, and a PCS military spouse from a local business tax; see the Florida entry. In Bay County there is no county tax to exempt. The Code. Chapter 14 of the Bay County Code, "Licenses, Taxation and Miscellaneous Business Regulations", carries a local option fuel tax, the tourist development tax, tattooing and short-term vacation rentals, but no local business tax article: the articles where one would sit (III, IV and V) are reserved, and the chapter's section list has no business tax receipt provision. The Tax Collector. The Bay County Tax Collector's site answers a Cloudflare challenge to plain requests and was read live on 2026-10-17 in a visible browser window, all 87 of its published pages. Its services are property taxes, motor vehicles and vessels, driver licences and ID cards, concealed weapon licence intake, hunting and fishing licences, military services and the tourist development tax; no page offers a local business tax receipt, and the site's own search finds nothing for "business". The one trace is its customer feedback form, which lists "Business Tax Receipt (BTR)" among the transaction types to rate. A veteran opening a business in unincorporated Bay County can confirm with the Tax Collector (850-248-8501) that no county receipt is required, and rely on the statute if one is. Inside the cities. Panama City, Panama City Beach, Lynn Haven, Callaway, Mexico Beach and the other municipalities may levy their own business tax under chapter 205; where one does, section 205.055 exempts the same people there, claimed with that city and its collector.