School supplies in eight states are tax-free this weekend thanks to sales tax holidays. Hurry though, because the savings expire at the end of the day, unless you live in Washington D.C., where the savings last through August 10. The full list, inside…
The eight states are the usual southern bastions of education:
- Alabama – up to $50
- Georgia – up to $20
- Missouri – up to $50
- New Mexico – up to $15
- North Carolina – up to $100
- South Carolina – unlimited savings!
- Tennessee – up to $100
- Virginia – up to $20
- Washington D.C. – up to $100 through August 10
Sales tax holidays were popular with state legislators back before the crumbling economy decimated state budgets. Florida already eliminated their sales tax holidays, and we wouldn’t be surprised if more states cut the tax breaks next year. Enjoy them while they last!
2008 State Sales Tax Holidays [Federation of Tax Administrators]
Do your homework before buying school supplies [The Chicago Tribune]
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Massachusetts cut the sales tax holiday? From what I’ve read and understood, Massachusetts is still carrying its tax-free holiday this year on August 16th and 17th. Where are you getting your information Consumerist?
Oregon, of course, has no sales tax. Washingtonians – come to Jantzen Beach and pick the Target, Office Depot, and Old Navy bare!
@JackWalker: The Mass one was pending in the state’s house. It was just signed into law last friday.
[www.associatedcontent.com]
So for all you Massholes and fellow New Englanders out there. Aug 16-17 is your weekend. As long as it is under 2,500 and is not car or telecommunications related
Seriously they should lift the sales tax on computers. Many lower middle class kids go to college these days need a computer.
Floriduh shelved theirs due to the ‘loss of revenue.’
This didn’t stop Gov. Charlie Crist from GIVING AWAY $224 million dollars…[blogs.orlandosentinel.com]
I love living in NH… every day is a “sales tax holiday”
And of course Ohio isn’t having one, even though it would’ve gone a long way to help our struggling economy.
if you consider school uniforms school supplies then you can add Oklahoma to the list, shoes and apparel under $100
@taney71: FWIW, many universities have their own computer store where students (and faculty) can buy computers and software with significant discounts for educational use.
The best buy’s here in Northern VA had NO TAX on everything in the store. There was no up to 20 dollars rule here.
I avoid shopping areas like the plague during Texas’ back-to-school tax holidays. Wading through the horde of locusts picking over crap for a whopping 8.25% savings is absolutely NOT worth it to me… few stores have significant sales that weekend, because they know huge crowds will be shopping anyway. I just wait for better sales at other times.
New Hampshire Tax Free all year long
To run with witeowl’s comment, there are also numerous online stores that sell academic versions of popular software for greatly discounted prices. You just need be a student or parent of a student and be able to document your/their status. It’s quite easy and can save hundreds to thousands depending on their software needs. Also, if a student has a software developer bent, Microsoft now gives away many of its software development tools for FREE. Just search for Dreamspark.
In GA, you can also get tax free on all computers under $1500. My local Mac store knocked down their MacBook Pros to $1499 just for this…which is what I’m typing on now! sweet, sweet deal.
I used to work at Target. If I were a shopper, I’d rather spend the extra 2 bucks in sales tax than deal with all of the crowds there, not to mention half of the shit was always out of stock. It’s like black Friday.
I don’t know where Consumerist gets their info, but in Alabama all clothing is tax-free up to $100 per item. Also, computers and computer accessories up to $750 are tax-free.
Or… you could live 10 miles from the Delaware border where it’s always tax free!
@huginn: That’s correct. We’re trying to move a planned trip to the Stoughton IKEA up a week to take advantage of the savings. We’re redoing our living room and while our $1500 budget means we’d only save $75, that’s still a dinner out for sushi
Or just save on school supplies by stealing office supplies from work.
Is Florida’s decision to get rid of the sales-tax holidays a recent development? I was there all last week and saw several advertisements regarding it. I was also under the impression that it would last for about 10 days, not just the weekend.
@JackWalker: @croush1211: @serreca:
i think this post is about school supplies being tax- free in certain states as well as clothing, etc as usual in other states. Texas is certainly having a tax free holiday on clothes and back packs; my managers have been talking about it for weeks at my store.
I don’t know how much more you can save. I mean, Walmart*, Staples et. all have all had HUGE discounts on school supplies practically giving stuff away for pennies of what they normally charge. They even are encouraging the teachers to buy supplies for their kids.
We need to buy a dehumbidifier so we’ll probably wait until then to buy it.
@crazybutch: Yes, the overall article is about school supplies, but the meat of it is about the tax-free holidays.
The article’s poster used the tax-free holidays as a reason to incite people to buy school supplies since the school year is just around the corner.
If I can’t afford the (5% to 12% depending on location) sales tax on a given item, I tend to equate that to not being able to afford that item. People truly in need who may have been eligible for welfare handouts will get less because taxes (which fund welfare programs) are not being collected. Sales tax holidays have an anti- Robin Hood effect.
I think California’s actually INCREASED sales tax on school supplies, due to our budget crisis.
@The Great Aussie Evil: Yah, considering our great Governator has just relegated all state employees into poverty, a sales tax holiday wouldn’t help us one bit. Man, I miss Gray Davis…
@ croush1211
yeah no Fla sales tax break for us- the signs are some stores taking the intitiative and giving us an extra 6-7% discount, Which is actually pretty cool I guess.
I like discounts-