Like we have told you in our last couple of articles feature ‘sales tax holidays’ we don’t want any of our readers to lose out on the opportunity to make use of their states’ sales tax holidays, especially when preparing to send your children back to school. So here are some of the upcoming sales tax holidays for the first week or so during August. We will have another article covering other state sales tax holidays later in the month.
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But before we look at the sales tax holiday for these two states I have to remind you that Sales Tax Tuesdays 2018 is a joint venture between Insightful Accountant and Avalara, the Sales Tax People. We teamed-up for 2018 to provide you with features on every state jurisdiction with sales and use taxes.
While I am normally traveling around in the big 'Sales Tax Tuesday RV' to enjoy the sights in every state and pay sales tax all along the way, we sometimes take a break to bring you important sales tax information that might otherwise get neglected if we simply stuck to our travels.
While we can not assure you that every state uses the exact same terminology in defining two of the exempt items set-forth in their Sales Tax Holidays, and the exact items may vary from state-to-state and are therefore provided in a link to their referenced lists, we can say that the following two basic definitions apply in theory to each of the holiday provisions outlined below.
Clothing -- generally clothing refers to any article of wearing apparel intended to be work on or about the human body; however, clothing does not generally include watches, watchbands, jewelry, umbrellas, or handkerchiefs.
Footwear - generally footwear refers to any shoe, boot, or similar article intended to be worn on human feet not including skis, swim fins, roller blades, skates or other recreational devices for the feet.
So, let’s take a look at a states about to have holidays (on a date basis) as far as sales, (and in one case gross revenue) taxes.
August 1 through 5
Wisconsin August sales tax holiday is one of the longest sales tax holiday periods in the U.S. and covers both state and local sales tax:
- Clothing with a sales price of no more than $75 per item
- School supplies with a sales price of no more than $75 per item
- Computers, laptops, or tablets (purchased for personal use) with a sales price of no more than $750 per item
- School computer supplies with a sales price of no more than $250
- Exempt items are listed here
August 3 through 4
Iowa sales tax holiday applies to state and local sales taxes, vendors are required to participate (state-wide):
- Qualifying clothing and footwear priced under $100
- Taxable and exempt items are listed here
August 3 through 5
Florida back-to-school sales tax holiday applies to state and local sales taxes – includes some clothing, footwear and school supplies:
- Qualifying clothing and footwear priced $60 or less
- Qualifying school supplies priced $15 or less
- Taxable and exempt item examples are listed here
Missouri back-to-school sales tax holiday applies to state sales tax, but may not apply to local jurisdiction sales taxes (consult the local tax jurisdictions for applicability:
- Clothing priced $100 or less
- Computers priced $1,500 or less
- School supplies priced $50 or less
- Local tax jurisdictions can choose not to participate
- Back to School Sales Tax Holiday FAQs are listed here
New Mexico back-to-school tax-free holiday applies to state and local gross receipts tax, but retailers are NOT required to participate:
- Bookbags, backpacks, maps, and globes priced under $100
- Clothing, footwear, and accessories priced less than $100
- Computers priced up to $1,000 (includes e-readers with computing functions and tablets)
- Computer-related items priced up to $500
- Handheld calculators priced under $200
- School supplies priced under $30
- Retailers are not required to participate in the back-to-school tax holiday
- Taxable and Non-taxable Items are listed here
Ohio sales tax holiday applies to state and local sales tax – back-to-school supplies including some clothing items:
- Clothing priced $75 or less
- School instructional materials priced $20 or less
- School supplies priced $20 or less
- More information is listed at the Sales Tax Holiday FAQs here
Oklahoma sales tax holiday applies to state and local sales taxes – specifically aimed at back-to-school clothing and footwear:
- Clothing priced under $100
- Footwear priced under $100
- Additional details regarding the exemptions may be found here
South Carolina sales tax holiday applies to state and local taxes – covering most back-to-school and some ‘home/household’ goods:
- Clothing and footwear, no price restrictions
- Computers, printers, and printer supplies, no price restrictions
- School supplies, no price restrictions
- Select bed and bath items, no price restrictions
- A list of exempt items can be found here
Virginia sales tax holiday applies to state and local sales taxes – their holiday covers not only the typical back-to-school items, but also items related to energy/water conservation and also disaster (primarily hurricane) preparedness:
- Clothing and footwear priced $100 or less
- Qualified Energy Star and WaterSense products priced at $2,500 or less
- Portable generators priced $1,000 or less
- Gas-powered chain saws priced $350 or less
- Chain saw accessories priced $60 or less
- Specified hurricane and emergency preparedness supplies priced $60 or less
- School supplies priced $20 or less
- A list of qualifying school supplies and clothing can be found here
- More details on emergency preparedness supplies can be found here
August 4 through 5
Arkansas back-to-school sales tax holiday applies to state and local sales taxes:
- Clothing priced under $100
- Clothing accessories and equipment priced under $50
- School supplies (no price restriction)
- Itemized list of qualifying exempt items can be found here
Even when it comes to sales tax holidays it's easy to believe you are compliant with the various rules and regulations governing sales taxes, including exempting the proper items in the proper way for the tax holiday. But retailers frequently make mistakes when trying to do things ‘the manual way’ and all too often the way their items has been coded in their point-of-sale or accounting software leads to an improper failure to collect tax that was due.
Automation via Avalara allows businesses to rely on the 'experts' when it comes to sales tax compliance, you will not only be assured that you are administering the tax-exempt holiday properly, but you won't be sacrificing time or productivity to be fully compliant with every sales tax change that impacts your business.