17 states are holding tax holidays this year, with four in July

July 17, 2023

Get ready Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Tennessee shoppers. Your back-to-school tax holidays are this month. The rest of this year's no-tax shopping events are scheduled for August.

Many school supplies, like these at my local grocery store, will be sales-tax-free in Texas later this summer. (Photo by Kay Bell)

Wow! We're into the third week of July already. You know what that means.

School is just around the proverbial corner. And you know what that means.

States are holding their annual sales tax holidays.

There are four this month in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, and Tennessee. A baker's dozen are scheduled for early or mid-August.

Most of these special shopping days are billed as back-to-school events where you can buy tax-exempt items the youngsters need for class.

But even those with that moniker are more expansive. They're not limited to children's clothing. And you don't have to prove that the computer you buy is only going to be used by the kiddos for class work.

So check out the list below. Review the holiday's details; you can do that by clicking on the links in the table.

The table below lists, alphabetically by state, the rest of 2023's upcoming sales tax holidays. The information comes from the various state tax departments, as well as the Sales Tax Institute and Federation of Tax Administrators.

2023 State Sales Taxes Holidays
State & Sales Tax Rate Local sales taxes also may be waived	Holiday Days & Dates	Tax-Free Products & Per-Item Price Limits
Alabama 4%	Friday, July 21 through Sunday, July 23	Clothing $100 or less Books $30 or less School supplies $50 or less Computers & software $750 or less A list of all eligible (and ineligible) items can be found in this Fact Sheet. Alabama counties and municipalities can decide whether to participate and exempt their taxes, or continue to add the amounts to sales during the tax holiday period. This list has specifics on where shoppers will get a tax break or continue to pay.
Arkansas 6.5%	Saturday, Aug. 5 through Sunday, Aug. 6	Clothing $100 or less Accessories $50 or less No dollar limit on school art supplies, school instructional materials, school supplies, and school-related products such as electronic devices, which includes computers, commonly used by a student in a course of study.
Connecticut 6.35%	Sunday, Aug. 20 through Saturday, Aug. 26	Clothing and footwear $100 or less Accessories and protective or athletic clothing is still taxed.
Florida 6%	Monday, July 24 through Sunday, Aug. 6	Clothing $100 or less School supplies $50 or less Learning aids and jigsaw puzzles selling for $30 or less Computers, certain accessories $1,500 or less More on tax-exempt items during the 2023 Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday can be found in TIP No. 23A01-06.
Iowa 6%	Friday, Aug. 4 through Saturday, Aug. 5	Clothing and footwear priced at less than $100
Maryland 6%	Sunday, Aug. 13 through Saturday, Aug. 19	Clothing and footwear $100 or less First $40 of a backpack or bookbag sale
Massachusetts 6.25%	Saturday, Aug. 12 through Sunday, Aug. 13	Almost every personal item priced at $2,500 or less
Mississippi 7%	Friday, July 28 through Saturday, July 29	Clothing and footwear $100 or less
Missouri 4.225%	Friday, Aug. 4 through Sunday, Aug. 6	Clothing $100 or less School supplies $50 or less Computer software $350 or less Graphing calculators $150 or less Personal computers & peripheral devices $1,500 or less Find more on the tax-exempt items in the state's Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday FAQs.
New Jersey 6.625%	Saturday, Aug. 26 through Monday, Sept. 4	Computers less than $3,000 School computer supplies less than $1,000 No price limit on school supplies, school art supplies, school instructional materials, and sport or recreational equipment Details on the tax-exempt items can be found at the state's special online sales tax holiday page.
New Mexico 5%	Friday, Aug. 4 through Sunday, Aug. 6	Clothing or shoes $100 or less Computers $1,000 or less Computer hardware $500 or less There is no price limit on school supplies that "students normally use in a standard classroom for educational purposes." FYI-203, Gross Receipts Tax Holiday, contains more information on the exempted sales.
Ohio 5.75%	Friday, Aug. 4 through Sunday, Aug. 6	Clothing $75 or less School instructional materials & school supplies at $20 or less
Oklahoma 4.5%	Friday, Aug. 4 through Sunday, Aug. 6	Clothing, footwear $100 or less
South Carolina 6%	Friday, Aug. 4 through Sunday, Aug. 6	No purchase price limit on clothing accessories & footwear; school supplies; computers, printers & printer supplies, computer software; & bed linens & bath furnishings
Tennessee 7%	Friday, July 28 through Sunday, July 30	Clothing $100 or less School supplies $100 or less Computers $1,500 or less
Texas 6.25%	Friday, Aug. 11 through Sunday, Aug. 13	Clothing, footwear, backpacks priced at less than $100 Cloth and disposable fabric face masks meet the definition of an article of clothing and therefore are tax exempt during this weekend. School supplies at less than $100
West Virginia 6%	Friday, Aug. 4 through Monday, Aug. 7	Clothing, footwear $125 or less School supplies ($50 or less) School instruction material ($20 or less) Sports equipment ($150 or less) Laptop and tablet computers ($500 or less) More on tax-exempt items can be found on the state's Sales Tax Holiday Questions and Answers page.

A couple of missing holidays: The 17 tax holidays this summer is down two from 2022, when 19 states held similar no-tax shopping events. Missing this year are Illinois and Virginia.

The Hoosier State's and Old Dominion's tax holidays are out this year because, unlike states where the no-tax-shopping days are permanently ensconced in those tax codes, these expire.

Sorry, shoppers in those states. Maybe next year.

Help for shoppers and lawmakers: While tax holidays ostensibly provide savings to consumers, most economists say the recouped consumer dollars are minimal.

But they do help the politicians who can tout their support of the holidays on the campaign trail.

That's one of the reasons that states tend to keep tax holidays on their calendars.

Shop wisely: The word tax in tax holidays is a dead giveaway that the events might not be as easy as shoppers hope.

As with tax filing, dates matter. While an event might be advertised as a weekend tax holiday, it could be in effect on just Saturday and Sunday, or Friday could make it a long weekend. Make sure you know when the holiday applies.

That's the first of 6 shopping tips to maximize sales tax holiday savings. Check it out, then make your list. That's also one of the tax holiday shopping suggestions.

Addendum: My tumblr blog Tumbling Taxes' related post has Macklemore's video "Thrift Shop" for your tax holiday shopping playlist.

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