2010 Sales Tax Holidays
Believe it or not, it’s almost time for back-to-school shopping. And you know what that means, right? Time for a sales tax holiday! Unfortunately, some states have dropped their tax-free shopping days due to budgetary problems, but others are still going strong.
What follows is an alphabetical listing of state sales tax holidays along with a brief summary of what’s included in each case, as well as a link to more information. This should be a fairly comprehensive list, but it’s always possible that I missed something. If I did, please let me know so I can update the list.
Sales tax holidays, state-by-state
Alabama: August 6th-8th. Includes clothing up to $100/item, computers up to $750/item, school supplies up to $50/item, and books up to $30/item. (link)
Connecticut: August 15th-21st. Includes clothing and footwear up to $300/item. (link)
Florida: August 13th-15th. Includes clothing and books up to $50/item and school supplies up to $10/item. (link)
Illinois: August 6th-15th. Includes clothing, footwear, and school supplies up to $100/item. (link)
Iowa: August 6th-7th. Includes clothing up to $100/item. (link)
Louisiana: August 6th-7th. Includes the first $2500 of the purchase price of all “tangible personal property,” not including vehicles. (link)
Maryland: August 8th-14th. Includes clothing and footwear up to $100/item. (link)
Mississippi: July 30th-31st. Includes clothing and footwear up to $100/item. (link)
Missouri: August 6th-8th. Includes clothing up to $100/item, computer software up to $350/item, computers hardware up to $3500/item, and school supplies up to $15/item. (link)
New Mexico: August 6th-8th. Includes clothing up to $100/item, computers up to $1000/item, associated peripherals up to $500/item, and school supplies up to $15/item. (link)
North Carolina: August 6th-8th. Includes clothing and school supplies up to $100/item, instructional materials up to $300/item, computers up to $3500/item, computer supplies up to $250/item, and sports/recreation equipment up to $50/item. (link)
Oklahoma: August 6th-8th. Includes clothing up to $100/item. (link)
South Carolina: August 6th-8th. Includes clothing, clothing accessories, footwear, school supplies, computers, printers, software, and a variety of housewares. No stated limit on value/item. (link)
Tennessee: August 6th-8th. Includes clothing up to $100/item, school supplies up to $100/item, and computers up to $1500/item. (link)
Texas: August 20th-22nd. Includes clothing, footwear, book bags, and school supplies up to $100/item. (link)
Virginia: August 6th-8th. Includes clothing and footwear up to $100/item and school supplies up to $20/item. (link)
Note: There are a handful of other sales tax holidays throughout the year covering things like hurricane preparedness, Energy Star products, and even guns. My focus here was just on the back-to-school sales tax holidays.
Disclaimer: Discover is a paid advertiser of this site.
Reasonable efforts are made to maintain accurate information. See the Discover online credit card application for full terms and conditions on offers and rewards.
Filed under: Education, Taxes
About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
Related articles...
» 2011 Sales Tax Holidays (Map)» Tax Holidays Starting Soon
» Sales Tax Holidays Reconsidered
» One Year Ago This Week (July 30th – August 5th)
» State and Local Sales Tax Rates (Map)
» 2012 Sales Tax Holidays
» 2011 Sales Tax Holidays for Back-to-School Shopping
» Internet Sales Tax Coming Soon
Was this article useful? Please sign up to receive our content via e-mail:
9 Responses to “2010 Sales Tax Holidays”
Leave a Reply
Top Cards by Category
Earn 100 Reward Dollars after you make $1,000 in purchases in the first three months of Cardmembership.
Bonus Miles: Earn 30,000 bonus miles toward Award Travel after you spend $500 on the Card within the first three months of Cardmembership. Earn As You Spend: Get 2X miles on Delta purchases and 1X miles for all other eligible dollars spent.
Consumer friendly credit card with a great low rate of 7.25% and save on interest charges. No balance transfer fees and no annual fee.
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
Consumer friendly credit card with a great low rate of 7.25% and save on interest charges. No balance transfer fees and no annual fee.
Limited Time Offer: Get 25,000 Membership Rewards(R) points after you spend $5,000 in the first three months of Card membership. Enroll and select a qualifying airline to receive up to $200 annually in statement credits for incidental fees, such as checked bags and in-flight refreshments, charged by the airline.
The new Discover it card is out to change the way people think about credit cards. No annual fee. No overlimit fee. No foreign transaction fee & no pay-by-phone fee. No late fee on your first late payment. And Discover won't increase your APR for paying late.*
- How to Become a Millionaire
- How to Get Out of Debt
- The Best Dollars I've Ever Spent
- How Our Estate Plan is Structured
- How We Paid Our Mortgage In Less than 10 Years
- Money Making Ideas
- How to Manage Your Asset Allocation with Multiple Accounts
- Consumption Smoothing - Save While the Saving's Good
- How to Save on Groceries
- How Much Life Insurance Do You Need?
- Eleven Great Books About Money
- Dave Ramsey is Bad at Math
- Dish Network Customer Service SUCKS
- $8,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Pay Off Mortgage Early or Invest?
- How to Claim the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Termite Control: Sentricon vs. Termidor
- How Much Should You Pay a Babysitter?
- Ethanol Blended Gas = Lower Mileage?
- Reduced Credit Limits? Share Your Experience
- $15,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit
- Will Mac OS X Lion Kill Quicken 2007?
- Buying Furniture off the Back of a Truck
How to save money on insurance
- Working longer: Fallback or fallacy?
- More money, more happiness: Do you think money can buy happiness?
- Overdraft fees soared to $32 billion in 2012
- How do you combat prom inflation?
- How should you choose a bank? Look in the mirror.
- The cost of clean water
- College debt 101
- Is it possible to live debt free?
- How to prepare for a home appraisal
- Home prices are up: good news or bad?
July 16th, 2010 at 11:03 am
Sweet! Thanks for the reminder. That will give me a good excuse to wait until August to stock up on undies at Sam’s Club!
July 16th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
These back-to-school tax holidays are silly political gimmicks.
A couple of percent off the price of small-ticket items doesn’t help anyone…. you’re better off just watching for routine store sales — and getting 10-20% + off regular prices.
The big stores love these “tax-holidays” because it’s free advertising from the government & local media … drawing customers into their stores.
Ignore the hype.
Americans need ‘real’ tax cuts — not political fluff.
July 16th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
I’m disappointed to find out that Georgia isn’t doing a sales tax holiday this year. I just checked and sure enough, nothing. Their web site states that the bills for it stalled in the legislature. Boo! It’s a great time to clothes shop, as the stores often have huge discounts too.
July 16th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Denny is absolutely right…I only wish our politicians would listen to people like him.
Don’t forget Alaska, Delaware, Oregon and Montana. In those states, the sales tax holiday runs from January 1 to December 31.
July 16th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
@ Denny
It depends on what state you are talking about. I live in Texas where sales tax is 8.25%. That is a little more than a few percent. I will have say that it is pretty gimmicky though.
July 16th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
If it makes for some extra sales at better margins for the stores, more power to them. The consumer is not the only one that is meant to benefit. I agree that watching for sales can often net greater savings than a tax holiday, but you can look at the tax holiday as just another discount sale.
July 17th, 2010 at 7:58 am
Massachusetts Representatives voted in favor of a sales tax holiday for August 14 & 15. Now it has to go to the senate & the governor to sign. Not that I have any large purchases (under $2,500) planned, but for those that do this might save them a few dollars.
July 18th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
it also saves MA residents from driving their cars an extra ~80 miles roundtrip (and spending that in gas) to save on the new 6.25% sales tax in MA.
July 18th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
The MA tax holiday can potentially save MA residents the time and the $$ for gas to drive to NH for the 0% sales tax all the time in NH, and the 6.25% MA sales tax on these dates if approved.