Tax-Free Weekends in Every State

Planning to make a big purchase? Shop these dates to save money.

By Sabah Karimi January 31, 2019 Taxes 101

Save the date for any upcoming tax-free holidays.
Hurricane preparedness-related purchases are also eligible for tax exemption some weekends.
Check the list to see when your state’s tax-free days are.

If you’re planning to make big purchases in 2019, you might want to wait for a sales tax-free weekend or sales tax-free week if your state offers one. What is a tax-free weekend? States often hold these “holidays” at certain times of the year, such as during back-to-school shopping season or before hurricane season, during which you can make purchases without paying a sales tax. You can save a lot of money by planning your major purchases for a no-sales-tax weekend or week.

Eligible items might include things like hurricane preparedness supplies, clothing, school supplies and computers.

Back-to-School Tax-Free Days

Many states offer tax-free weekend sales only during the back-to-school season, typically in early- or mid-August before the school year begins. Shoppers in some states can enjoy the tax-free sale of school supplies, certain types of clothing and computers on these designated days.

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States With Tax-Free Days in 2019

If you live in a state that offers tax-free shopping days and no-tax weekends, plan your purchases around those dates to save money this year. If you’re wondering, “When is the tax-free weekend in my state?” check out this list of tax-free days in 2019 that have been accounced:

States With Tax-Free Days
State	Tax-Free Days in 2019	What Is Included in Tax-Free Weekends and Weeks
Alabama	July 19-21	Articles of clothing or footwear priced at $100 or less; select school supplies priced at $50 or less; computers and computer software priced at $750 or less; books priced at $30 or less
Arkansas	Aug. 3-4	Articles of clothing or footwear under $100; accessories under $50; select school supplies
Connecticut	Aug. 18-24	Articles of clothing or footwear under $100
Florida	Aug. 2-4	Articles of clothing, footwear or accessories priced at $60 or less; school supplies priced at $15 or less
Iowa	Aug. 2-3	Articles of clothing or footwear under $100
Maryland	Aug. 11-17	Articles of clothing or footwear priced at $100 or less; the first $40 of a backpack purchase
Massachusetts	Aug. 10-11	All retail goods priced at $2,500 or less, except motor vehicles, motorboats, meals, telecommunication services, gas, steam, electricity, tobacco products, marijuana and marijuana products
Mississippi	July 26-27	Articles of clothing or footwear under $100
Missouri	Aug. 2-4	Articles of clothing and footwear priced at $100 or less; computers priced at $1,500 or less; school supplies, up to $50 per purchase; graphing calculators priced at $150 or less; computer software priced at $350 or less
New Mexico	Aug. 2-4	Articles of clothing or footwear under $100; computers priced at $1,000 or less; computer equipment priced at $500 or less; school supplies under $30
Ohio	Aug. 2-4	Articles of clothing priced at $75 or less; school supplies priced at $20 or less
Oklahoma	Aug. 2-4	Articles of clothing or footwear under $100
South Carolina	Aug. 2-4	Articles of clothing, accessories, footwear, computers, school supplies and select bedding
Tennessee	July 26-28	Articles of clothing priced at $100 or less; school supplies priced at $100 or less; computers priced at $1,500 or less
Texas	Aug. 9-11	Articles of clothing, footwear, school supplies and backpacks under $100
Virginia	Aug. 2-4	Articles of clothing and footwear priced at $100 or less; school supplies priced at $20 or less
Information accurate as of Jan. 28, 2019.

Additional tax-free weekends might be announced throughout the year.

If you don’t plan on itemizing sales tax deductions on your tax return or taking a tax exemption to reduce your taxable income, consider shopping during a tax-free day or weekend in your state — or a neighboring one — to offset costs. There are also tax-free weekends online, so you can do tax-free weekend online shopping in the applicable states on many sites, including Amazon. You can save even more by looking out for tax-free weekend deals on coupon sites.

Find Out: Here’s When Your State Will Increase Online Sales Taxes

Hurricane Preparedness Tax-Free Days

Some states have tax-free days for hurricane preparedness-related purchases, such as generators and other supplies. These typically take place before or during hurricane season. You can keep an eye out for upcoming dates for tax-free shopping in these states:

Alabama’s hurricane preparedness tax-free days for 2019 will take place from Feb. 22-24.
Maryland will hold its Energy Tax-Free Weekend 2019 from Feb. 16-18.
Missouri holds its “Show-Me Green Sales Tax Holiday” from April 19-25, during which you can buy Energy Star-certified new appliances tax-free.
Texas will hold its 2019 tax-free days for emergency preparation supplies from April 27-29, during which shoppers will be able to avoid sales tax on generators and other supplies for extreme weather preparation. Texas also has an Energy Star Sales Tax Holiday, which will be held from May 25-27, 2019.
Virginia’s hurricane preparedness-related tax holiday will be Aug. 2-4 this year, the same day as its general tax-free weekend. During that same time, you can also purchase Energy Star and WaterSense products priced at $2,500 or less tax-free.

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States Without Tax-Free Days

Although many states have tax-free days to help you save a little money on seasonal items, there are some states that don’t offer a tax-free week or tax-free shopping day. However, Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon never charge any state sales tax, so you don’t have to wait for a tax-free holiday if you live in one of those states.

States that have not yet announced a tax-free weekend or holiday in 2019 include:

Arizona
California
Colorado
District of Columbia
Georgia — its last sales tax holiday was in 2016
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Michigan
Minnesota
Nebraska
Nevada
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Dakota
Utah
Vermont
Washington
Wisconsin — its last sales tax holiday was in 2018
West Virginia
Wyoming

Taxes can eat up a lot of your spending money — find out how much money you’d have if you never paid taxes.

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Ruth Sarreal, Steffi Cao and Gabrielle Olya contributed to the reporting for this article.

About the Author

Sabah Karimi

Sabah Karimi is an award-winning writer with more than 10 years of experience writing about personal finance, lifestyle topics, and consumer trends. Her work has appeared on U.S. News & World Report, Business Insider, Yahoo!, AOL Daily Finance, MSN, and other mainstream publications. She was interviewed by The Wall Street Journal and CBS News about her work as a freelance writer early in her career and now works with a variety of clients.