A New Tax Holiday Could Save Shoppers $217M a Year: What You Need To Know
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Gabrielle Olya
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Molly Sullivan
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If you live in Florida, your back-to-school shopping season just got more affordable. The state launched a back-to-school sales tax holiday that officially began on Aug. 1 and will run through the entire month. This initiative allows shoppers to avoid paying sales tax on a wide range of school-related items, such as clothing, school supplies and personal computers.
This tax holiday was part of a broader $2 billion tax cut package signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The legislation — which made the back-to-school tax holiday a permanent annual event every August — is projected to save shoppers $217 million a year, Fox 13 Tampa Bay reported.
Here’s a look at how you can best take advantage of the new tax holiday.
Maximize Savings by Focusing on High-Ticket Tech Items
Florida’s tax-free holiday has deemed the following items tax-exempt during the month of August:
- Clothing, footwear and accessories priced at $100 or less per item.
- School supplies priced at $50 or less per item, including notebooks, pens, pencils, folders, rulers, glue, scissors and lunch boxes.
- Wallets and bags priced at $50 or less.
- Learning aids and puzzles priced at $30 or less, including flashcards, educational books and memory games.
- Personal computers and accessories for noncommercial use priced at $1,500 or less, including laptops, tablets, desktops, keyboards, mice, routers and non-recreational software.
To get the biggest tax savings, be strategic about what you buy now before the holiday ends.
“Florida consumers should focus on high-ticket items like computers and tablets, giving them a little north of a $100 tax savings at a $1,500 price point,” said Timothy L. Wingate Jr., an Intuit ProConnect Ambassador.
Out-of-State Shoppers Can Benefit Too
It may be worth taking a drive to Florida to buy your back-to-school supplies if you live in a neighboring state.
“Other state consumers should focus on computers and other electronics if the law permits,” Wingate said. “Otherwise, shopping for school supplies, uniforms and clothes for the year will be the most brilliant move here.”
Plan Ahead To Make the Most of the Tax Holiday
Some critics of the tax holiday believe that lower-income Americans will miss out on the benefits — even though they are the ones who need it the most.
“Wealthier taxpayers are often best positioned to benefit from a temporary exemption since they have more flexibility to shift the timing of their purchases to take advantage of the tax break — an option that isn’t available to families living paycheck to paycheck,” Miles Trinidad, a state analyst for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, wrote in a news brief.
However, Wingate believes that lower-income Americans can benefit from the tax holiday if they plan ahead.
“Lower-income Americans will only miss out if they don’t have money saved from tax refunds received earlier in the year,” he said, “or from the hard work they put in at their places of employment.”
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