School is about ready to be back in session within just a couple of weeks. In preparation, area parents begin to figure out ways to budget for school supplies, computers, and clothing. The good news is that the state of Texas has a tax-free day that helps parents get through the challenging season. Also, there are events around the community with organizations giving away school supplies and other items.
Here are the start times for the different schools in Cass County: Avinger – August 5 Hughes Springs: August 8 Bloomburg: August 8 Atlanta: August 12 Queen City: August 13 Linden: August 14 McLeod: August 16 When shopping for school supplies and clothing, parents might want to stock up on August 9-11. This year’s Sales Tax Holiday is where parents and students alike get to save money by not paying sales tax.
In an article on the Comptroller’s website, “the Comptroller encourages all taxpayers to support Texas businesses while saving money on tax-free purchases of most clothing, footwear, school supplies, and backpacks (sold for less than $100) during the annual Tax-Free weekend. Qualifying items can be purchased tax-free from a Texas store or an online or catalog seller doing business in Texas. In most cases, you do not need to give the seller an exemption certificate to buy qualifying items tax-free.”
Sales tax weekend is only for qualifying items and only under certain amounts.
It’s best to visit the Texas Comptroller’s website to know in advance important information before you go shopping.
The sales tax exemption applies only to qualifying items you buy during the sales tax holiday. Items you buy before or after the sales tax holiday do not qualify for exemption, and there is no tax refund available. https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/ publications/98-490/. There is a large list of qualifying items on the controller’s website. (The Texas Comptroller is the government entity in charge of collecting state sales tax).
Here is a list of Qualifying items that you can plan on getting tax-free.
- School Supplies - Only specific school supplies sold for less than $100 qualify for the exemption, and an exemption certificate is not required.
- Clothing and Footwear – Must be less than $100 for each item. For example, if you buy two shirts for $80 each, each shirt qualifies for the exemption because each is less than $100, even though the total purchase price is $160.
- Face Masks - Backpacks - During the sales tax holiday, student backpacks sold for less than $100 are exempt from tax.
- During the holiday you can buy qualifying items in-store, online, by telephone, mail, custom order, or any other means. The sale of the item must take place during the specific period. The purchase date is easy to determine when the purchase is made in-store but becomes more complicated with remote purchases. The purchaser must have given consideration for the item during the period even if the item may not be delivered until after the period is over.
The comptroller says that if you decide to buy online for the tax-free day but the items won’t arrive till later don’t fret. “For example, if a purchaser enters their credit card information in an online shopping website on Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. to purchase qualifying school supplies, but the school supplies will not be shipped until Friday Aug. 16, 2024 and will not arrive until Tuesday, Aug. 20, the purchase will still qualify for the exemption. However, if the charge to your credit card is declined by the payment processor at 11:00 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, and the purchaser does not resubmit payment until Monday, Aug. 12, the purchase is taxable.”
Additional charges affect the sales price for instance delivery, shipping, handling and transportation charges by the seller are part of the item’s sales price.
The following items do not qualify for exemption during the sales tax holiday: - items sold for $100 or more - clothing subscription boxes - specially-designed athletic activity or protective-use clothing or footwear - For example, golf cleats and football pads are usually worn only when people play golf or football, so they do not qualify for the exemption.
- Tennis shoes, jogging suits and swimsuits, however, can be worn for other than athletic activity and qualify for the exemption.
- Clothing or footwear rentals, alterations (including embroidery) and cleaning services - Items used to make or repair clothing, such as fabric, thread, yarn, buttons, snaps, hooks and zippers - Jewelry, handbags, purses, briefcases, luggage, umbrellas, wallets, watches and other accessories - Computers - Software - Textbooks - Certain baggage items (see below) Before you buy, check in with your school to get school supply lists and find out if they will be providing you a laptop or tablet to work off of.
The Journal-Sun will be posting more information on back to school in the upcoming newspaper and their social media pages.
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