Tennessee back to school sales tax holiday weekend begins

(The Center Square) – Tennessee’s back to school tax sales tax holiday on clothing, school supplies and computers began Friday and runs through Sunday.

The holiday applies to clothing items priced less than $100 but not including jewelry and hand bags as well as school and art supplies less than $100 and personal use computers costing less than $1,500.

The sales tax holiday does not apply to items used for businesses, items sold together that cost more than $100 combined or computer parts such as keyboards, monitors, flash drives, video game consoles, printers, electronic readers or smart phones.

“We’re putting dollars back in the hands of Tennesseans,” Gov. Bill Lee said.

Rep. Aftyn Behn, D-Nashville, said the tax holiday is welcome but that the state should be pushing to get rid of its grocery tax entirely as the 4% tax disproportionately impacts low- and middle-income families.

The state had grocery tax holidays the past two years but not in 2024 despite Behn pushing a bill to end the grocery tax.

“A three-day sales tax holiday is offensive to working moms and dads when you compare it to the billions of tax dollars that Republicans have handed over to big corporations,” Behn said in a statement. “This weekend is a reminder that we must continue to fight to cut costs for working families by ending the grocery tax forever.”

A complete list of items eligible for the tax free weekend can be found at TNtaxholiday.com.