NC doesn’t have a tax-free weekend for new school supplies like other states. Here’s why

Students across North Carolina are back in school with new supplies and clothes. Even if families found discounts and deals, there’s one fee they couldn’t avoid: sales tax.

Unlike other states — such as South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia — North Carolina doesn’t have a tax-free holiday . But it hasn’t always been that way; from 2002 until 2013, families could purchase items on their back-to-school lists without paying sales tax, The News & Observer previously reported .

Why doesn’t NC have a sales tax-free weekend?

Then Gov. Pat McCrory signed a new tax cut law in July 2013 . In addition to cutting personal and corporate income taxes, limiting the mortgage and property tax break and increasing the standard deduction, the bill killed the sales tax holiday, The N&O reported at the time.

The law went into effect in July 2014 . It repealed G.S. 105-164.13C, which “provides a sales tax holiday for certain clothing, school supplies, school instructional materials, computers, computer supplies and sports or recreational equipment” sold the first weekend of August, according to the North Carolina Department of Revenue .

While families and retailers may have appreciated the weekend of tax-free shopping, it cost the state. In 2012, an estimated $13.6 million in tax revenue was lost during the holiday, The Charlotte Observer reported .

Will NC bring back a tax-free holiday?

State Attorney General Josh Stein , the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, said he wants to.

If elected governor, Stein said he would implement a tax-free weekend, give teachers stipends for school supplies and serve free meals to all North Carolina public school students, The Observer previously reported .

A spokesperson for Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s campaign called Stein’s idea a “cheap election-year stunt.”

Studies show the shopping done during a tax holiday isn’t necessarily more than buyers would have done at other times, The Tax Foundation , a nonpartisan tax policy nonprofit, wrote in a 2024 article . Rather, consumers just do their shopping during the holiday. And while there may be some impulse buys, “those additional purchases are not enough to justify the revenue costs associated with these holidays, even if such impulse purchases are desirable,” The Tax Foundation wrote.

School supply discounts at nearby stores

North Carolina families can’t take advantage of a tax-free weekend, and it’s too late to travel to Virginia, South Carolina or Tennessee to snag school supplies while avoiding sales tax.

But a few large retailers with stores in the Triangle are offering discounts on back-to-school necessities.

• Best Buy is advertising sales on tech such as laptops and TVs.
• Office Depot has deals on items such as pens, art supplies and backpacks.
• Staples is selling notebooks, folders, pencils, glue and crayons for less than $1 .
• Target is offering a one-time, 20% off discount for college students who are Target Circle members. The deal is good through Sept. 28.
• Walmart is slashing prices of supplies including colored pencils, glue sticks and notebooks.

The Charlotte Observer’s Nora O’Neill contributed to this story. Inspired by The Telegraph in Georgia.

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