Virginia and Maryland offer back-to-school sales tax holidays

(The Center Square) — Virginia’s annual back-to-school sales tax holiday is in full swing this weekend, ending at 11:59 PM on Sunday.

After last year’s budget negotiation breakdown, which led to a postponed sales tax holiday in October, it has resumed as usual this year. Seventeen states have a sales tax holiday this year, according to USA Today, though the items and price points the holidays apply to vary from state to state.

The commonwealth’s sales tax holiday applies to online and in-store purchases of qualifying school supplies costing $20 or less and clothing and footwear costing $100 or less. Legislators have also tried to incentivize the purchase of hurricane-preparedness and green energy items by removing sales tax from portable generators, gas-powered chain saws, EnergyStar and WaterSense products and other qualifying items within a stated price range.

The state sales tax for Virginia is 4.3%, but localities can also set their own between 1% and 1.7%. So, depending on where shoppers make their purchases, they can save anywhere from 5.3% to 7%.

At one time, shoppers could take advantage of sales tax holidays across the entire DMV, but the District of Columbia hasn’t offered one since 2009 – a decision tax policy think tank the Tax Foundation applauded at the time. The foundation still doesn’t see the holidays as a good policy.

Maryland , like Virginia, also practices a sales tax holiday for applicable items every year in August – though it does not apply to all school supplies. If cost-conscious Virginians miss this weekend’s holiday in the commonwealth, they can head to Maryland August 14-20 to purchase clothes and footwear sans sales tax. Maryland’s holiday also applies to the first $40 of any bookbag or backpack.

Last year was predicted to be an “unparalleled” and “record” back-to-school shopping season, according to the National Retail Federation, with the average family with “children in elementary through high school” spending about $890 on school supplies, according to a federation survey.

The federation predicts spending will be down this year, but just slightly, with the average family spending about $875 on school supplies.