Sales Tax Holiday
By State Representative Ken Paxton
The State’s annual sales tax holiday will take place this year August 21-23. During the tax holiday weekend, shoppers may purchase most clothing items and shoes priced less than $100 tax-free.
The tax break applies to both children’s and adults’ apparel. Lay-away plans can be used again this year to take advantage of the sales tax holiday.
Additionally, the Legislature passed House Bill 1801 this past session to expand the list of items qualifying for exemption from Texas state and local sales and use taxes during the annual sales tax holiday to include school supplies. This means that Texas families will now also receive a sales tax break on most school supply items priced less than $100 for use by an elementary school or secondary school student (a purchaser buying school supplies using a business credit card or checking account must provide an exemption certificate certifying that the items are purchased for use by an elementary or secondary school student).
The tax-free holiday includes the following clothing items:
- Baby clothes
- Backpacks for use by elementary and secondary students
- Belts with attached buckles
- Boots – cowboy, hiking
- Caps/hats – baseball, fishing, golf, knitted
- Coats and wraps
- Diapers – adult and baby
- Dresses
- Gloves (generally)
- Gym suits and uniforms
- Hooded shirts and hooded sweatshirts
- Hosiery
- Jackets
- Jeans
- Jerseys – baseball and football
- Jogging apparel
- Neckwear and ties
- Pajamas
- Pants and trousers
- Raincoats and ponchos
- Robes
- Shirts
- Shoes – sandals, slippers, sneakers, tennis, walking
- Socks (including athletic)
- Shorts
- Suits, slacks, and jackets
- Sweatshirts
- Sweat suits
- Sweaters
- Swimsuits
- Underclothes
- Work clothes and uniforms
The tax free holiday also includes the following school supply items (if priced under $100):
- Binders
- Book bags
- Calculators
- Cellophane tape
- Blackboard chalk
- Compasses
- Composition books
- Crayons’
- Erasers
- Folders (expandable, pocket, plastic and manila)
- Glue, paste and paste sticks
- Highlighters
- Index cards
- Index card boxes
- Legal pads
- Lunch boxes
- Markers
- Notebooks
- Paper (loose leaf ruled notebook paper, copy paper, graph paper, tracing paper, manila paper, colored paper, poster board and construction paper)
- Pencil boxes and other school supply boxes
- Pencil sharpeners
- Pencils
- Pens
- Protractors
- Rulers
- Scissors and
- Writing tablets
A complete list of items that are exempt and ones that are not exempt may be found at the Comptroller’s website.