Kenzie James
ECB Publishing, Inc.
The annual state back-to-school sales tax holiday starts next week for families looking to purchase school supplies to prepare for the start of the new school year in August.
The tax holiday starts on Monday, July 29, and runs through Sunday, Aug. 11, exempting certain clothing, footwear, accessories, school suplies, learning aids, jigsaw puzzles, personal computers and compter-related accessories from tax. The Florida Department of Revenue released in June a Tax Information Publication with the specific guidelines for tax-exempt items. Clothing, footwear and certain accessories are exempt with a sales price of $100 or less per item. School supplies are exempt with a sales price of $50 or less per item. Learning aids and jigsaw puzzles are exempt with a sales price of $30 or less per item. Computers and computer-related items are exempt when purchased for noncommercial home or personal use, with a sales price of $1,500 or less. In addition to these guidelines, rentals, repairs and alterations of eligible items are not included in the exemption. The sale of eligible items within amusement parks, public lodging, airports and entertainment complexes are not included in the sales tax holiday.
Some businesses, if qualified, may have chosen to not participate in the holiday. These businesses qualified if less than five percent of their 2023 gross sales of tangible personal property were items that would be exempt during the back-to-school tax holiday. If businesses are not participating in the sales tax holiday next week, they must post a notice at each location.
Some local schools, including Aucilla Christian Academy and Jefferson County Schools K-12 in Jefferson County and Branford High School in Suwannee County, have posted their school supply lists so students can begin shopping for school supplies when the holiday begins. Meet-your-teacher open houses begin the week of Aug. 5, the second week of the tax holiday, so students and parents can pick up their school supply list during that week and still have time to buy tax-exempt school supplies for the new school year.
For details on whether specific items are tax-exempt during the holiday, visit https://floridarevenue.com/pages/ salestaxholidays.aspx.