Madison residents prepare for severe weather sales tax holiday

By Aldo Amato

Staff Reporter

MADISON — Alabamians and Madison County residents will get a tax break this weekend as “Severe Weather Awareness” week comes to a close.

Gov. Robert Bentley and the Alabama Dept. of Revenue introduced the sales tax holiday to help Alabamians purchase items that they need in case of severe weather this coming spring and beyond.

The National Weather Service in Huntsville said earlier this week that events such as these are important to raise awareness of the opportunities to prepare so that when a day, like April 27, 2011, were to ever happen again, residents of Madison and Huntsville would be prepared.

Carla Snellgrove, with the Alabama Department of Revenue in Montgomery, said that this will be the second sales tax holiday and the first one to fall at the end of  “Severe Weather Awareness Week.”

“The sales tax holiday came out of a key recommendation out of Gov. Bentley’s severe weather council following the April tornado outbreak,” she said. “It was passed last April and the first holiday was the weekend of July 4. This year and years after, all of the sales tax holiday’s will be following ‘Severe Weather Awareness Week.”

Various counties throughout the state will be participating in the tax holiday including Madison County and City. It lasts from February 22-24 and residents can find a list of items that are tax exempt on the Department of Revenue’s website (www.revenue.alabama.gov/salestax).