Back-to-school sales tax holiday earlier this year

MADISON – The Alabama legislature has scheduled the Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday earlier this year so families can take advantage of tax exemptions before school starts.

The tax holiday will be held the third weekend of July instead of the first weekend in August. The 2017 ‘holiday’ begins at 12:01 a.m. on July 21 and ends at midnight on July 23. The City of Madison and Madison County are participating in the holiday.

For a complete list of tax-exempt merchandise, visit revenue.alabama.gov, click salestax and click STHolidayQuickRefSheet17.pdf.

Clothing is exempt if each item costs $100 or less. This list include belts, sandals, shoes, sneakers, socks and boots; caps, hats, raincoats, coats, shirts and neckties; diapers, pajamas and underwear; dresses, hosiery and scarves; gloves, gym suits and jackets; jeans, pants and shorts; and school uniforms.

However, numerous items related to apparel are taxable. Some of these items are cosmetics, handbags, jewelry, sewing supplies, umbrellas, wigs, protective gear, sports equipment, band instruments, breathing masks, face shields, hard hats and helmets, safety glasses and goggles, tool belts and welders’ gloves and masks.

Shoppers will not pay sales tax for school computer supplies, or items that a student commonly uses in a course involving a computer. Any single purchase qualifies if the sales price is $750 or less. This tax-exempt list includes computers, storage media, compact disks and printers with supplies like paper and ink.

Many school supplies are exempt if an item costs no more than $50. These purchases include binders and folders, chalk, calculators, book bags, calculators, composition books and many types of paper, crayons and erasers, folders, glue and paste sticks, highlighters and markers, index cards, legal pads, poster board, pencils and sharpeners, rulers and scissors.

Books will be exempt from sales tax, if the price per book is $30 or less.

For more information, call 334-242-1490 or 866-576-6531 or visit https://revenue.alabama.gov/contact.