Sales Tax Holidays; Tax Free Days in Various States -- Save up to 12%

It's back-to-school time and if you're like a ga-zillion other parents who have a significant amount of shopping to do to get ready for the upcoming school year or if you've just been planning to make some purchases and haven't gotten around to it yet, I have some good news for you. Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have announced state sales tax holidays -- days where you don't have to pay state sales tax on your purchases. Yippee!!!!!!

A couple good tips from Smart Money on how to make the most of this gift from the states:

Watch out for loopholes. Not every retailer may be participating. In New Mexico, retailers are not required to participate. And several states — including Florida and Georgia — don't include purchases from retailers in theme parks, airports, hotel and entertainment complexes in their tax-free promotions.

Check your receipt. Participating in a sales tax holiday may require a retailer to re-program its system or create codes for employees to key in. "A retailer could make an error very easily," says Schibley.

And, of course, here's the list of states and dates of the sales tax holidays:

• Florida: July 22-30 (Sorry, I was a bit late on this one.)
• Georgia: Aug. 3-6
• Iowa: Aug. 4-5
• Alabama: Aug. 4-6
• Missouri: Aug. 4-6   
• New Mexico: Aug. 4-6
• North Carolina: Aug. 4-6
• South Carolina: Aug. 4-6
• Tennessee: Aug. 4-6
• Texas: Aug. 4-6
• Virginia: Aug. 4-6
• District of Columbia: Aug. 5-13
• Massachusetts: Aug. 12-13 (proposed)
• Connecticut: Aug. 20-26
• Maryland: Aug. 23-27

For details on what products are eligible for the sales tax holiday, visit Smart Money's website.

Personally, this doesn't do anything for me. My state is not included in the sales tax holiday nor is there one close that has a sales tax holiday (close enough that would make driving worth it). But this post is for all of you in these states. If you have purchases you want to make that fit in to the approved categories, you can save a decent amount of money by waiting a few days before you buy.

Comments

[Matt]

Likewise for me. Iowa is driveable if I had some other reason I might want to go to Iowa, but when I want to save on taxes (and I always do) I can cut them in half any day of the year by making a much shorter drive to Indiana instead. I'd have to be spending a mind-numbingly massive amount of money on eligible products for the difference between Indiana sales tax (6%) and the temporary Iowa sales tax (0%) to be worth the extra gas involved in going in the other direction, even if I valued my free time at $0, which I certainly do not. And of course, when I lived in Michigan, there wasn't a single one of those states that would be remotely practical to visit as a short-term tax haven.

All in all, a good deal for the folks who live in those places, but not too relevant for most people.