Families gearing up for a new school year can get a little help from the state of Florida, during the 2015 Back-to-School Tax Holiday.
During the tax holiday, which runs through Aug. 16, shoppers can purchase scores of items without paying state sales tax.
(File Photo)
For example, no Florida sales tax will be collected on sales of certain clothing, footwear, and certain accessories with a selling price of $100 or less per item. No sales tax will be charged on certain school supplies selling for $15 or less per item. And, no taxes will be charged on the first $750 of the sales price for computers and certain computer-related accessories, when they are being purchased for noncommercial home or personal use.
Greg Lenners, general manager at The Shops at Wiregrass, said he expected an increase in mall traffic as stores and shops offer back-to-school sales, and special promotions to attract customers.
The tax-free holiday is a plus, Lenners said.
While he didn’t have hard statistics, he said shop owners told him that sales were going well.
- Craig Shearman, a spokesman for the National Retail Federation, said sales tax holidays, in general, tend to motivate shoppers.
“From what we’ve heard from our member companies, sales tax holidays have been tremendously successful at getting customers into the store and putting them in the frame of mind to shop,” Shearman said.
“Consumers are smart. Consumers know a sale is 25 percent off, or 50 percent off,” he said.
If retailers told consumers that they’d be offering a sale with everything being 7 percent off — the sales tax rate in Pasco and Hillsborough counties — shoppers would laugh at them, Shearman said.
Not so, when it comes to a tax holiday, Shearman said.
“There’s a psychological appeal that goes far beyond the amount of money involved,” the retail expert explained.
“Americans have hated taxes back to the Boston Tea Party, so a sales tax holiday feeds into that very same sort of thinking,” he said.
Sales tax holidays began in the mid-1990s, Shearman said.
There are now 18 states with sales tax holidays, according to the Federation of Tax Administrators.
Retailers will have back-to-school sales with or without a sales tax holiday, Shearman said.
So, he said: “The sales tax holiday, from a retailer point-of-view, is sort of icing on the cake.”
For consumers, though, the tax savings can make a real difference, Shearman added.
The tax holiday helps families, he noted.
“There are still a lot of families who are struggling to make ends meet and trying to stretch the dollar.
“There are families out there this time of year who are worried about where are they going to come up with the money that it takes to equip their children to go back to school in the fall and get their education.
“School clothing, backpacks, all of that — can be a stretch for some families.
“The savings from this (tax holiday) can be significant,” he said.
His organization’s Back-to-School Spending Survey, conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, found that the average family — with children in kindergarten through grade 12 — plans to spend $630.36 on electronics, apparel and other school needs. That’s down from $669.28 last year.
With that in mind, savings from a tax holiday can be significant.
“For a lot of families, this is more than just psychological appeal or more retail sales, this can make the difference in giving their children what they need,” Shearman said.
In adopting the sale tax holiday, the Florida Legislature provided specific details about what is tax-free and what isn’t, during the tax-free period.
The Florida Department of Revenue provides detailed information on its website about what’s exempt and what isn’t. For more information on the sales tax holiday, visit DOR.MyFlorida.com.
Published August 12, 2015
