Sales tax holiday weekend starts tomorrow for back to school shopping
This weekend people shopping in Missouri will be able to save money on certain back to school items during the state’s annual sales tax holiday weekend.
School supplies, clothing and computers will all be exempt from Missouri’s 4.225% sales tax starting at midnight Friday through midnight Sunday.
The sales tax exemption does have some limits on purchases including:
Clothing – any article having a taxable value of $100 or less
School supplies – not to exceed $50 per purchase
Computer software – taxable value of $350 or less
Personal computers – not to exceed $1,500
Computer peripheral devices – not to exceed $1,500
Graphing Calculators – not to exceed $150
Some people were out shopping ahead of the tax-free weekend hoping to avoid the crowds.
“We do it when it’s convenient,” said Heather Monti, who was out shopping for a pair of shoes for her 5th grade daughter. “I should probably be smarter about that.”
Many mid-Missouri cities, including Columbia and Jefferson City, do not participate in the sales tax holiday; therefore, local sales tax still apply. A complete list of other cities opting out of the tax-free weekend can be found here.
Columbia has been struggling with a lagging sales tax forcing the city to make cuts in the budget.
ABC 17 News emailed the Regional Economic Development office and the city manager’s office for comment on the sales tax holiday, but did not receive a response Thursday.
Store managers said they’ve been preparing for the tax-free weekend for the past several weeks.
“We want to provide our customers with the best possible experience we can and for that reason we’ve got just about everybody working for us here this weekend,” said Jaron Lester, a manager with Academy Sports and Outdoors.
Lester said the sales tax holiday weekend is comparable to crowds during Black Friday.
“It just doesn’t back everybody into four hours basically, but you get the same flow through the weekend as you would in that four hours of Black Friday,” he said.
According to the National Retail Federation, back to school shopping is expected to increase by 8% compared to 2016 figures.
Parents are expected to spend, on average, $114.12 on school supplies, $239.89 on clothes and $130.38 on shoes this year.
While some people were shopping ahead to avoid the expected crowds, Wal-Mart co-manager George Akers said other wait specifically to shop during the sales tax holiday.
“It’s nice to be able to pick up some of your apparel basics like socks, underwear things like that, even jeans with no taxes,” he said. “That can be a lot of money saved.”
