Back to School Sales savings this coming weekend – Mississippi’s Sales Tax Holiday

Mississippians have some sales tax relief this coming weekend, as the state holds its 12th sales-tax free holiday Friday, July 31 to Saturday, Aug. 1, 2020. The state sales tax in Mississippi is 7%. Many retailers use this weekend to launch additional discounts and sales on eligible items which can increase the savings to consumers.

Important to note, only in-store purchases are eligible for the sales-tax holiday. Online stores are still required to collect sales tax even for orders placed this weekend. That will be good for local retailers, who have had to deal with 2020 shopping restrictions during the pandemic.

In 2009 Mississippi law makers gave consumers a sales tax holiday to coincide with back to school shopping and amended the list of eligible items in 2019. Sales tax will not be charged on clothes, shoes or school supplies if the sales price of a single item is less than $100. The complete guideline for eligible and ineligible items is available to download from our website from the Mississippi Department of Revenue, but for a quick list here’s what you need to know:

 

School Supplies:

Basic, most commonly used school supplies are included in the list of items eligible to be bought without paying the state sales tax. The list includes clothing, shoes, pens, paper, calculators and drawing supplies.

Items over $100 are still subject to the 7% tax. Ineligible items for the tax-free holiday including computers, electronics, sport clothing, football pads, helmets, watches, hair clips and handkerchiefs. Legislators amended the list last year in 2019 to not include computers.

 

Eligible items for the tax-free weekend:

• Backpacks
• Binder pockets and binders
• Blackboard
• Bookbags
• Chalk
• Calculators
• Cellophane tape
• Clays and glazes
• Compasses
• Composition books
• Crayons
• Dictionaries and thesauruses
• Dividers
• Erasers
• Folders: expandable, pocket, plastic and manila
• Glue, paste and paste sticks
• Highlighters
• Index card boxes and index cards
• Legal pads
• Lunchboxes
• Markers
• Notebooks
• Paintbrushes for artwork
• Paints: acrylic, tempera and oil
• Paper: loose-leaf ruled notebook paper, copy paper, graph paper, tracing paper, manila paper, colored paper, poster board and construction paper
• Pencil boxes and other school supply boxes, pencil sharpeners, pencils and pens
• Protractors
• Reference books, reference maps and globes
• Rulers
• Scissors
• Sheet music
• Sketch and drawing pads
• Textbooks
• Watercolors
• Workbooks
• Writing tablets