Back to School Sales Tax Holidays for Texas, Oklahoma, N.M.
Update 8/9: Just a quick reminder that the Texas tax-free weekend set for this weekend. You can find a list of the items eligible for tax-free purchase in the links below.
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Update 8/3: This is a reminder that the sales tax holiday for Oklahoma and New Mexico begins today. The sales tax holiday for Texas will be the weekend of Aug. 10.
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The annual Back to School sales tax holiday in Texas has been announced for the weekend of Aug. 10.
According to the Texas Comptroller's Office, most clothing, footwear, school supplies and backpacks sold for less than $100 will be tax free in Texas stores or from online catalogs doing business in Texas. In most cases, shoppers will not need to give the seller an exemption certificate to buy qualifying items tax free.
The tax exemption applies only to the qualifying items bought during the sales tax holiday, which ends at midnight on Sunday, Aug. 12. Items bought before or after the sales tax holiday do not qualify for exemption and no sales tax refund is available.
Qualifying items:
- List of clothing, footwear and other items
- List of school supplies
- Clothing and footwear
- Backpacks
- School supplies
Special Purchases:
- School Supplies purchased using a business account-Exemption certificate required
- Layaways
- Special orders and rain checks
Additional charges affect the sales price:
Sellers-what you need to know:
The Sales Tax Holiday in Oklahoma will begin at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 3 and end at midnight on Sunday, Aug. 5.
Certain clothing and shoe purchases are exempt from sales tax during this time. Qualifying items will be exempt from state, city, county and local municipality sales taxes.
Retailers are required to participate and may not collect state and local sales tax or use tax on most footwear and clothing that are sold for less than $100 during the holiday.
For more information and answers to common questions, as well as a list of sales tax exempt items, visit the Oklahoma Tax Commission website here.
The Annual New Mexico Gross Receipts Tax Holiday will also be from Aug. 3 through Aug. 5. Across the weekend, the state suspends collection of gross receipts tax on sales of qualifying items, allowing consumers to get them tax free.
The tax holiday will start at 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 3 and end at midnight on Aug. 5.
In that time frame, the law allows provides a deduction from gross receipts for retails sales of qualifying tangible personal property; essentially allowing the retailer to sell items tax free.
A list of taxable and non-taxable items, divided by category can be found here.
To qualify, clothing or shoes must be priced below $100. The price limit for desktop, laptop, tablets or notebook computers is $1,000 and for related computer hardware the limit is $500.
School supplies for use in standard, general-education classrooms must be under $30.
There are items specifically excluded by statute in each category that are always taxable.
For more information on the legislation, definitions, types of sales, (rain checks, exchanges, refunds, gift cards, layaways, Internet, mail order and telephone sales) click here.