Comments on: 2007 State Sales Tax Holidays for Back-to-School Shopping

By: Ann

Ann — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 23:39:28 +0000

Massachusetts will have this too, next weekend on any purchases up to $2500. I don’t think there are any restrictions so if you need to purchase a big ticket item here it may be the time to do it. If you want to brave the crowds, that is!

By: dad

dad — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 12:46:31 +0000

If your state doesn’t have a tax free holiday, and you don’t live directly adjacent to the state border, I would shop online at merchants without a sales tax as opposed to burning a bunch of gas trying to save a relatively small amount of money.

Given your statement of $100 spent on just getting there (and back, I would assume), and further assuming an AR state sales tax of 7% (I’m just guessing here) then you’d have to make $1428.57 in eligible purchases just to break even

I’m guessing that the $100 is an overstatement — after all, that’s a bit over 33 gallons of gas at $3/gallon. Assuming you get a 20 mpg, that’s nearly 700 miles of driving. I can’t imagine that anyone would willingly drive that distance for a tax holiday. Of course, I’m ignoring things like wear and tear, but stilll…

The point still stands. There are better ways to save money than driving vast distances to save a small percent on purchases.

(Don’t forget your time investment, either.)

By: struggling mom

struggling mom — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 06:31:34 +0000

I live in Arkansas and we do not have the tax free weekend. It makes it so much harder on me to have to travel to different states to try to catch a good sale. With gas prices continuously on the rise, by the time i make it to the sale i have already spent $100. Every other state surrounding AR has a tax free weekend and i think we as a state should really consider keeping some of the money at home.

By: JOATMON

JOATMON — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 03:07:47 +0000

When I lived in NH, the only time I spent money in MA was on MA’s state tax holiday (I think it was an experiment by the Taxachussetts legislature). Don’t know what I was thinking when I moved to CA, this state is much worse than Taxachussetts!

By: Lou

Lou — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 18:04:40 +0000

Does this work online? Thanks

By: bliss

bliss — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:56:02 +0000

thanks for the info. i posted it at my own blog too.

By: dad

dad — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:45:46 +0000

Matthew is right. The store registers should automatically take care of this. It doesn’t hurt to double-check, but the stores are well aware of sales tax holidays.

By: Matthew Vince

Matthew Vince — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:18:37 +0000

Denny,

In Louisiana, the registers are reprogrammed to ignore the taxes, so there’s nothing special that you need to do. I’m not sure how this translates to other states.

By: Denny

Denny — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:16:27 +0000

so how does this work? you go through the check out at KMart, Walmart, Target, where ever & the appropriate items are rang up w/o tax? Do you have to tell the cashier about this? Just wondering how difficult these savings are to use. I’m in Missouir BTW. Denny

By: JM

JM — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:42:26 +0000

what the hell? You guys pay sales tax on clothing? that’s crazy. Here in pennsylvania, we might not get tax holidays, but clothing and (most) food is always tax free.