Six years ago, the Florida Legislature authorized a “tax-free holiday” for basic school supplies, clothing and certain electronic equipment in anticipation of the new school year. This year’s sales tax holiday begins at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, August 7 and ends at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, August 16.
During this holiday period, Florida law directs that no sales tax or local option tax (also known as discretionary sales surtax) will be collected on purchases of clothing, footwear, and certain accessories selling for $100 or less per item, certain school supplies selling for $15 or less per item, and personal computers and certain computer-related accessories on the first $750 of the sales price, when purchased for noncommercial home or personal use.
Among the allowed school supplies are binders, calculators, cellophane (transparent) tape, blank CDs, construction paper, lunch boxes, notebook filler paper, poster paper and scissors.
School supply items that are NOT exempt from sales taxes include books that are not otherwise exempt, computer paper, correction tape/fluid/pens, masking tape, printer paper, staplers and staples.
For more information about the sales tax holiday, and for lists of specific items and their taxable status during the tax-free period visit http://dor.myflorida.com/dor/.