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Florida back-to-school sales tax holiday returns Monday: Here's how to save

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Published  July 25, 2024 12:01pm EDT
Florida
FOX 13 News

Florida back-to-school tax holiday begins next week

Kylie Jones reports

TAMPA, Fla. - As parents prepare to send their kids back to school, Florida is working to make stocking up on those school supplies a little more affordable.

The state will be offering a Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday from Monday, July 29, to Sunday, August 11. During the sales tax holiday, which was passed by the Florida Legislature and signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis, shoppers can buy school supplies without spending sales tax. 

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During the sales tax holiday, Floridians can buy the following without paying sales tax:

Certain clothing, footwear, and accessories with a sales price of $100 or less per item:

  • All footwear, excluding skis, swim fins, roller blades, and skates
  • Any article of wearing apparel intended to be worn on or about the human body, excluding watches, watchbands, jewelry, umbrellas, and handkerchiefs
  • Wallets or bags

Certain school supplies with a sales price of $50 or less per item:

  • Binders
  • Cellophane tape
  • Compasses
  • Composition books
  • Computer disks
  • Construction paper
  • Crayons
  • Erasers
  • Folders
  • Glue or paste
  • Legal pads
  • Lunch boxes
  • Markers
  • Notebooks
  • Notebook filler paper
  • Pencils
  • Pens
  • Poster board
  • Poster paper
  • Protractors
  • Rulers
  • Scissors
  • Staplers and staples used to secure paper products

Learning aids and jigsaw puzzles with a sales price of $30 or less per item:

  • Flashcards or other learning cards
  • Interactive or electronic books and toys intended to teach reading or math skills
  • Matching or other memory games
  • Puzzle books and search-and-find books
  • Stacking or nesting blocks or sets

Personal computers and related accessories purchased for noncommercial home or personal use with a sales price of $1,500 or less:

  • Calculators
  • Desktops
  • Electronic book readers
  • Handhelds
  • Laptops
  • Tablets
  • Tower computers
  • Keyboards
  • Mice
  • Modems
  • Monitors
  • Nonrecreational software
  • Other peripheral devices
  • Personal digital assistants
  • Routers

"This is an opportunity to save real money," DeSantis said at a press conference on Thursday. "I appreciate the legislature stepping up and renewing this. I think it's important that we're able to provide relief for Florida families, particularly given how things have gone up so much over the last three and a half years."

"I spoke with one large retailer this morning that said back to school rivals the holiday season in terms of the peaks that they see in sales," Florida Retail Federation President & CEO Scott Shalley said.

The Florida Retail Federation says incentives like tax holidays have helped push the economy over hurdles in the last several years.

"Retailers have shown great versatility through all kinds of challenges, whether it's back to Covid, to inflation and otherwise. So this is just one more piece of the puzzle," Shalley said.

Shalley says they’re cautiously optimistic about the continued growth that the economy is seeing.

"We're still seeing good numbers," Shalley said. "I think there was a lot of speculation that we would we would see a slowdown. It hasn't happened yet. So, we're continuing to grind it out with optimism."

For more information on what qualifies and the sales tax holiday, click here.

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