Summer holidays for Florida students are drawing to an end. Suddenly, it’s that time of year again. This year, parents and students and other Florida shoppers will have another three-day “tax-free holiday” weekend in anticipation of the new school year. This year’s sales tax holiday begins at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, August 4, and continue through to 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, August 6. Back on the tax-exempt list this year are computers and computer accessories.
Tax-free items
No Florida sales tax or local option tax will be collected during this year on the following:
- Clothing, footwear, and certain accessories selling for $60 or less per item, and
- Certain school supplies selling for $15 or less per item,
- Personal computers and certain computer-related accessories, selling for $750 or less per item, when purchased for noncommercial home or personal use.
Among the allowed school supplies are the following: binders, calculators, cellophane (transparent) tape, colored pencils, crayons, construction paper, lunch boxes, notebook filler paper, poster paper, and scissors.
The allowed computer equipment includes laptops and tablets; data storage, such as jump, flash and thumb drives; e-book readers; printers and headphones.
Non-tax free items
School supply items that are NOT exempt from sales taxes include books that are not otherwise exempt; correction tape – fluid – pens; masking tape; printer paper; staplers and staples.
Miami-Dade School Board Member Perla Tabares Hantman’s proposal to promote this holiday to families was unanimously agreed upon by her School Board colleagues at their April 2017 meeting.
Relief to Caribbean American families
Caribbean-American families in the state, especially those with two or more children attending school in the state eagerly anticipate what is now an annual tax-holiday offered by Florida legislators. The consensus among these families is “the tax holiday goes a long to meet the increasing cost related to back to school needs every year.”
