Back to school

For the 16th year, Alabama citizens will enjoy a sales tax holiday beginning Friday, July 15 at 12:01 a.m. and ending Sunday, July 17 at midnight. Main Street Enterprise Director Mariah Montgomery encourages everyone to take advantage of much-needed relief from tough economic times and enjoy shopping local during a festive tax-free weekend starting Friday.

“Main Street is excited to partner this year with All-In Credit Union to host this year’s Back-to-School Bash,” Montgomery said. “Come downtown July 15-17. Enjoy music on Saturday and take advantage of the in-store promotions all during the tax-free holiday.”

Downtown merchants will be extending hours, offering giveaways and discounts throughout their stores and helping students go back to school with the latest fashion trends, she said. Shopping local helps to support small businesses. The Enterprise businesses are likewise happy to be able to participate in the tax-free holiday with their own sales in order to help ease the financial burden on parents this time of year.

A list of needed school supplies for one child can be long and require a substantial financial investment, thus the elimination of sales tax can save buyers of school-related items a lot of money.

Coffee and Dale Counties, and the majority of cities and towns within those counties, are participating in the tax holiday. In Geneva County, the “holiday” only applies to Geneva County’s regular sales and use tax of 1 percent.Geneva County does not grant a holiday for the 1 percent sales and use tax levied for education.

The tax holiday began in 2006 and each year since, counties and municipalities throughout the state have adopted resolutions or ordinances to provide for the exemption of “covered items” from county or municipal sales or use taxes during the same time period, under the same terms, conditions and definitions as provided for in the state sales tax holiday.

The only nearby cities listed on the state Department of Revenue website as not participating are Ariton, Clayhatchee, Coffee Springs, Hartford, Kinston, Newton and Slocomb.

Purchases for the following items are tax-free:

• Articles of clothing with a sales price of $100 or less per article of clothing. Clothing means all human wearing apparel suitable for general use including sandals, shoes and sneakers, but does not include belt buckles sold separately, costume masks sold separately, patches and emblems sold separately. Clothing does not refer to clothing accessories or equipment, protective equipment, or sport or recreational equipment. It also does not include cosmetics, handbags, handkerchiefs, sunglasses, face shields, safety glasses, ballet shoes, band instruments, cleated athletic shoes, life preservers, roller skates and ski boots.

• A single purchase, with a sales price of $750 or less, of computers (laptop, desktop, or tower computer system which consists of a CPU, display monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers sold as a computer package), computer software, and school computer supplies, not including furniture nor any systems, devices, software, peripherals designed or intended primarily for recreational use, or video games of a non-educational nature. Display monitors, keyboards, mouse devices, speakers and other computer parts or devices designed for use in conjunction with a personal computer not sold as part of a package, will not qualify for the exemption.

• School supplies, school art supplies and school instructional material, up to a sales price of $50 per item. A school supply is an item commonly used by a student in a course of study.

The following is a list of school supplies eligible for the tax-exempt status.

• Binders

• Book bags

• Calculators

• Cellophane tape

• Compasses

• Composition books

• Crayons

• Dry-erase markers

• Erasers

• Folders, expandable, pocket, plastic, and manila

• Glue, paste and paste sticks

• Highlighters

• Index cards

• Index card boxes

• Legal pads

• Lunch boxes

• Markers

• Notebooks

• Paper, loose leaf ruled notebook paper, copy paper, graph paper, tracing paper, Manila paper, colored paper, poster board, and construction paper

• Pencil boxes and other school supply boxes

• Pencil sharpeners

• Pencils

• Pens

• Protractors

• Rulers

• Scissors

• Writing tablets

School art supplies are items commonly used by a student in a course of artwork and include clay, glazes, paints, paintbrushes, sketch and drawing pads.

School instructional material is written material commonly used by a student in a course of study as a reference and to learn the subject being taught. Supplies exempt include reference maps, globes, required textbooks on an official school book list with a sales price of more than $30 and less than $50. Also, noncommercial purchases of books with a sales price of not more than $30 per book. Magazines, newspapers, periodicals or any other document printed or offered for sale in a non-bound form are not exempt.

The sales tax holiday offers parents a way to save on back-to-school needs,” said Alabama Retail Association President Rick Brown. “Saving money for consumers while stimulating sales for stores is what this weekend is all about.”

He said although the sales tax holiday targets back-to-school shoppers, any consumer can benefit from the savings offered during the weekend. A wide range of items are exempt during the holiday, so there is a reason for everyone to shop.

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