Thursday, August 5, 2010

Tax Free Weekend Is Here

Each year, North Carolina recognizes a sales tax-free holiday that begins the first Friday in August. Thankfully, this year is no exception.

Most of the items that you can buy are in some way or shape school-related, but not all. Here are just a few of the highlights:

1. All clothing items $100 or less per item, including:
  • aprons
  • baby receiving blankets
  • bandannas
  • bathing suits
  • belts & suspenders
  • coats, jackets
  • costumes (yes, Halloween costumes)
  • diapers (children & adults, including disposables)
  • earmuffs, gloves, mittens, hats, caps
  • formal wear, wedding appearal (see what I mean by not all items being school-related?)
  • garters, leotards, tights, pantyhose, socks, undies
  • insoles for shoes
  • neckties
  • rainwear
  • sandals, shoes, shoelaces, slippers
  • uniforms (both athletic & nonathletic for nonbusiness use)

2. Sport or recreational equipment $50 or less per item:

  • ballet & tap shoes
  • cleats
  • gloves
  • goggles
  • hand, elbow, mouth, shin guards; shoulder pads
  • helmets
  • life preservers
  • skates
  • wetsuits & fins

3. Computers $3500 or less per item:

  • central processing unit
  • monitor
  • keyboard
  • mouse
  • speakers

Note: must puchase the monitor, keyboard, mouse & speakers with a CPU in order to be tax-exempt.

4. Computer supplies that are $250 or less per item:

  • memory sticks, diskettes, CDs
  • PDA's & hand-held electronic schedulers, except devices that are cell phones
  • printers
  • printer supplies, paper & ink

5. School supplies that are $100 or less per item:

  • Binders, notebooks
  • Chalk
  • Backpacks
  • Calculators
  • Crayons
  • Erasers
  • Folders
  • Glue, glue sticks
  • Highlighters, markers, pencils, pens, pencil sharpeners, pencil boxes & other school supply boxes
  • Index cards & boxes
  • Legal pads, composition books, sketch & drawing pads, writing tablets
  • Lunch boxes
  • Paint & paintbrushes, watercolors
  • Paper (loose leaf, copy, graph, tracing, manila, colored, poster board, & construction paper)
  • Rulers
  • Scissors

6. School instructional materials $300 or less per item (great for home-schoolers and college students!):

  • Reference books
  • Reference maps & globes
  • Textbooks
  • Workbooks
See you at the store--I'm going shopping after work!

For the complete list of items exempt during the sales tax holiday, visit the NC Department of Revenue here.

2 comments:

  1. I almost forgot about tax free weekend! Now I need to see when ours is!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I definitely stocked up on lots of clothes for the kids to carry them through the Winter and into next year's Summer. And since we're homeschooling our oldest this year, I was also able to get several age-appropriate textbooks without paying taxes!

    ReplyDelete