By Joel Langton
The 830 Times
It’s that time of year, when many wait to buy new clothes for Texas’ statewide back-to-school tradition called Tax-Free Weekend.
Officially, it’s known as the State Tax Holiday.
It means those buying clothes and certain back-to-school merchandise will not have to pay sales tax on a number of items if purchased Aug. 9-11.
“It’s a good weekend for our 25 retailers here,” said Maricela Saenz, Plaza del Sol Mall general manager. “It increases traffic, increases sales and it’s a good three days for us.”
Some items exempt from state sales tax for the Tax-Free Weekend are clothing, footwear, school supplies, face masks and backpacks.
Reno Luna, the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District public affairs officer, reminded parents that for students in grades 6 through 12, school bags need to be mesh or transparent.
“This is a safety issue,” Luna said. “With all the issues going on across the country, protecting our students is our number one priority, and this is another way we can do that.”
According to the Texas Comptroller’s website, items costing more than $100 aren’t eligible for tax-free status.
People are encouraged to go to the Texas Comptroller’s site here and do their homework before shopping, to know what is tax exempt and what’s taxable.
For example, baseball caps are exempt, baseball cleats are not.
The Texas Comptroller’s website offers the following advice for online purchases and telephone orders:
During the holiday you can buy qualifying items in-store, online, by telephone, mail, custom order, or any other means. The sale of the item must take place during the specific period. The purchase date is easy to determine when the purchase is made in-store but becomes more complicated with remote purchases. The purchaser must have given the consideration for the item during the period even if the item may not be delivered until after the period is over.
For example, if a purchaser enters their credit card information in an online shopping website on Sunday Aug. 11, 2024 at 5:00 p.m.to purchase qualifying school supplies, but the school supplies will not be shipped until Friday Aug. 16, 2024 and will not arrive until Tuesday Aug. 20, the purchase will still qualify for the exemption. However, if the charge to your credit card is declined by the payment processor at 11:00 p.m. on Sunday Aug. 11, 2024 and the purchaser does not resubmit payment until Monday Aug. 12, the purchase is taxable.
Additional Charges Affect the Sales Price
Delivery, Shipping, Handling and Transportation Charges
Delivery, shipping, handling and transportation charges by the seller are part of the item’s sales price.
Since clothing, backpacks and school supplies have to be less than $100 to qualify, you have to look at the item’s total sales price to determine if you can buy it tax free.
For example, you buy a pair of jeans for $95 with a $10 delivery charge for a total price of $105. Because the jeans’ total price is more than $100, tax is due on the entire $105 price.
If a delivery charge is billed per item, and an invoice has both exempt and taxable items, only the qualifying exempt item’s delivery charge is exempt.
If the delivery charge is a flat rate per package, and the amount charged is the same regardless of how many items are included in the package, the total charge can be attributed to any one of the items in the package.
The writer can be reached at joelalangton@gmail.com .
