Does the state have a sales-tax-free weekend?

Where the idea came from

New York held the first sales tax holiday. A law passed with the state's 1996-97 budget exempted clothing and footwear priced under $500 for one week, January 18 to 24, 1997. The state tax department counted $412 million in reported tax-free clothing sales that week. About $16.5 million in state sales tax went uncollected, plus about $15.5 million in local tax in the counties and cities that chose to join.

New York held five of these temporary weeks through January 1999, then replaced them with a permanent exemption for clothing and footwear under $110 that began on December 1, 1999. That is why it has no holiday today. Other states copied the short version instead. A 2001 Connecticut legislative research report listed back-to-school holidays in Florida (first held in 1998), Texas (1999), Connecticut, Iowa and South Carolina (2000), and Maryland and Washington, D.C. (2001), plus a February "tax-free PC week" for home computers in Pennsylvania, which no longer holds one. Connecticut's 2001 limit was $300 per item of clothing or footwear, the same figure it returned to in 2026 after years at $100.

Most of today's holidays still fall in back-to-school season, from mid-July to mid-August, and cover clothing, shoes and school supplies under a price cap per item. Several add computers, with caps ranging from $500 in West Virginia to $1,500 in Florida, Missouri and Tennessee.

Sources: New York State Department of Taxation and Finance: The Temporary Clothing Exemptions, special statistical report (January 1999) · New York State Department of Taxation and Finance: The Temporary Clothing Exemption, January 1997 · Connecticut Office of Legislative Research: Sales Tax Holidays, report 2001-R-0667 · Texas Comptroller news release, Aug. 4, 2026: $142.5 million in expected savings during the Aug. 7-9 sales tax holiday

Not just school supplies

Some holidays target other purchases. Alabama's severe weather weekend in February and Texas's emergency supplies holiday in April cover items such as batteries, flashlights and generators. Maryland, Missouri and Texas hold separate holidays for Energy Star appliances, and Texas adds water-saving products. Virginia folds Energy Star and WaterSense products and hurricane supplies into its August holiday. Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina each hold a Second Amendment weekend for firearms, ammunition and hunting supplies.

Massachusetts takes the broadest approach: on its two-day August holiday, most retail items for personal use priced at $2,500 or less are free of state sales tax. The state law making the holiday permanent leaves the Legislature to pick the weekend each year.

Sources: M.G.L. c. 64H, § 6A

Recent changes

Holidays keep changing. Florida's back-to-school holiday now runs a full month, from July 20 through August 20, every year, and Florida added a hunting, fishing and camping holiday for the last four months of 2026. Connecticut raised its clothing limit from $100 to $300 for its 2026 Sales Tax Free Week. Alabama now adjusts its price caps for inflation, and Illinois held a one-time 10-day holiday in August 2026 that cut the state rate to 1.25% instead of removing it.

Other states have dropped them. North Carolina repealed its holidays effective July 1, 2014, New Jersey repealed its annual holiday in 2024, and Wisconsin's only holiday lasted five days in August 2018. Louisiana's back-to-school and hurricane holidays haven't been held since 2018.

Sources: Fla. Stat. 212.08(20) · Illinois Department of Revenue Bulletin FY 2026-30

Local taxes during a holiday

Whether city and county taxes also stop depends on the state. In Missouri, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia, local sales taxes follow the state exemption, and New Mexico waives the whole gross receipts tax. Texas's comptroller counts both state and local tax in its estimate of what shoppers save. Alabama's local taxes stop only where cities and counties choose to join, and Illinois cut only the state portion of its tax.

Nevada's Nevada Day exemption applies only to members of the Nevada National Guard and their families, so it isn't counted as a holiday on this map.

Sources: Texas Comptroller news release, Aug. 4, 2026: $142.5 million in expected savings during the Aug. 7-9 sales tax holiday

Price caps and other fine print

Price caps apply to each item, and they are usually all-or-nothing. Texas's guidance gives the example of a $105 item: tax is due on the whole $105, not just the $5 over the $100 limit. A shirt that normally sells for $100 but is marked down to $91.75 does qualify. Rhode Island, a member of the multistate Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement, writes the agreement's holiday rules into its own code even though it holds no holiday. Those rules say a price cap covers only items priced below it, the exemption can't cover just part of an item's price, and items normally sold as a single unit can't be split up and priced separately to get under the cap. They also call for notice at least 60 days before the start of the calendar quarter in which a holiday falls, and for the exemption to apply equally to state and local taxes.

Timing and payment rules differ. Texas counts shipping and delivery charges as part of an item's price, and its holiday applies whether a buyer shops in a store, online, by phone or by mail, as long as the item is paid for during the holiday. A rain check or special order given during the holiday doesn't qualify if the item is paid for afterward. Layaway is treated differently from state to state: Texas lets layaway purchases qualify, while Massachusetts, Mississippi and South Carolina exclude them. Many holidays are limited to personal purchases. Massachusetts, Louisiana, Tennessee and West Virginia, for example, leave out items bought for business use. New Mexico lets retailers decide whether to take part at all.

Sources: Texas Comptroller: Sales Tax Holiday (Publication 98-490) · Texas Comptroller news release, Aug. 4, 2026: $142.5 million in expected savings during the Aug. 7-9 sales tax holiday · R.I. Gen. Laws § 44-18.1-23 (sales tax holidays under the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement)

What a holiday costs

A short holiday costs far less than a year-round break on the same items. Texas's comptroller estimated that shoppers would save $142.5 million in state and local sales tax during the August 7 to 9, 2026, back-to-school weekend, and says Texans have saved more than $2 billion since the holiday began in 1999. In Connecticut, the Legislature's Office of Fiscal Analysis estimated in February 2026 that the state's week-long holiday for clothing and shoes priced at $100 or less cost about $2 million a year, while a year-round exemption for the same items would cost about $175 million. That estimate was for a proposal to swap one for the other. Connecticut instead kept its holiday and raised the limit to $300 for 2026.

Pinning down the cost is tricky because much holiday shopping would have happened anyway. When Ohio's Legislative Service Commission analyzed a 2018 bill to make that state's three-day holiday permanent, it estimated a state revenue loss of up to $16.9 million in the first year, plus up to $4.1 million in county and transit taxes. It assumed shoppers would move purchases by up to two weeks to land in the holiday, and said most extra holiday sales are purchases made earlier or later than they otherwise would be. It also listed effects that pull the other way: shoppers who usually buy clothing across the state line or online may buy at home stores instead. And it cited research finding that some retailers respond to holidays by raising prices or skipping their usual sales. At the time, Ohio had held a temporary holiday each year since 2015; its holiday is now set in permanent law.

Sources: Texas Comptroller news release, Aug. 4, 2026: $142.5 million in expected savings during the Aug. 7-9 sales tax holiday · Connecticut Office of Fiscal Analysis: Fiscal note, SB 298, amendment LCO 2241 (Feb. 25, 2026) · Ohio Legislative Service Commission: Fiscal Note, S.B. 226 of the 132nd G.A., as reported (Jan. 26, 2018)