Florida

Florida back-to-school tax holiday: What’s tax free and when to shop

FLORIDA — Get those school supply lists ready. This Friday starts Florida’s back-to-school tax holiday.

You have until Sunday to take advantage of back-to-school shopping without paying sales tax.

The sales tax holiday period applies to certain school supplies selling for $15 or less per item, as well as to clothing, footwear and certain accessories selling for $60 or less per item. It also applies to the first $1,000 of the sales price of personal computers and certain computer-related accessories purchased for noncommercial home or personal use.

Study: Will your children be exposed to coronavirus at school?

Examples of items that are exempt from tax include:

  • Clothing and accessories: Shirts, pants, dressers, wallets, handbags, backpacks, fanny packs and diaper bags
  • School supplies: Pens, pencils, erasers, crayons, notebooks, notebook filler paper, legal pads, binders, lunchboxes, construction paper, markers, folders, poster board, composition books, poster paper, scissors, cellophane tape, glue, paste, rulers, computer disks, staplers and staples, protractors, compasses and calculators
  • Personal computers: Electronic book readers, laptops, desktops, handheld devices, tablets, and tower computers. The term does not include cellular telephones, video game consoles, digital media receivers or devices that are not primarily designed to process data.
  • Personal computer-related accessories: Keyboards, computer mouse devices and accessories, personal digital assistants, monitors, other peripheral devices, modems, routers and non-recreational software, regardless of whether the accessories are used in association with a personal computer base unit.

Click here for a full list of items that are included and excluded from the sales tax holiday.


Sarah Wilson

Sarah Wilson, WFTV.com

Sarah Wilson joined WFTV Channel 9 in 2018 as a digital producer after working as an award-winning newspaper reporter for nearly a decade in various communities across Central Florida.