Florida's Back-To-School Tax Holiday Starts Friday

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Get ready to shop! The state of Florida's popular back-to-school sales tax holiday kicks off Friday.

The sales tax holiday begins at 12:01 a.m. Friday, August 2 and ends at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, August 6.

Shoppers won't have to pay state or local sales taxes on clothes, shoes, and certain accessories selling for $60 or less and on school supplies selling for $15 or less.

Only personal computers or related accessories selling for $1,000 or less are included.

CLICK HERE to see a complete list of all eligible items.

"It's something that people can save a lot of money on when you're talking (about) up to $1,000," said James Miller, the Florida Retail Federation's senior director of external affairs. "Our members tell us they (shoppers) take the money that they save and then buy other things with it: chargers, cords, ancillary items that support that technology."

Last year's back-to-school tax holiday lasted three days and didn't include computer equipment. Miller said the extra days this year will help retailers.

"Retailers will be able to spread out their workers a little better, spread out their inventory, manage it a little better," Miller said. "What happened in the years past is you just had this big crash of people coming in on Saturday and Sunday, retailers aren't really able to provide that customer service that they want. Their inventory flies off the shelf so fast they're not able to manage it so easily."

The discount period will be the 17th back-to-school tax holiday in the state since 1998 and the fifth year in which personal computers and accessories are included. The other years were 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017, with price-tag caps of $750 in those years.

Families are expected to spend an average of $700 on back-to-school shopping for students in kindergarten through 12th grade and close to $1,000 for college students, according to the retail federation.

Florida economists have projected shoppers during the sales-tax holiday will save $41.7 million, which accounts for the biggest part of an $87 million tax package (HB 7123) lawmakers approved this spring.

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