Sales tax holidays by state

A handful of states switch off sales tax for a few days each year. Most aim it at school clothes in August. A few have other ideas — one state does storm supplies, another does guns, another does energy-efficient appliances. The catch is nearly always the price ceiling. Go a dollar over and the whole item is taxed again, not just the extra.

Sales tax holidays suspend the state component of the sales tax on enumerated categories for a statutory window. Local participation varies and in several states is each jurisdiction's own election, so the saving quoted throughout this section is the state share alone — a floor rather than an estimate. ⚠️ Per-item caps generally operate as cliffs rather than thresholds: an item priced above the ceiling is taxable on its full price, which concentrates the subsidy in goods priced just beneath each cap and is the main reason the revenue cost is far lower than the category lists imply.