Image by flickr user timparkinsonImage by 20080721_school_sales_tax.jpg The back-to-school sales tax holiday generally brings some pretty good regular sales as retailers compete for your business.
Effectively save 7 to 7.5% on many, many things starting at midnight. Friday marks the start of South Carolina's annual back-to-school "Sales Tax Holiday" starts Friday, August 1, and goes through that Sunday.
The back-to-school sales tax holiday also brings good sales as retailers compete amongst each other for your business.
Get it while it's cheap. Keep up with the big sales in the Charleston-area at our sales topic page.Generally $2.8 million in taxes are not paid by shoppers when the state and local taxes are suspended on most clothing, shoes, school supplies, book bags, computers and more. This will be the ninth time since the sales tax break started in 2000. The weekend has since become the state's third busiest shopping period of the year.
What is and isn't on sale
As a rule of thumb, if the item could in any way be conceived to be used by a student, it will qualify for the sales-tax break (computers, sheets, shoes, pens; but not cookware, jewelry, and greeting cards). But, a few things you might expect to be on sale won't be, (i.e. Golf clubs, no; Capri pants, yes). The list of discounted items remains the same as last year. A full list of the exempt and non-exempt items as well as answers to some oft-asked questions is available on SCTax.org. Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee also hold their sales tax holidays the same weekend.
Bear in mind that the legislature added a two-day sales tax holiday on guns for the two days after Thanksgiving. Also, in 2009, October will be an month-long sales tax holiday on energy efficient items.
This weekend is one of the few days that I buy a paper. You can generally find all the ads online, but that can be a pain.
Note: 7.5% is the Charleston County sales tax on many goods (6% state tax, 1% local option sales tax, 0.5% transportation tax), Berkeley and Dorchester counties have 7%. A full list of state sales taxes is available at the South Carolina Department of Revenue.
