State sales tax holiday begins today

DES MOINES — Iowans who plan to do some back-to-school shopping today and tomorrow will be able to stock up on new duds at a discount as it’s the state’s annual Tax-Free Holiday.

John Fuller, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Revenue, says the tax holiday always falls on the first weekend in August. “There are some rules around this,” Fuller says, “and basically Iowans will not be charged sales tax when they purchase clothing or footwear that’s less than $100.” He offers some examples of what is — and isn’t — included in the two-day holiday.

“If you want to buy maybe school shoes for your children, and they’re less than $100, you would not pay — in most parts of the state — the 7% sales tax,” Fuller says. “It does not include things like jewelry, sunglasses, things like that, but clothing and footwear, typically clothing that you would wear every day.” Iowa’s first tax-free weekend was held in August of 2000. Fuller says the holiday helps Iowa’s economy and its businesses.

“They benefit by about $5-million not paying sales taxes for those two days, so it’s significant,” Fuller says. “It goes up a little bit each year and I think it’ll be popular again this year just because inflation is creeping up and whenever you can save some money, that’s a good thing.”

The Tax-Free weekend started at 12:01 this morning and runs through 11:59 P-M Saturday.

Learn more at https://tax.iowa.gov/iowas-annual-sales-tax-holiday.