Mississippi’s annual two-day sales tax holiday is scheduled to begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday, July 31, and end at midnight Saturday, Aug. 1.
During the event, started by the Legislature in 2009 and amended in 2019, sales tax is not charged on articles of clothing, footwear or school supplies if the sales price of a single item is less than $100.
The Mississippi Department of Revenue (MDR) specifies that accessories like jewelry, handbags, watches, belt buckles and hair clips do not qualify for the holiday.
Layaway items are not eligible for the tax break either, and nor are cleats and items worn in conjunction with an athletic or recreational activity.
The holiday is not just for in-store sales, either. If you want to maintain your social distance and purchase by mail, telephone or the internet, those items are not subject to sales tax if the buyer orders and pays for them during the sales tax holiday and items are less than the $100 threshold.
In 2019, the tax-free event was expanded to include the purchase of school supplies. Previously, those items were ineligible.
Electronic items such as laptops and tablets are excluded, but the all-inclusive list of eligible back-to-school items, according to the MDR website, includes:
• Backpacks
• Binder pockets and binders
• Blackboard chalk
• Book bags
• Calculators
• Cellophane tape
• Clays and glazes
• Compasses
• Composition books
• Crayons
• Dictionaries and thesauruses
• Dividers
• Erasers
• Folders: expandable, pocket, plastic and manila
• Glue, paste and paste sticks
• Highlighters
• Index card boxes
• Index cards
• Legal pads
• Lunch boxes
• Markers
• Notebooks
• Paintbrushes for artwork
• Paints: acrylic, tempera and oil
• Paper: loose-leaf ruled notebook paper, copy paper, graph paper, tracing paper, manila paper, colored paper, poster board and construction paper
• Pencil boxes and other school supply boxes
• Pencil sharpeners
• Pencils
• Pens
• Protractors
• Reference books
• Reference maps/globes
• Rulers
• Scissors
• Sheet music
• Sketch and drawing pads
• Textbooks
• Watercolors
• Workbooks
• Writing tablets
A more exhaustive list of items included and excluded from the holiday may be found on the MDR website at https://www.dor.ms.gov/Business/Documents/2020%20Sales%20Tax%20Holiday.pdf.
For more information about the tax holiday, contact MDR at 601-923-7015.
